Hi and thanks in advance,

Have a 2000 Stratus SE 2.4L which is a great runner but the hood is rotting out on the front edge and from what I've read here that is a very common problem. I'm not even going to bother trying to patch it as it's just too far gone. I have two options right now and wondering what your opinions are on these:

Option 1 is to buy a brand new hood for 109.00 from a local retailer, then either paint it myself or have it painted for me, which I assume could be rather expensive either way.

Option 2 is to buy a used one from a local salvage yard for 100.00 which has only one small spot of surface rust underneath and is otherwise in great shape (the thing must have been garaged). It also happens to be in my color. They'll even take my old one off and install the new one for free. My only concern about this option is that since it has one spot of rust on it, is it just going to rot out like the current one.

I'd like to keep the car for at least two years and I'm not sure which way to go on this.

Thanks for any advice.

Jim

 

Personally, I would go for the one from the junk yard. Painting a hood could cost a little over $150 at some places.

 

Hey thanks for the response!

It turns out that a decent paint job on a new hood would run about 200 bucks, so the local auto body guy I spoke with on the phone said that if I buy the used hood for 100 bucks, in my color, and just use some Por-15 on the small patch of surface rust, I will be better off. I thought that was pretty cool of him to tell me that. The surface rust by the way is on the underside so I wouldn't need to worry about color, etc.

Sounds like you are in agreement as well.

Really appreciate the response!

Jim

 

Then you can't go wrong with the used hood! deffinetly sounds like a deal there. Good luck with it!