I'm kind of desperate. My 1990 GMC Top Kick (1989 style) has the same cab as 1970s square nose pickups. The medium duty trucks had the cab mounted higher, and a hood assembly was four bolted together pieces, hinging at front bumper. We broke the fiberglass around the hinges. When we took it off we realized it'd been repaired before. The old repairs haven't bonded with the original fiberglass. No question, replacing makes sense. We've made many phone calls, nobody has one. It is a tall flat nose. The piece I need is 4" or less thick. Mine is GMC but I'd settle for Chevy. It has four rectangular headlights mounted low, just above the bumper.
Not my truck, mine is red. My truck is 1990 model year, but I believe they had two styles in 1990.
I would try this facebook group they are pretty active with classifieds and good intel on getting parts for these medium duty chev/gmcs https://www.facebook.com/groups/439721766176001
I think I would try to find a boat repair guy or a good body shop man. That or anyone with experience with repairing vette's. My western star is a fiberglass hood that's been repaired where the hinges are. Its going to need repaired again soon, its getting loose by the hinge plates. I'm going to try to remove all the old repair fiberglass, and add on to the metal plates and reglass/ epoxy it back together. Hopefully a little extra metal will give the glass and epoxy more to get a hold of. There's some pretty tough new epoxies that with some added extended metal plates maybe you could piece back together the old hood? I read up on it a while back and was reading about some epoxies that actually melt into the old fiberglass bonding it together. I'm thinking that's going to be easier than finding a good hood. There's not a lot of those around. And unfortunately , most likely any used hood isn't going to be much better than yours is. Its 30 year old fiberglass. I have also seen extended plates and then metal plates on both sides of the fiberglass bolted through. It looks really crude, but it would get you back running.
I'll look into it. Thank you.
Try searching "C7000". I found this one on web. https://truckpartsinventory.com/parts/details/82917427
We stripped it down. It is only the front few inches of hood assembly. Previously repaired breaks were up both edges, around the headlight buckets. Old repair looked very good until last week. Now I see that bonding to original wasn't good. I hoped to find a good one. I wouldn't object to newer or older style, but I don't know if they will fit.
That is the one! Thank you.
That's a lovely hinge location. I can see how it would take out the headlight hole. I saw 4 trucks with that hood arrangement somewhat local to me, 2 of the 4 had cracks in the hood that I could see in the pictures. That hood in the parts listing is in idaho. The shipping may be more than the cost of the hood.
A very tough one! The body man I've used several times before took one look at mine, said "no way". I've found several, all broken where mine is. The search goes on, but I'm learning most have similar damage to mine.
Not positive but I think the single headlight early hood will work, the cowl will match up. just a thought.
I'd make a steel bracket to go to where ever you need to go to attach to more solid fiberglass. With that bad a design to start with, plus thirty years on them, plus they were crappy quality fiberglass mat or chopped strand, there's no not much chance of finding a good one. IF you think the original repair would have been good enough if it had bonded, you can repeat it. Coarse sand the surface enough to expose the glass strands over a big enough area, and it should stick.
I have searched prior to convert the GMC and Or the Chevy I traded to JY for converting to Fbgls hood(s). No such luck as 99% were busted to bubcus and beyond or already gone. Dealer I bought some pieces thru in New Florence MO burned to the ground, no intention of rebuilding as no finances to start over, yard inventory is to be hauled away scrapped.
As I see it, it's a bad design. They hinge at a weak point & the fiberglass is very convoluted at the hinge points. Stress cracking is certain & one rough opening of the hood, or limiter cable breaking will break it. I've studied it many ways, can't come up with a strategy to reinforce it with steel or aluminum.
I think you may be best off to look for what Truck Shop recommended. Find the single headlight one. Cowl should be the same, but it looks like the fenders may not be the same. Take the cut off wheel and taper the wheel fenders so they kind of meet each other and live with it. I think you'll have to do a little carving in here so they kind of meet up at the same point. But the rest may fit. Now that I look at the pictures a little more, it looks like the single headlight hood, the fenders meet the door line in a higher point. You may have to take the back portion off the donor cab also and fit them to your cab in the higher location. Its not going to be a bolt up and fit.
Okay, so I messed around with some pictures, It looks like the cab sits higher on the style you have, than what the old single headlight one does. The fenders not lining up at the rear, isn't as big of a deal, as if the front grill area is actually taller on the quad headlight hood, than what the single headlight hood is. If the cab sits higher off the frame rails, I'm concerned that the top of the hood won't line up with your cab, without raising the hinge point area. Only a tape measure would tell. Quad light hood on the left, single light hood on the right.
run a piece of angle iron across the outside, between the hinges and the hood, paint it green. I don't know what the back side looks like, maybe 1" conduit all the way across and cover with fiberglass?
