CF hood suggestions

[Dr_Snooz]

I'm still putting my car back together after the wreck. I got a hood from the junkyard, but it's a little more beat up than I'd like. There aren't any new OEM steel hoods around anymore, so I'm considering a carbon fiber hood.

I have no experience with them, so I'm looking for suggestions. I know fitment can be an issue on these and honestly, if it didn't fit absolutely perfectly, it would eat away at my sanity until I couldn't stand it any longer and took after it with a heat gun, pry bars, dead weight and a belt sander. Hood pins are not an option.

I might be interested in buying one used from someone if the fit was good. I plan to paint over it, so finish problems wouldn't deter me if the hood was otherwise in good shape.

Thanks all.

[Hondamonster]

what i know of teh carbon fiberz...

they're wavy unless you get high quality ones. not sure who makes them for our cars, but i had a friend with a vis and it was wavy. hood pins are reccomended, particularly because of the lighter weight but moreso because of the fitment. the latch isn't always as easy to close as oem. another problem my buddy had with the vis... had to slam the shit out of it to make it latch. lastly, they generally don't fit as well as oem as far as body creases and gaps. hope that helped

[mykwikcoupe]

look on ebay. last I checked 4 different places sold them, one made them. If you cant select what you want dont buy it its just a molded cheap piece. Ill try too find the one that made them. I wanted one without squirters. You want rolled edged not cut or they may and will peel and separate. The gel coat isn't the best but if you paint your good. The original group buy are the best to me still but that was 10 years ago so who knows where they are now. All will be a fiberglass structure with an overlay so that wont deter you. Good luck and report back

[turabaka]

are the carbon fiber hoods any lighter than the stock hood? Or is it all just a looks thing?

[A18A]

if they're not, then people with actual CF hoods coulda saved alot of money and just bought a large CF sticker for their oem one lol

[Hondamonster]

they're for sure lighter than stock. but honestly its only a marginal weight savings. for the money, i wouldn't bother unless i really loved the weave look. but that doesn't seem to be cool anymore anyways haha

[turabaka]

I was thinking of just going with a sheet metal hood held down with hood pins in each corner since those don't weigh crap.

[labeledsk8r]

they're for sure lighter than stock. but honestly its only a marginal weight savings. for the money, i wouldn't bother unless i really loved the weave look. but that doesn't seem to be cool anymore anyways haha

weights weight imo. even if you cna only shave a few pounds per mod that still adds up before u know it u can shave 100+ outa a car. i do agree there a cheeper ways to shave weight though

as for the hood latch thing you people do relize you can adjust the latch right? this also means you can pull the hood down onto the rubber stopers this also alows very little air under the hood, i cant really say on the 3g but i know i have had no problems with my cf hood on my car at highway speeds or even higher. no shakes no wobles and the latch feels secure

[Dr_Snooz]

what i know of teh carbon fiberz...

they're wavy unless you get high quality ones. not sure who makes them for our cars, but i had a friend with a vis and it was wavy. hood pins are reccomended, particularly because of the lighter weight but moreso because of the fitment. the latch isn't always as easy to close as oem. another problem my buddy had with the vis... had to slam the shit out of it to make it latch. lastly, they generally don't fit as well as oem as far as body creases and gaps. hope that helped

This is what scares me. If it didn't look like OEM, it would make me crazy. The only way I would know is after paying $115 for shipping. That's too much to gamble. I did manage to find a replacement steel hood on eBay for pretty cheap:

OE Hood

It's close enough that I'll probably just drive to get it and save myself the shipping.

For those interested, there's a pretty cheap CF hood also on eBay right now:

CF Hood

Thanks for the help guys.

[Civic Accord Honda]

I was thinking of just going with a sheet metal hood held down with hood pins in each corner since those don't weigh crap.

if your talking about getting rid of the hood bracing and latchs and just rocking the skin you stole my idea!

[turabaka]

if your talking about getting rid of the hood bracing and latchs and just rocking the skin you stole my idea!

sorry CAH. I stole the idea from a guy I know that does stock car racing. Here's a frownie face as a consolation prize though.

[A18A]

i believe jonny O has done that with his H22 powered drag car