I recently got my 88 and the hood is super heavy, magnet sticks it all over, and the latch spring is too light you cant even pop the hood, have to dig your fingers under it. I'm thinking someone swapped it a while back, which explains all 3. Or it was in a wreck or had it replaced and they ordered steel.

 

AFAIK yes, they were aluminum, damn things were heavy enough as it is

 

My '86 GL came with an aluminum hood. I think the early ones all came that way then Mazda switched back to steel hoods.

 

yes all convertibles were supposed to have an AL hood. it is an old car and the hoods were really expensive ($1300ish), so in addition to the usual accidents, people used to steal the hoods

 

Yes all convertibles, aluminum hood was installed to retain weight distribution after the addition of the convertible top motors.