i was wondering how can i tell wether i have a aluminum or steel hood?
i have a 88 gxl , also what other models had the alum. hood?

 

magnet....

there is a huge difference in weight also.

 

edit: dang......^he^ beat me

I believe the easiest way to find out would be to find yourself a magnet

 

haha really , are there any specific models that came with it or is it if you have a aluminum hood your lucky?

 

don't forget to search... i know for a fact there is a picture of the way to tellthe differences.,.. the hood latch on the aluminum hood has rivits, the other hood has bolts... easiest way to tell is search, find the pictures and then look
or just see if it has rivits..

 

damn that sucks guess i got a steel one cause ive taken off my hood latch before, oh well i dbout mazda would throw on a lighter hood on the luxury package lol

 

I had thought that there was certain models that came with the alluminum hood, but I pulled one off of a base model S4 at the junkyard about a week ago...so who knows?

 

you have to search the facts on FC's but it came on

-Turbo Fc's US & Japan
-Verts US & Japans Turbo Verts
-and I believe all GTU-s some special edition GT-u, they alsost put a 20B in it to be cheaper but not far behind the Turbo models.

-Dustin

 

here is the best way above the magnet test to see if it's a aluminum hood.
(this is for the other guys that are just reading this trying to find out there model info)
Lift your cars hood up. If it seems really easy to move up and down without using any force it's aluminum. If it takes force(it doesn't matter how strong you are) then it's steel. If you are very strong and you can't tell then get a weak friend to do it.
Also my steel hood latch doesn't like my aluminum hood, I have to jump on it to close it. ^_^

 

Then it is strange that I found one on a base model at the junkyard....unless it had been swapped.

And some T2 models came with a steel hood.

--Alex

 

Here is some good information about which models had what options. http://www.mazdamark.com/about_the_s5_fc.htm Sadly the GTUs doesn't come with a 20B although it was originally planned, but it did come with an aluminum hood.

 

Here's the post with the latch loop pictures.... https://www.rx7club.com/showpost.php...1&postcount=12

 

Difference..56 Lbs. VS about 23 Lbs...you can pretty well pick up the aluminum hood "one handed",compare to the Steel Hood..(which you "could" pick up "one handed" ..If you were Schwartzenegger!)

 

This was my belief as well, but I have been told that the steel TII hoods are out there because they are aftermarket replacements units. Supposedly the original aluminum was replaced with steel by a cheap-out insurance company or a dishonest body shop. I have been told that even Mazda dealers would do this to either save some money for the customer or make some extra money for the dealership.


I don't know this to be true, any comments from the real expert, Icemark?