Ever want to spend 10 grand on something...

Ever want to spend 10 grand on something you know you will not be able to put to good use.

The guy who used to make the premium AAR & TA hoods is selling the molds.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1970-TA-Challenger-Hood-Molds/254544882840
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1970-AAR-Cuda-Hood-Molds/254546648988

I don't have a shop where I could do the work but I would love to buy those molds and repop those hoods.

Do Instructions come with them?
Has to be some "tricks" to it.
Wonder what the profit was per hood.

Each sale comes with an original hood, helping the value.
150 hoods over 23 years is only about a hood every other month, if you purchase both models it’s a hood a month.
Fiberglass work is messy, and the sale price per unit of $1400 suggests it’s labor intensive.
And don’t forget that competition is in the $850 price point

For someone who doesn’t mind playing in fiberglass (it’s a job, not fun) it appears you could make a little side money, providing the orders continue and the molds remain good. I suspect these are contributors to the owner getting out of the business.

At the asking price for both molds, it'll take you selling about 25-30 hoods just to recoup the mold investment if you keep the retail hood price under $1200

I got a tour of a manufacturing facility making fiberglass fan stacks for industrial cooling towers. These were panels that when bolted together would form a cone about 30' in diameter and about 10' high IIRC. The procedure was spraying the molds with gelcoat and then spraying on the fiberglass using a chopper gun that mixed resin and fiberglass chopped from rolls of fiberglass strip. What a filthy mess. The stench from the resin was unbelievable. There were fiberglass fibers floating around everywhere. Unbelievable. Right then and there I got a whole new appreciation for any firm that produces large scale fiberglass components.

In addition to the process you mention, mold cleaning, prep and repair come into play, and let’s not forget the trim and drill requirements that make an mess.

I would think those molds are really only attractive to someone already in the fiberglass business. Just doesn’t pencil out for anyone else.

Lol! You ever clean a cooling tower? The stench in one is like the basement of an out house!

I have one of the hoods. Hard to tell its a repo. When I got it 20+ years ago he said he was using more modern resins that were stronger and more heat resistant

The only cooling towers I have experience with are electric utility scale. And no, I've never had to clean one but, yes, I've been in an operating tower cell, standing on the fill, taking airflow measurements. And yes, I was soaked from head to toe at the end of that.

The fact he is selling molds should tell you something.

How many other companies make reproduction AAR, T/A hoods?

Back in the 90's my friends dad got into stock car racing and made his own FG body panels - just dont use the home drier, he did and ruined it with fiberglass lol

"Dad why I am so itchy"

https://aarqualityfiberglass.com/product/hood-cuda-1970-1974-aar-bolt-on/

These guys come to mind, and I suspect based on price would be an issue for many to part with an added $500 + shipping

Heck, I have an AAR hood brand new in a box that was made by Dales Cuda Shop years ago. Without really trying I’ve had it sold for $600 at least 3 times, but the deals always fall through once shipping comes into play.

Close to half a dozen different companies offer TA/AAR hoods and scoops, as well as modified TA/AAR hoods/scoops for induction clearance/custom applications, of course some vary from really close repros to junk, the Ebay offered molds are to repro the originals with all their various unique little details often missing or molded over or removed/improved upon in various other mfg's TA/AAR offerings.... so these molds would yield hoods intended for the OEM crowd that want the missing "details" even if they appear sloppy/defective which the factory hoods were....

Chopped fiberglass layup is gnarly stuff. No thanks!

I would think it would be beer to build the hoods out of carbon fiber. Much better market for carbon parts.

That's a good take on it. Anyone doing the math on this needs to account for their own labor and the (opportunity) cost of the space to do the work a well.

You'd be looking at $2K retail per hood to turn some profit going CF, Mopar guys wouldn't buy them, purists wouldn't want them and racers wouldn't buy them, when cheap pin on fiberglass TA/AAR hoods can be had for $300+