I see that mid 50 sells a steel hood for the 53-56.

Anyone have any experience or knowledge about the quality & fit?

 

I am not sure about the hoods but Mid-Fifty has good quality parts and they have great customer service. I would encourage if you are to buy from anybody then buy from them.

 

As with all aftermarket parts, there is not much consistency in the fit/finish. One day you may get a perfect match to the OEM part and the next day you wonder if the guy who made it was just hired. There still seems to be quite a few OEM hoods available, I would search for the OEM version if you are concerned about fit. If you offered a seller the same price for his used OEM hood as the aftermarket is fetching for their hoods then I am sure that you will find many for sale.

 

Perhaps you already know this but they also sell sheet metal panels for the hood. I think MidFifty has two kinds, one for the nose of the hood and one for the underside of the nose.

 

X2 on what Charlie said. Mine was from Mid Fifty, and took some fabrication to fit properly. No criticism on Mid Fifty, their parts are as good as they come, but OEM is the way to go if you possibly can........

 

I bought some patch panels from mid 50 once and they took a lot of work, mainly the edges were rounded instead of nice square edges.

 

I replaced the front lip on my hood and did my own repairs to the underside piece, have pics in my build thread. I've heard others say that the re-popped hoods had some issues, like the fenders and the rest of the patch panels..