Need advice for replacement hood

Last weekend the hood on my truck flew up while my fiancée was driving it! It all happened Friday night when I got home from work and popped my hood and used a block of wood to hold it open to let the engine bey cool off over night. The truck doesn't have any over heating issues I just do it to prolong the life of everything in the engine bay because I plan on keeping this truck for a very long time.

Now I'm stuck on what brand of replacement hood to buy and wether or not to add some sort of hood louvers and have it painted using regular paint/clear coat or have the new hood line-x'd! A buddy of mine at work can get me an oem toyota hood for $305.00. What risks do I run using an aftermarket hood; fitment issues, cheap materials, etc.... I have an impulse red metallic crew cab and i'm open to any and all ideas you guys/gals may have!

 

Get a fiberglass hood

 

From what i've read some fiberglass hoods have fitment issues and I'm not to fond of fiberglass..

 

In my opinion, there's nothing better in terms of fit and finish than an OEM hood, and it's well worth the price. The hood is the most critical piece of the body, and all painters know that you've got to make the hood the very best part of any paint job, since that's what you'll be looking at going down the road.

You probably don't want to hear this, since you have your own opinion on it, and mine doesn't matter, but leaving your hood open is probably way overkill, and will not contribute one whit to how long your engine or vehicle lasts. In fact, if anything, it could be detrimental...you want a vehicle to cool down SLOWLY...not rapidly...and if you'll recall Engine 101, you never run an engine without an exhaust manifold because when you turn it off, cool air can come into the chamber and warp your valves. So, and this is a stretch, but no more a stretch than lifting your hood to prolong the life of the engine, it's conceivable that you could actually harm your engine by not letting it cool down the way it was designed to do.

Do what makes you feel comfortable, but keep in mind that doing so, with questionable results, HAS resulted in a destroyed hood already! I think I'd take the hint and just go back to leaving everything happen the way it happens when you're done with the car! Something to think about...

In the meantime, be REAL careful about louvering the hood...there are very few capable people around, mostly in the hot rod arena, that can louver hoods. If you start cutting into the sheet metal, you can really foul up the structural strength of the hood, although true louvers, punched directly into the metal, could make it stronger, actually.

 

I completely hear where you're coming from! I'm all for the oem toyota hood myself, I just wanted to see what other views I could get. As far as paint goes the body shop wants around $500 to do the hood top and bottom $800 to blend the tops of the fenders in to make it all flow without being noticeable. The local line x dealers quoted me $375 to coat the top and bottom although I think i'd go with the top being line-x'd and call it a day. I like the Line x idea for the hood because it will guard against rock chips and the sort..

As much as I would like a legit louvered hood unfortunately there are'nt any shops local to me that have the machinery to perform such a job so that idea is pretty much out of the window!