I've been wracking my brain. I came home an hour ago with a hood not damaged quite as bad as mine. I can put a 1/4" X 4" strip of aluminum between hinges & fiberglass. I may have to reposition hinges to correct for that 1/4". I can back up this strip with similar shaped shorter pieces, bolted, or riveted through fiberglass. I'll weld 1/4" straps vertical to the inner back up pieces. It is good this hood looked like "Fido's but" when it left the GM factory. My dental work might dress it up!
My 1976 C65 had the same cab. The difference seems to be the 5" tall pedestal propping up the cab on Top Kick & Kodiak. I'll presume they need a different hood because of this pedestal. I note the blue example in your pictures has rivet heads above the hinges. I don't know if these are factory, or repair. Mine has headlights where your blue pictured truck has reinforcement riveted.
Would a later hood possibly work? The hood goes right back to the cab without a spacer but some of the other hoods show a spacer. Maybe there were 2 styles of hoods on the older models? 1995 GMC Topkick C7H042 truck in Mountain View, MO | Item 3923 sold | Purple Wave
Yeah, I think its just too different, changing it all would be a pile of work, and it still will not fit right to the cab. I think you are stuck with rebuilding the "new"/ old hood you have. Good luck.
It has been suggested the tailoring at the cab might be less difficult than at hood hinges & the grill wouldn't be as ugly. GM use the same cab as 1/2 ton pickups. They switched cabs later than pickups, but some 1990 used the 1972-1986 pickup cab, others used the newer cab. One person suggests diesels needed more hood height, so they retained the tall hood / cab. Diesels I have seen have the cab mounted on a 5" tall pedestal.
Thank you for your help!
I had someone suggest to me 3m 5200 sealant. Its for boats. I've never used it myself, but I'm thinking of trying it with some plates to fix mine. https://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-5200-10-oz-Marine-Adhesive-Sealant-PN06500HC/202258948
Won't fit the cab contours
C.O. use Bostik 1100----------we use that inside the trailers to patch hole in the kemlite. Once it's cured it's stuck for good.
Thanks Truck Shop, its on the list of things to do this winter.
It's tough to figure this out from my living room but I've faced similar problems with other fiberglass parts. It sounds like you're dealing with a design that didn't account for all the stress the vehicle is encountering. To make a more permanent fix you'll have to improve the design. Again, I'm guessing from where I sit but I'd be looking at how the hinge area is attached to the fiberglass, I would think there's a transition from steel to fiberglass at some point. What you need to do is spread the load across more of the fiberglass by adding steel. I don't know how much room you have to work with to add steel. The further out you can add the steel the less likely the fiberglass will be to crack. You'll have to grind out the fiberglass to work the steel and the bond the steel to what's left of the original fiberglass and build up new fiberglass over the backside of the steel to encase it and strengthen the original fiberglass. You're essentially re-engineering the design. A lot of work but done properly it should last you a long time.
i've worked on those trucks 25 years ago and don't remember, but are you sure those hoods are actually fibreglass and not some form of polycarbonate or similar material like my freightliner hood? just asking
The torn fiber is not white like fiberglass would be. I'd guess Carbon? fiber. Hinges bolt with four 3/8" bolts each side. The nut end of each bolt sits in a tiny pigeon hole inside the nose. A formed piece of tin fits inside the pigeon hole. Each side of the hood has only this to reinforce the joint. No good way to reinforce the pocket. I'm trying to post pictures, but Email hasn't worked today. The hinge bolts on the red side. A thin, maybe 20 gauge sheet metal backer fits inside the pigeon hole as a backer for the hinge bolts. Some strength is gained from the webs to the headlight space. I have concern about what material to use to repair fiberglass. SOP for fiberglass is glass matting & epoxy resin. I am not convinced this is fiberglass. Other years, the headlights were in a different place. I don't see breakage in those hoods, but they won't fit my truck.
Simple test, take a soldering iron to the material and see if it melts and flows like plastic. FRP/ Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic is the common modern material that's quicker to produce than resin fiberglass composite, it is injected as a liquid and cools faster than resin sets. Much easier and cheaper production process. That hood is molded both sides and thicker than I'd expect for fiberglass resin composite. Looks white-ish to me, not carbon fiber or anything exotic. Doesn't change the repair much though. You can plastic weld it possibly but that will just be the original layer, you'll still use steel, and fiberglass cloth and resin to patch/reinforce the steel reinforcement. I still think I'd go with a piece of 1" steel conduit, if that plastic melts nicely, then heat the end up and force it through the webs, then patch that center "pigeon hole" nearly full with glass and resin, and strengthen the other webs.
Any chance you can fab a steel plate to fit on top or around the edges of the steel hinge plate that is as wide as the headlight "assembly", weld it to the steel hinge, notch it and bolt it down in the empty spots to the right and left of the original spot?
