Hey,

I just picked up an 04 R53 in really great shape apart from a baseball sized dent in the hood. The quote to fix it was 1000 with no guarantee that it won't rust. So I was looking to live with it until I can find a replacement hood. OEM is around 500. I was wondering if anyone had experience with aftermarket OE (i.e., NOT OEM) body parts, and id so, whether they were any good. Thanks.

 

That's the strangest question. Of course OEM hood is the best, just like that came with the car and would be brand new. I would not expect it to be any different, except like Ikea furniture, it is not come ready. They are primed but you have to paint it as well as put on all the parts; including the stuff on the underside.

To be most cost effective $ and labor wise your best bet is to get one from wrecker and paint to match. With luck you might find one the same colour of your car.

 

Thanks for the reply. Sorry, my post wasn't very clear. I edited it. I know the OEM stuff will be great. My question is whether any of the aftermarket (OE spec) stuff was any good. I apologize for the confusion.

 

The aftermarket ( Keystone) hood fits as good as oem at half of the price. I have one on my R53, of course I work for LKQ , so my cost was around 125.00 for the aftermarket hood.. Most of the salvage yard hoods are inventoried with the lights attached, which depending on light option can make them very pricy . The aftermarket hood + paint would be around the same price as an OE hood without paint.

 

I just went through trying to replace my stock hood with a steel replacement from Keystone via eBay. They freighted me 4 damaged hoods in a row. I finally told them to give me a refund and I found a hood at a yard about 2 hours away. The drive was well worth it after wasting literally months getting damaged hoods. The damage wasn't from freight either. They all had bad ping marks on them in various places that clearly occurred during manufacturing. To Keystone's credit they were super easy to deal with and gladly kept sending replacements. All they asked was for pictures of the bad hoods destroyed. I got to fold a bunch of new hoods in half. Great stress relief... lol. Maybe your luck is better than mine.

 

I work there so i did not have to have one freighted, they delivered it to me, not to mention the employee discount. Cost right around 125.