We have finally secured a maker of real CF hoods for FC's. They are currently in tooling as we type. First hood is set to come off the line in approx 2 weeks. They will both be OEM style attachment with stock hinge bolt locations and stock front hood latch. Hood pins are still recommended so no one steals it https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png They are availible in N/A and TII style.



We have a group buy going on them, but I don't want to violate any other forum's rules with posting regarding products (not sure what the policy is here) so visit http://www.fc3s.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=195 if you are interested.



Enjoy! :bigthumg:

Sounds cool, they are decently priced, will there be any in the future made with fiberglass? I do need a hood but i want to paint it and CF i have heard is a bitch to paint. There are no rules on Posting products in threads, since phinsup does not run this site for $$$ :bigthumg:

We can do them out of fiberglass as well. I will check on the pricing for that and let you know. I believe it is about $75 cheaper, but I will verify that to make sure.



Cool deal on the rules being relaxed here regarding posting products. I know it isn't so at "others" Thanks.

is the t2 vent centered.

i think these are identical to OEM.

No, they are just like OEM hoods, but is CF with a fiberglass frame underneath.

No, they are just like OEM hoods, but is CF with a fiberglass frame underneath.[/quote]

complete CF hoods i have seen are too flimsy!

Revin7,

you have seen a 100% CF hood before?



Its very rare to see one even though I have and they are $$$$$$$ I didnt think it was flimsy at all though, maybe the maker. 99% of the Carbon fiber hoods sold are carbon look. Unless someone in stealing CF, its just too expensive to sell for $1000. haha



Just my 2 cents and yes I just woke up hehe



Jason

www.jt-imports.com

Yes they would be around $1200 to do in all CF, but they would be very sturdy. These are real CF on top though. The whole top mold is CF and the lower mold is fiberglass to cut down on cost. The glass frame is definately strong though.

Dave, that sounds like some really hot stuff. I may be interested down the road when I have the money to start rebuilding from my accident.

yeah it was completely cf underneath and above, but not that many layers. Maybe there was something in the middle, but damn it was flimsy.

Thats an insanely cheap price if the hood is going to be made the way you say it is. Did you guarantee this guy a certain amount to be sold?

I do fiberglass for a living as well, and to make 2 molds, one for the top, and one for the underside is ALOT of hours. I figured it wouldnt be worth the hassle to only sell a handfull of hoods, people talk a great deal, but when it comes time to pay its a different story, lol.



The cost of materials for CF and the epoxy needed to lay it up is alot of money as well, plus finding a reliable source for the CF to begin with. Someone not familar with epoxy may not use a epoxy with UV shield in it, so those who dont paint thier hoods will have them not standing up to the sun's UV rays and yellowing or basically falling apart.



Glass on the other hand, alot cheaper, so I can see them cutting cost with doing a glass underside, but the mold making process to make the underside is where the intense labor would be. Adding re-inforcements into the finished part for the bolting of hinges as well as a hood catch is alot of work and the placement is crucial for proper fit.



Hence the reason no one bothers to make these hoods and why those that DO make them ask so much money for them.



Its not hard at all to paint CF by the way, once you are familiar with the amines that emit from it and how to deal with them and use a high quality epoxy based primer.

The cost of them is related to the fact that the owner of the fiberglass shop is close friends with one of our engine builders that works for the website. He is only charging us $2500 for the molds for 2 hoods which amounts to 4 different tools (molds) He has done quite a few different car CF hoods before, including the ones for the Ford Focus's at SEMA (not sure which booth, but I saw the pictures) and he does ALOT of body fabrication for Manx's and high dollar sand rails. He has even won first prize at quite a few of the local dune buggy shows for best body design in the CF class. His quality is not even at question to me, but the pictures of the first few hoods will prove it to everyone.



The CF he gets comes on rolls that look like short carpet rolls. Same things with his fiberglass from what I saw. I talked to him about the UV question since it was something that I hadn't covered with him, and he does us UV gel coating on the top layer, but he recommend it get painted since it is a car hood, and gets alot of sun for most of the day if it is parked outside at all. I will probably just have mine clearcoated with UV clearcoat at a local auot body shop for extra protection since mine is parked in the sun 12 months out of the year at work.



The rear floating hinge plates will work just like stock, and he says that they won't be any problem. We will be making the hood latches ourselves and he will be molding them into place as well.



He doesn't seem to think that they are hard at all, and even said that the N/A version would be easier to do than the Focus hoods he made. The TII will be a bit mroe work due to the hood scoop, which he will also be making in CF soon as a stock replacement for the regular TII hoods, and that is why they cost a bit more.



The best part about this is that the tooling for these hoods belongs to us. We have signed all the legal documents stating that they are ours, and can only be used to turn out a product with our authorization. Makes that $2500 out to be a pretty good investment https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png



Great points everyone! Thanks for the interest!

Ah so he charged you a initial price for the mold, that makes a bit more sense. So basically, he charged you for the molds, then he is charging you for the hoods, a win-win deal for him so I can see it being worth his time, and yours of course. The underside of the hoods I have seen have not been exact copies of the OEM hoods, usually they just run a re-inforcement around the edge of the hood, which is all you need anyhow on a hood. The hood catch I remember finding a source for them, my guess is he is glassing in flat aluminum stock where the hinges bolt up, and where the catch will be? And yes, the glass and cf comes on roles usually 36" in width. Looking forward to seeing these hoods. Here is a pic of that hood catch.

