Challenger T/A hoods "PSA"

[rikkitik]

Hi all, I'm posting this as a "kind of" PSA caution on Challenger T/A hoods.
 I had always planned on a T/A hood for my car, but unfortunately the "time to buy" came about 4 months after AAR Fiberglass closed it's doors.
 I ended up ordering one from ePray. The seller has been marketing his hoods for 15+ years (made in Mexico, shipped from El Paso). The seller doesn't have good feedback, but all the feedback I saw for the T/A hoods was very complimentary.
 Well, I'm here to tell you they are garbage. If you're not good with fiberglass, or can't afford someone that is, STAY AWAY!
 It took 7 weeks to finally ship.
  Then, 23.5 hours of labor later, it's good/usable, but not great.
 The only reason I "stayed with it" on the one I have, is because I believed it was the only game in town.
 HOWEVER, AAR Fiberglass is going back into production. I've seen their products first hand, and they are better "out of the box" than my "reworked hood is now.
 I just spoke with the owner of AAR this morning, and they should be back in business in 6-8 months. So if you're in the market for a T/A hood (or an AAR Cuda hood), be patient, it will be worth the wait.

 The ePray hood.......
 3 rectangular "defroster openings, 1 square.
 Horrendously rough, out of square sides.
 One side of the scoop curved it, the other side was straight.
 The lower side of the scoop overhang was just "butchered".
 And the scoop opening was terribly uneven. There's more, but I'll leave it there.

[cuda hunter]

Thank you for letting us know that the hood is junk and to not order from whomever is on ebay.

Also, Thanks a bunch for giving us good news that AAR is going back into production. 

[Brads70]

I got mine off ebay, seller from Texas about 15 years back, not sure if its the same or not. Yes it needed some work but not too bad I thought. I was satisfied with my hood. I think you would be hard pressed to expect any fiberglass part to be a perfect bolt on.  I've learned with these cars that pretty much ALL the repop suff does not compare to original parts in one way or another, some worse than others. If your new to these cars your going to be setting yourself up for frustrations and disappointments if your expecting perfection. And yep parts are not cheap..... not saying the quality is always acceptable but at least we have options. After building my 1971 AMC Javelin and the costs of parts far exceeding Mopar parts and not much is reproduced, as much as I gripe about quality of the repop parts also I'm glad to at least have options.

[rikkitik]

I got mine off ebay, seller from Texas about 15 years back, not sure if its the same or not. Yes it needed some work but not too bad I thought. I was satisfied with my hood. I think you would be hard pressed to expect any fiberglass part to be a perfect bolt on.  I've learned with these cars that pretty much ALL the repop suff does not compare to original parts in one way or another, some worse than others. If your new to these cars your going to be setting yourself up for frustrations and disappointments if your expecting perfection. And yep parts are not cheap..... not saying the quality is always acceptable but at least we have options. After building my 1971 AMC Javelin and the costs of parts far exceeding Mopar parts and not much is reproduced, as much as I gripe about quality of the repop parts also I'm glad to at least have options.

Sorry if taken out of context, but I wasn't expecting perfection, nor was I expecting junk.
Also, I'm in no way "new" to these cars, or this hobby. I bought my first Mopar ('69 Charger 383 4spd) in '79. And built up a '71 Cuda in '81. Been with it ever since..... Though I did go over to "the dark side" (Corvettes) for a while...
You're right, most modern parts need some massaging, and QC is a thing of the past.
I was hoping for something of reasonable quality, but that's not what I received. I had seen you bought yours from an eBay seller out of Texas, but it was a while back, and things change.
Also, I didn't complain about the price, but I wanted potential buyers to know what they were getting into.
As I said in my original post, "if you're not good with fiberglass, or can't afford someone that is, STAY AWAY".
I've always appreciated the information you have shared, I wanted to share some of my own.
And I just wanted to clarify in response to your post.