Carbon Fiber Hood
 

Hello all, I'm looking to purchase a new hood for the 370. there are many options to choose from so I need help in picking one. I know many cost in the range of 8-900 but some are up to 6k for dry carbon. Is the ultra high end hood worth the price. Is the performance of the expensive hood appreciable compared to say another at 1K but its FRP instead. I mean is going to crack after I install it for a week? I've looked at many options like seibon, veilside, amuse (my favorite) but I don't know if its worth that premium price tag.

Thank you!

anything is worth what you are willing to pay. You could go forced induction for the price of a hood like that. What performance are you expecting from a hood? ventilation maybe, but not more than 1000 dollars worth (that includes shipping). That would be how much I would pay if I wanted the carbon fiber look. Fiberglass/urethane hoods do the same thing but for much less money, but are slightly heavier than dry carbon. I don't know, unless you are really into the look, that is really way too much IMO. But do what you want haha it's your car. I'm up in college station, if you get a 6k hood you ought to drive down and let me see it haha :tup:
FYI cracking from any manufacturer is doubtful, but fitment issues may occur. However most of the time, particularly hoods from the manufacturers you listed, seem to fit just fine.

Unless you are rich beyond your wildest dreams, buying a premium real dry carbon hood like the amuse one is a huge waste of money, its only going to be slightly lighter than stock aluminum hood. When it comes to the more budget minded hoods like seibon, they are actually heavier than stock hoods. So that's more of a visual upgrade not a "performance" upgrade. Only other hoods really available is Varis, which has better craftsmanship than seibon, but again they have their wet carbon/frp hoods which arent full carbon and are heavier than stock, and then they have their expensive dry carbon hoods which are super expensive and only a lil lighter than stock.

All comes down on what kind of car you are looking to build. Full blow track car with unlimited funds, every lb saved helps so go with the super expensive dry carbon hoods. Slightly modified street car on a budget go with seibon.

haha ok lets go with the budget, maybe one day i'll get the amuse.

Unless your into shaving as much weight as possible and trying to win races against (factory racing teams) I would go with the cheaper hood, you get the same look just about and have extra coin for more mods... Just my 2 cents! Let us know what you go with and post pics.

do the other hoods like the seibon weigh that much more than the stock? are we talking negligible amounts here?

I believe most of the wet CF hoods are 2-5 lbs more than stock. Varis's was a couple lbs lighter. Their dry cf, as well as most other dry hoods are gonna be 5-10 lbs. Which percentage wise is a lot, but you're paying 3000-6000 bucks for those lbs.

A lightweight battery can save you 10-20+ lbs and those are only a few hundred bucks. For the price of a dry cf hood, you could get 2-piece floating rotors all around, or a BBK, which would save you easily over 10 lbs in unsprung weight. 2pc fronts alone would save 10-20 lbs depending on the brand. You could get just about any set of wheels for that price and save 2-3 lbs per corner of rotating mass. Or get some nice seats, which could save 10-20 lbs per seat.

If I were rich enough to spend 6k on a hood for weight savings, looks and vents, I'd probably just spend 1k on a vented wet cf hood and the rest on one or two of the above and come out with a much nicer car.

Seibon TS hood is 21lbs... stock hood is 16lbs.

I was totally under the impression CF hoods like from seibon would be lighter. I was planning on going with one for both looks & weight reduction. Not anymore :tup:

Ok so 20 lbs vs 16 lbs, do the vents cool the engine significantly or are they purely cosmetic? I guess the additional weight gain is offset by the vents haha

Don't forget to budget in a few bucks more to have the hood re-cleared. Most of the CF parts I've seen needed another shot of clear to keep them from yellowing from sun exposure.

No, because they use a base material and then wrap CF around it adding weight.
I like the Seibon hood, probably ordering one this year for the vents (Seibon TS style), to help regulate heat better. I agree with chuck that if you get it I would suggest getting it cleared again to protect it. My choice is I am painting the whole thing graphite to match my car. :tup:

paint everything but the vents. I love that look :tup:

I keep going back & forth, there is a member here who did the vents CF and the rest PG.
Another option someone told me this past week, spray it all but just light enough you can see the CF weave through the paint if you want.

If I ever buy a hood this is the plan for it. I'm just too OCD about engine bay cleanliness to go with a hood with holes in it.

Why dont you guys just wrap your hood in CF vinyl???? Easy fix, still lighter than wet carbon..

