carbon fiber hood repair

[itzdave]

i just got a used carbon fiber hood and once i installed it, i noticed that it is warped. sticks up damn near an inch on the drivers side near the headlights and fender. i did some searching and most people say to either just put some weight on it for a while, and some sites say that installing hood pins is a MUST with cf hoods. i reeeeaaally dont wanna get a drill near this hood but i dont want it flying off the latch if the hook thingy on the hood breaks, supposedly they are prone to this.
anybody have any suggestions?

[Bglad420]

What I did was lowered the hood latch when I had it installed, and adjusted the rubber stoppers and it fit fine, I had to oblong the holes a little bit but I never had that much of an issue.

[itzdave]

yea im gunna have to lower the latch on the car a lil bit, but thats no biggie. maybe once i do that and adjust the stops it might sit flush on all corners...

[charliekuney]

i did some searching and most people say to either just put some weight on it for a while

http://www.gifsoup.com/imager.php?id=183574

[itzdave]

i dont get it...?

[charliekuney]

"Bend, and snap."

That's what I think will happen.

[itzdave]

"Bend, and snap."

That's what I think will happen.

im not talkin bout 300 pounds, like a couple books or something... carbon fiber is pretty strong too.

[charliekuney]

I know, my friend did a presentation on it in Chemistry. I understand metal flattening out over time, but carbon fiber is a completely different type of material, and the hood isn't flat.

[labeledsk8r]

pulling it to sit flush on the rubber stopers seems like the best idea, placeing weight on the hood will do nothing you could leace it there for months and once you take the weight off it will bounch back to its bent form.

seems like alota people on here had that problem with the group buy cf hoods all of them dont sit very well. just means the company did a piss poor job molding it

as for the hood flying up, as long as you get it sitting flush you should have no problem at all, only reason its a concern now is you have alot of area catching air witch will tend to lift and put strain on your hood latch

[Dr_Snooz]

I wonder if you took a heat gun after it if that would help. There are different kinds of CF. Some are nearly indestructible and some are little more than a plastic resin with graphite fibers mixed in. I'm not sure what kind yours is, but heat might soften it enough to allow some re-molding.

Are the CF hoods really that much lighter than the stock steel hood?

[MessyHonda]

I wonder if you took a heat gun after it if that would help. There are different kinds of CF. Some are nearly indestructible and some are little more than a plastic resin with graphite fibers mixed in. I'm not sure what kind yours is, but heat might soften it enough to allow some re-molding.

Are the CF hoods really that much lighter than the stock steel hood?

well the thing with mine was the hood latch was off side so i had to get some one to reinforce the whole latch area to make it stronger and have it centered a bit more...now it sits fine,

[itzdave]

i weighed them, the cf hood is about 20-25 pounds lighter...

[MessyHonda]

yup you can pick up the cf hood with one hand easy

[itzdave]

yea i was surprised. me and a friend went to get it, we each grabbed a side to lift and it just flew right up! we were totally expecting it to be heavier.

[2ndGenGuy]

Is it real CF or is it fiberglass with a CF overlay? Either way it would still be lighter than a stock hood. But a pure CF hood would be super light.

[itzdave]

im pretty sure its f/g with c/f over it, but i cant see any f/g even on the underside...