Hood crack repairs

[phiebert]

OK, the hood cracks on my 94 RT are starting to get bad enough that I should do something about them. I don't suppose there is anything Dodge will do about it is there? I don't have an extended warranty or anything.

Is there a preferred way to deal with this. Will a common body shop destroy the hood and force me to buy another one?

 

[Vip-RT10]

AS Doug Levin or JonB would tell you, you may be closing the hood the wrong way, that is what may have created those cracks. You need to get a clean towel, place it on the dash, alomst 1/2 way up the hood. If you tap the hood, you car hear the support bars inside and sounds stronger, that is where you want to put your hands and with one swift push, close the hood. I hope this helps....

 

[Matt M PA]

I made numerous inquiries about this before I bought my and while I had my '94. While my hood didn't have any problems while I had it, here is what I learned. 1. Closing the hood incorrectly can be a problem. The hood should be pressed closed behind where the NACA duct is on a later car. Hands about 2 feet apart from center. You will see a brace underneath. Do not press closed where the latches are in the front. 2. Cracks can also be caused by the hood not being able to "float" properly. Check for the hood touching the heater box (mine was) and other underhood things. How I found this on mine was to put some paint cleaning clay on the heater box and other items, then close the hood and see where the clay was smashed down. The heater box can be easily adjusted out of the way. 3. Cracks on early hoods can also be caused by the "filler" used on them when they were new to make them smooth..the filler does not contract-expand the same as the hood material. I would bet that a good body shop and straighten this out, but make sure that they have experience with composite cars.

 

[Matt M PA]

The hood sits on it's latches in the front (2), and on the two rear catches (for want of another word) at the base of the windshield. By resting on these points, the hood itself sort-of floats above the engine and assorted things under the hood. If the hood were resting on the heat box, for example, it would then have stress at that spot, which can cause cracking from the stress. Again, on my '94 this was an issue that I addressed by adjusting the heater box down. The seal for the heater box should touch the hood, but not the box itself. Hope this helps....

 

[phiebert]

The cracks were already starting when I bought the car and I've been closing the hood the correct way since I got the car. I think the problem is the filler shrinkage issue. I even talked to one guy that said his cracked while the car was stored without having the hood ever opened.

So that being said, regardless of how they got there, now I got 'em! I'm wondering if there is anything special to tell a body shop about fixing them?

 

[94 RT/10 Black MAMBA]

Forget the body shop.... The hood can't be repaired!! I had the same problem last year and insisted on speaking with the zone rep. He agreed to try to fix it. Upon removing enough material they could see the cracks go all the way through and can't be repaired. This is a known defect on 92-95 hoods. They replaced my hood with a 96 hood (took them three months to find one). Chrysler will replace yours as well if you contact the zone rep.

 

[XS TORQ]

I have a black 94 that had the "shrinking filler" problem, and after 2 tries, Stevens Creek Dodge did a *GREAT* job of fixing and repainting. After a year, no signs of cracks. All this at $0 to me (although I did have an extended warranty)

 

[SNK BIT in WA]

I had the infamous hood cracks on my 94. A simple re-paint will NOT work. Local 5 star dealer said no way to fixing it under warranty.
Timberline Dodge AND Zone Rep offered to replace the hood as they had done in a few other 94 cars. Chrysler stepped in and "NO MORE" we have a fix. The hood was media blasted and repainted with TWO coats of some type of epoxy with block sanding in between. They then repainted the hood accordingly.

The hood looks awesome but have only had the car for a month now.....I was told that they removed a large amount of bondo from the hood and that a fair amount of 94's had bondo applied to them at the factory.

The key to getting this done under warranty is to find a Viper dealer with a Viper zone rep. If you have spent any amount of time here on the board you should be familiar with the names of a few great dealerships. It might be worth a long drive to get this done right.

 

[Robert1994]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 94 RT/10 Black MAMBA:
Forget the body shop.... The hood can't be repaired!! I had the same problem last year and insisted on speaking with the zone rep. He agreed to try to fix it. Upon removing enough material they could see the cracks go all the way through and can't be repaired. This is a known defect on 92-95 hoods. They replaced my hood with a 96 hood (took them three months to find one). Chrysler will replace yours as well if you contact the zone rep.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Are you the original owner of your car ? Does your car have
an extended warranty ??

 

[Qualitywires.com]

What do these craks look like? Are they small? Do they go vertical or horizontal on the hood. i noticed small cracks on my hood too. I'm the 3rd owner or 4th..would my car is not under warranty..would they still help me out?

 

[Qualitywires.com]

What do these craks look like? Are they small? Do they go vertical or horizontal on the hood. i noticed small cracks on my hood too. I'm the 3rd owner or 4th..would my car is not under warranty..would they still help me out?

 

[phiebert]

ab,

The cracks are most obvious on a black car I think because of the contract between the filler (white) and the paint. They run across the car or horizontally. They are about an inch to two inches long and about as wide as a hair. They look like the paint just got pulled apart as if the hood had been bent and then straigtened out again. If you divide the hood into three pieces left to right, they seem to appear in the center third of the hood and in the front half.

They get worse over time. A lot of people talk about how they may be caused by improper closing of the hood but I would debate this. Mine appeared and got worse while it was sitting in my garage not having the hood opened or closed at all. I think it is purely the filler and paint contracting and expanding at different rates. Black is probably worse again because it gets hotter in sunlight then another color. The cracks look like they would be caused by closing the hood improperly but I doubt whether that has anything to do with it.

 

[94 RT/10 Black MAMBA]

I agree with most of phiebert's comments. Also SNK BIT in WA is somewhat correct... The dealer tried the media blasting on my hood but after that thier (the dealers own) best body man refused to work on it. The zone rep tried to get anyone at the dealership to work on it I am told, but they all refused. The dealer was also on my side and stated that they gauranteed thier work so they wouldn't do the epoxy spray method. The zone rep was left with replacing my hood which to his credit he did.

Recommendation - Contact a zone rep through a good dealer (prefferably the one who sold the car). He will offer to do the epoxy spray repair if you insist because this is a known defect (warranty doesn't matter)....LET HIM! It won't work and he'll eventually have to replace your hood.

FINALLY - The cause of the problem is the heating/cooling cycle causes contractions in the early hoods that did have bondo in them (some had a lot). Also the process that it was made was changed from SCMS to RCMS or something like that...JonB can explain this well. Jon where are you?

 

[SEASNAKE]

Its amazing to me how much difference there is in dealing with Ma Chrysler. I had to pay half of the cost of getting my '94 hood fixed three years ago and I had the extended warranty. Other people get new hoods worth many times more. My hood looks good today and I've had no problems with it. The body shop that fixed it removed about 1/2" of filler over most of the area between the "speakers". Having a hood that is misadjusted can aggravate the problem, but a lot of these problems surface when the cars are actually driven.

Your hood can be fixed, but they need to remove all that old filler and do the work that should have been done in the first place to smooth the hood out.