Because of the vents, or style.
Modifying the stock hood can work also but usually just as much as buying a CF hood.

I've always felt that you should either do real carbon fiber, or not at all. "CF" vinyl just doesn't look right to me.

This too.

http://www.the370z.com/members/jason...04-22-13-3.jpg

Here's my carbon creation hood. Fitment was perfect. Think I paid around $600. I love it.

agreed. CF vinyl is ghetto looking and people that know CF can spot it from a mile away. Im going to attempt to wrap item in real CF but I wont do vinyl.

I have a Seibon carbon fiber hood. I have had it for two years now, and keep it garaged at work and home. It is turning yellow and has two small cracks, one from a model at a car show leaning on it, and one from closing it too hard. It still looks pretty cool, and I do like it, but there is no performance gain from it.

Carbon fiber is not all the same. There are many different resin systems that can be used, and a few different molding/ curing processes. Almost all of the aftermarket carbon fiber available uses the cheapest/weakest resin systems. I am pretty sure that all aftermarket carbon fiber hoods use some form of filler/backer like chopped fiberglass. I don't think even the high end "dry" hoods are full carbon fiber.
If you want to save a lot of weight, and get some horse power as well, go with a titanium exhaust!

But even then a Ti exhaust is really not better.
With a dry CF hood you are removing weight from the front of the car which is huge, while with a Ti exhaust is low and rear half. Also, with a good CF hood (dry or wet) you need to focus on two things, weight & ventilation. Being able to remove pressure and hot air is huge when trying to not lose power, keeping the car in its maximum performance area for as long as possible can be the largest factor.

I was just getting ready to type this. And I really don't think a thread asking about cf hoods is the place to say "cf hoods are crap. Buy one of my Ti exhausts."

Yeah, a bit of a...don't buy X buy my product.
Also, seeing some of the dry CF hoods made by Varis/TS/etc I would say they are fully CF and very good quality. The only issue I ever hear about is the clear is not the best. Though it seems most buy it and just redo the clear and the hood lasts for years without yellowing or cracking.

I got the AMS CF hood for around 550$, fitment was perfect. I never intended to keep displaying the CF so I had it colormatched. I merely wanted some form of aggressive vents.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...Teg/photo3.jpg

First of all, I said that I still like my hood, even though its not the best quality!
Secondly, an other user mentioned that for weight savings a battery is a better idea than a hood. I just threw in that a titanium exhaust saves a lot of weight and gaines power too. Just food for thought on weight savings.

I am pretty sure the Varis hoods are double sided carbon, with carbon on the under side carbon on the top side, but with fiberglass as the main structure of the hood.

Gotcha. I see where you're coming from there.

What about modding the stock hood, with some cutouts/inserts?

http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/...1310102545.jpg

http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3da4cd10.jpg

Same car and same stock hood in both pics, Doc had it done with six inserts then down to four later on.

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Same here. My hood feels a lot heavier than 16lbs.....:icon14:

So I gotta bump this thread for a bit of an update. I purchased a Carbon fiber hood for my car and it was lighter than OEM. Much lighter actually, I could carry it without breaking a sweat. Not saying your a dirty a** f***ing liar Dreamer (*cough* yes you are) but in my instance it was super light.

http://www.the370z.com/members/sgtgo...ainted-oem.jpg

you know I love you dreamer... no homo (unless you want it.... :wtf2:)

IMHO i think carbon fiber hoods are a waste of money besides this guy^ they dont shave any weight off at all they actually add weight, when it gets hot out they warp and when you open the hood, when you go to close it it closes like crap or youll have trouble actually getting it to close i know from when i had one on my eclipse it was horrible worst thing i could have ever done and my friend with his twin turbo 350 same thing and his is yellow and nasty looking he totally regrets buying it. again this is my opinion id rather keep the stock hood its much lighter and keeps the z looking clean

Im glad it's painted to avoid the whole yellowing thing. Warping is another story, any advice on how to keep it from doing that? I've never heard of anyone having that problem, but it seems totally plausible and likely.

how is the fitment of that CF hood? is it seibon? usually they have huge gaps all around.

You're both right, on the 370Z, the OEM good weighs less than CF hoods, unless they're dry CF.
I bet the hood on the G37 is steel, like the driveshaft, and ours is CF :nutswinger:

If its not the weight saving you're going for specifically, then what about fibreglass? Don't most of the companies doing the CF ones also do FG ones in a similar design?