Driftstore.com

This might be a good time to buy your 95-99 Carbon Fiber hood
GTP international as all carbon on sale. If you call Jonathan
at ext 209, and say your with a group buy he will give the price
of 275.00 plus shipping, shipping is around 120.00 to most lower 48 states
but if you ship to one place it would be cheaper, he said they
have about 35 hoods in stock, 1888-399-2376(AERO)

SKYRockerr

2k2 maxima hoods?

Driftstore.com

the hoods are for 95-99

tampamax

I deal in CF and i'd be VERY wary(sp?) of the quality of that peice. Someone make sure you visually inspect these if no one has already. For a top notch quality peice there would be very little to no profit in the hoods at that rate. The amount of labor that goes into making a quality piece is a lot and i don't think someone would be willing to put that kind of effort into a venture and not recieve anything from it.

Not saying this would be a good deal....just wanted to bring it to your attention that it would be best for someone to actually inspect these hoods if this company has not yet built a long and righteous reputation for their products.

Dood luck with the GD/GB.....bizump

SKYRockerr

ok, what about brand name CF hoods? you have any brand name hoods for 2k2 you think i should consider?

tampamax

I really wish i could steer you towards a good company, but i just don't know of any. If you are dead set on getting a CF hood i would suggest you personally visually inspect it before you buy. Cf is not cheap, to form it is labor intensive, the "good" resins are expensive, and the tricks to building a quality longlasting CF product are very well kept secrets. Anybody can buy some resin and fiber, slap it together, and call themselves professionals. Unfortunately there are to many of them out there. The trick to building a lasting peice is the ability to choose the correct grade, twill, and resin content for the application in which the peice is made for.

Here are some things to look for in a hood. The hood will need bracing or they will end up cracking the resin over time if its allowed to flex very much. That is the beginning of the end. You need to find out what type of resins are used/blended for your particular application. They need to have rolled edges to were the top few layer rolls over the bottom few on the edges and wrap up on top of the understide of the hood. If not you can easily get fraying and the chipping of your resin, thus another quick way to shorten the life of the part. You must make sure they used a quality automotive/aerospace UV/UB clearcoat. That cheap **** 'Nason' is just that ****. A quality gallon of cleat will run someone 120-160. The hoods will need AT LEAST 6 thick layer of clear on both sides. This serves 2 purposes. 1) it helps to protect the against fading 2) it allows the owner of the part to lightly sand and buff out any scratches that may get int the clear. With multiple layers can save your ***. Lets say you are driving down the road and a semi blows out a tire and i severely scratches up your hood(clearcoat)--yes this has happen to me twice. All you would need to do is prep the damage area and respray some clear to build up the valley's of the scratches. Once you do that just wet sand and buff. No one will ever know. And this is something anyone can do on their own. You also want to look for stretches in the weave. Most notible(sp?) around corners and creases. There needs to be as few seems as possible. If they are present they need to be well hidden and not in vital anchor points. Another thing to note is that there are different grades of twill/weave/fabric. If a builder can not give you answers to questions like the grade of the fabric, types of resins, method of construction, contents in construction, warranties on the construction, etc. look elsewhere.

Remember this stuff ain't cheap and neither is the time for quality craftsmen to do the labor on peices. I can think of nothing else where the saying "you get what you pay for" holds more true than in this instance. However, be careful cause there are many people out there to charge an arm and a leg for crap too. So you must look, touch, feel, ask questions before you buy.

Again, not saying the hoods mention above are not quality peices. They may sell enough hoods (which would be and *** load) to justify the lower cost. Just be cautious when it come to CF or even Kevlar.

Battle Max

iTrader: (12)

gtp hoods suck ***** the clear coat goes after like 6 months....the hood starts looking hazy..just my 02

maxima98vspec

the cf hood is from c wings and i love mine, i was on the last GD.
some minor fitment issues but can be a easy fix.
have some pix right here www.cardomain.com/id/maxima98vspec

maxima98vspec

their hoods are great actualy, maybe because u don't take care of urs that's y it went to hell,

i wax mine every week and it looks like new.

Battle Max

iTrader: (12)

How long have you had the hood thats the question that i should ask? and yes i waxed mine often,also i can get alot of people with this same hood and they will tell you the same thing. I actually called gtp and the guy told me himself that yes the hoods clear coat goes it happend on his own hood and i should just re clear coat it with a better clear coat..that was from his own mouth. Just an FYI do what you want..

maxima98vspec

i've had it since about march, april. but i was planning on clear coating it again just in case but it still looks good.

BTW my car sits out in the sun all day long. but i guess its what kind of wax u use or something.

Oblongshapes

iTrader: (1)

Couple questions about the GTP. Does a coat of wax restore the look once the clearcoat breaks down? Also, does their clearcoat yellow or anything..... And does this hood have a nice skeleton and rolled edges....

thanks
jeff

tampamax

I'd have to venture to say no to the rolled edges and the skeletal support. The only way i make this ditermination is the fact that its useing hood pins to hold it on there.

About the clearcoat and waxing. One a properly made cf peice you should not have to wax it anymore than you would wax the rest of you car. Once the clearcost begins to break down its all over for the cf. The ultraviolet light from the sun(even ultraviolet light from flourescent lights) will turn the fabric a milky color which can not be restored.

Hope that helped a bit.