i purchased a carbonfx hood a while ago and still havent put it on....the reason is simple i cannot get the hood to latch and i do now want to drill hood pins in the hood (i find them tacky and they are not predrilled in the hoods and i do not want to affect the structural integrity of the hood)
any help would b nice

now i have adjusted the hood damper in the front but still no luck

I had to take off my hood latch, drill the mounting holes out bigger and use fender washers over the top of the holes to get enough adjustment movement to get my hood to latch. In the metal hood you could adjust the striker bar, but you can't do that with the CF since the striker bar is epoxied in place. I also had to shim the latch and or bend the center support to get proper alignment. You lose a lot of adjustability with the CF hood, so you have to move the latch.

Hood pins or hood locks are a must. After getting my hood adjusted and latching, I was amazed to see my hood flex in the center and lift up about 3/4inch above the fenders at speeds above 55. You won't hurt integrity the hood unless you don't put pins or locks on it.

jjam

You shouldn't be using stock hood dampers with CF hoods. They are meant for the heavy OEM hood and are too strong for CF hoods. And as a safety measure, hood pins are always recommended with a CF hood.

Before I bought my hood, I called the company and asked if the hood had hard points to attach the stock lifting arms or if there were different lifting arms to use. They said the hood is made to use the stock arms and had reinforced mounting points. Since my lifting arms were originals anyway it didn't seem unreasonable. I don't know if the arms are any weaker than new, but they work fine with the cf hood. The hood pins though are a must.

jjam

good luck with it, better get those hood pins though, some of the latches are cheap as, and if it goes, so does the hood. pros and cons, dont you just hate the cons ? lol

i was also thinking of getting a cf hood. just wondering if the stock hood dampers would last longer with less weight also. i replaced them for $70 each and they went out within a year.

So does this mean that the carbon fiber hoods available aren't exactly direct fit? Are there any available that are?

with just about and CF or Fiber Glass hood, nothing is going to fit perfect. Fiberglass can be molded and shaved to fit perfect but CF is a different story.



Also get hood pins. my hood poped outta the backet at 30 mph so i was lucky it didnt fly up.

+1^ they should all fit pretty close, but maybe never exact. does fiberimages still make carbon fiber hoods? those are sweet !

forgot to mention, if i was still in the states i would have snagged this one and just painted it white. sold for 56 bucks ! and of course shipping bites

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=230031951889

i dont know i got mine from Sport Compact. It fits close to perfect, but it has its issues with alittle warp here and a bend there, but not bad.