Don't buy hood from Black Dragon!!!

[GTTED]

I'm doing a full restoration to my 73 Z. I've been working on it for almost three years now and it is nearing completion. I've bought many parts from Black Dragon and their products have been very good up till now. The body shop who painted the car informed me that if I wanted an A job I would have to source a new hood, because the old hood was "oilcanning". OK, I figured if I'm going through all this expense, might as well go for a new hood.

Ordered the first hood from Black Dragon. It came in a box that looked well protected and packaged. I was wrong. After I opened the box I noticed damage to both corners:ermm: Called them, they said take pictures and send them right away. I did. After a little bitching they did send a replacement hood. :disappoin Same S**t!! OK body shop said they would deal with it.

The hood was painted separate from the car, mistake! When I started to assemble the hood and headlight buckets, something was off. I had the head body mechanic come to my shop to show me how to assemble the car from the cowl forward. Guess what? The friggin Chinese POS hood was longer than it should be and the curvature of the hood was off, it didn't have as much as it should. It either lined up with the cowl, and the front of the hood was 1" high at the front of the head light buckets, or the opposite. :mad:

So I purchased a used hood from John at Bad Doug Auto:classic: The hood was as he described, perfect! I test fit the hood this morning and it fit like a glove. Thanks John.

[240260280z]

BAD DOG is great!

[Diseazd]

You could still get them from Nissan 2 years ago. Fairly cheap if I remember.

[Mike]

Reproduction body panels aren't the same and I would stay far away from them if you can. I purchased a set of new fenders from Nissan years ago and although they were direct from the manufacturer, they still needed some major tweaking to fit right.

[GTTED]

Yes Bad Dog is excellent. Great communication and the part was just like he described. I wish I would have known. I did use Chinese floor panels and they seemed OK, but I guess the tolerances aren't as critical as a hood. Live and learn.

[chaztg]

Hoods always get damaged in transit; they're big, bulky, awkward & they always get dropped. The corners are the first thing to get damaged. However, that's nothing compared to an ill-fitting part. That really sucks. I'm with ya on the Chinese-made junk....parts & tools....ALL JUUUNK! On another Z forum, someone said that they had already bought the "last" S30 OEM hood in North America.