Yeah he is charging us for the molds for a few reasons. One, when they own the mold, if they don't sell hoods then they get burned for the cost of making the molds. Also, this way they know up front how serious we are about doing them. We also get full rights to them this way and he doesn't have to worry about someone else wanting to make them off the molds, and us getting mad yada yada yada... https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png



These are exact molds of the OEM hoods top and bottom. I don't want this to be any less sturdy than the stock unit, and he said that it will definately be stronger and there won't be and flexing at high speeds etc.



That is a nice hood catch! We were going to just make them, but if we could buy them it would be alot easier on us. Where did you find that?

The more you talk about this, the more it sounds like a great idea. I'm totally hooked on the plan, I will definitely get one when I've got the money for my rebuild.

I wonder how it would look on a red vert? if i knew it wouldnt look like **** i might buy one.

He said the mold is exactly the same as stock. :werd:

He said the mold is exactly the same as stock. :werd:[/quote]

i was meaning the carbon fiber and red paint together on a vert with the black top and all. :rice:

UPDATE:



We should have the N/A CF Hood to us in about a week now. The TII hood will take a few days to a week longer to finish since it has a hood scoop. Pics soon to follow



Also for those wondering, the hood scoop on the TII hood will be integrated into the hood so that it is one piece. We will also be making the stock hood scoop insert in CF as well once the hoods are all worked out

how much are the turbo 2 hoods going to cost i didnt see anything saying how much they would cost.

http://www.fc3s.org/cfhoods.html



I linked the info page on the first post on this thread.

These hoods are going to be available after the group buy is over, right??? Even at the "regular" price it seems like the deal I was looking for!

Where would they be shipped from? How much would shipping be? lets say to NY....or better yet is it included(had to try, hehe) How much would they weigh(coparable to aluminum hood)? Any other projects for the future?

Shipping is going to run around $100 from our best guess initially. Once we know the final packing costs and weights etc, we will have a better price for everyone.



Yes they are availible for as long as I am into FC's and still doing the website. I figure if I ever for some unknown weird assed reason I did retire LOL I could sell the molds to another person to continue making them. But that is a moot point because I will be into FC's until I can't buy parts for them anymore! Then I will have to make all the parts! LOL



For some more info for others interested, they are made out of 282 Aircraft carbon fiber (5.7 ounce) The epoxy is 3M and they use urithane(spelling?) for the bonding agent. That is all in a foreign language to me, but anyway =)

urethane, i looked on the link but it didnt show a price on the TII hood, although i wont be using any TII hoods so it doesnt really matter to me...sigh



Justin

never mid i saw it

New pictures of the tooling process (the molds) Enjoy :bigok:





http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01084.jpg



http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01085.jpg





http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01086.jpg



http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01087.jpg



http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01088.jpg



http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01089.jpg





http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01090.jpg

The guy has a chopper gun, yet another reason he can price those hoods so low, it all makes more sense now https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png

I guess the days of hand-laying material are gone.

I was going to make mine all hand laid, VERY time consuming.

I know you said the hoods were going to have FG for the inside, but are they just going to have a layer or 2 of CF then its all going to be FG?

No, the whole top skin will be CF and the bottom frame structure will be fiberglass to keep costs low. That chopper gun was sweet :bigok:

Hey Rob RX-7, where did you get that pic of the hood latch? That looks just like the thing we need. Could you pass me the source on that item? Thanks https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png

are u ever gonna make some other type of hoods? i want a vented one, over the radiator.

You could buy his hood and have any vent glassed onto it that you like.



The latch, its from another hood place that 13Bace found one day, here is the place, maybe you can ask them where to get it, otherwise just have a welder take a piece of round stock and put a bend in it, then weld it to a piece of flat stock.

carhoods.com was the place.

Yes we will be making other hoods in the future if these sell well enough to warrant the spending of money upfront again to make them https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png The biggest problem with the other styles of hoods is that everyone wants something different and no one can ever agree. Even when they do agree they never are around when it's time to pay up to start them https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png



Rob, we had planned to just make them ourselves but if we could buy them made already, that would save us alot of time which is something we don't have alot of with everything going on. Thanks.

About 6-9 months ago I found a company that was willing to get a copy of the border hoods made in cf and sell it for a price around what the fc3s.org hoods are going for, all I need to do was get 10 people. I was able to get 9 people. In my opinion I would say that this would be a greart opportunity for any company.

I guess the days of using a respirator are over hehe

According to my G-friend who does EPA & OSHA for the AF, He shouldn't be wearing latex gloves (that's what it looks like he's wearing) because it only protects against biological hazards, and not chemical ones. But as long as i get my hood, i don't care if the guy eats this stuff, or sniffs it.

Yeah I forgot about the latex.. Rubber gloves, long sleeves and full face

respirator haha

LOL

When I wear latex gloves handling chemicals it keeps the chemicals off my hands, so what are the vapors passing thru the latex and entering my skin but I dont smell the chemicals on my hands after? Im just curious because otherwise I have to get some different gloves. I can put my whole hand in a container of resin and when I take the glove off all I have no trace of the chemical on my hands.

Here are some more updated pics. We inspected the hood bases and took one back to our place to test fit it and to fit some hardware to it. Should have the N/A hood this week.



http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01162.jpg

http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01163.jpg

http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01166.jpg

http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01167.jpg

http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01169.jpg

http://www.fc3s.org/images_misc/dcp01170.jpg