I've been thinking aluminum. I favor aluminum as it doesn't need to be painted. I'm an accomplished aluminum welder, I'd like to show off my skills. Today it hit my brain! Steel is uglier, but stronger. I can weld to the hinge, bring a vertical 1/4 X 4" up behind the headlights where it will meet a piece of 3" square tube also vertical. It'll take the strain of the weight / vibration past the headlight buckets. None of this will be visible with the hood closed.
How are you mounting the tube?
Flat surface of fiberglass? I hoped to bed it in Lexcell a polyurethane clear stuff with bolts.
Some of the 1990 had the same cab as the 1970s style pickups. Other 1990 trucks had the 1990s pickup cabs. They are enough different I fear it'd look like a Frankenstein truck. Someone said the trucks with gas engines (V8) didn't need the tall hood. The Cat powered trucks got the tall older style hood for the tall engines. Mine is 3208, a squatty V8 diesel.
My experience is that polyester resin sticks better to steel than epoxy resin.
By my present plan, I'm not using resin to attach to steel. The original used bolts to attach fiberglass to the hinges. I'll do that again. Above the headlights, behind the grill is a flat, with a few ribs panel each side of the radiator. I'm planning to bolt to this surface, maybe use one of the resilient bedding products to assist the bolts.
i think those trucks needed the elevated cab to clear the centre rear-mounted turbo on the 3208 whereas the later 1990 cab in a similar truck used the cat 3116 which had a side-mounted turbo. one place i worked at had one of each. the 3208 would run circles around the 3116
My 1990 has the same cab as my 1976 did. The frame rides higher on springs with markedly more arch & I estimate a 10" tall "lift kit" under the cab. Hoods are very different. The 1990 has a four piece hood assembly, fenders & nose bolt to the hood.
i was referring to the new-style cab with the 3116. i thought the late 1990 cab was the new style and the early 1990 was the old-style but i am probably wrong. that was 30 years ago but i seem to remember anything with the 3208 had the cab lifted, so it required the different hood.
What I think of as the square body pickup was introduced 1973? In pickups it was used until 1987, when you had a choice of classic or the newest style. It appears the square body cab was used on heavier trucks a few more years, then some were built with each cab. They made it seem bigger with skirting, and big flaring fenders. My friend had a crew cab 8' box single rear wheel 3500 1990 model year. It had the older cab. I'm not sure when they did away with that cab, probably when some warehouse was finally empty.
The basic cab shell was the same as a pickup, but there are many differences. The cowl and firewall, for one.
Floorpan another.
Actually, I put rocker panels & cab corners in the 1976. Used pickup parts. I'll have to compare cowl & firewall, don't know.
The old girl is back! The nose I bought up North was in sorry condition! Sanding through many layers of paint, I found numerous cracks in addition to those I knew of. In retrospect, my broken original grill would have been an easier fix. I did the glass work in the basement during winter. It doesn't smell too good, but is well isolated from the living area. Paint waited for a warm day, as I hate heating the garage 24 hours a day, (wood furnace). I did a lot of reinforcing around the hinges. Originally, hinges attached with four bolts through 1/4" of fiberglass. Now I've added wings to the hinges, filled the voids near the hinges with Tiger Hair, and added 32 stainless screws. I also added 1/4 x 3 30" tall to the bottom of the hinges & 1/4 x 2 x 3 Rectangular tubing to sandwich the flat panel behind the grill. It looks perfect from 10 feet away, except the rest of the cab is faded somewhat. Now the dump body needs paint. Seth is lobbying for Caterpillar Yellow. With new radiator, I took her out 40 miles today, not a flaw!
Looks great!! You beefed it up quite a bit, I hope it holds for you. Pretty impressive to see a bumper kink free!
Have to agree, a lot of work but shows well thought out and should last.
I am still kinda partial to the old 9500 conventionals, little to no cab room but what a hood!!
I will agree, that is a mighty pretty truck. Mrs. B thinks I've lost my mind owning one 1/3 that size, think she'd accept one of those with a dump body? I've never been a fan of the nose on my truck. There were other GM trucks in the weight class much prettier. I hadn't known of the fiberglass around the hinges being a problem on this particular style.
Does take considerably MORE pasture to turn the 9500s around in!! My own little honey thinks I have gone MAD as to the KW!!!
The shake in the truck is now the most pressing frustration. Seth picked up the reins and accessed hundreds of knowledgeable people I hadn't talked to. I was hoping there was somebody a bit closer. He found a company says they can perfect the driveshaft. They are three hours away. Said they could do it "while you wait" but 2:30 today he said it'd take too long to finish, better not wait. That'll be 12 hours road time for this, I sure hope it works! They condemned ALL U joints & carrier bearing, including the new u joint. I'm not feeling absolutely confident, I'm sort of desperate. I'm in this project pretty deep now, I don't feel I can stop at this stage.