i am buying a carbon fiber hood this weekend and i was wondering if i have to put hood pins in or will it be safe enough if i dont.i dont want my hood flying up on me.any info would be good.thanx

 

was it hard to install the hood pins.because im a little scared of cutting the carbon fiber.

 

I would use hood pins.. I have them on my car. When I didn't have them, the sides of the hood by the latch would shake violently above 70mph. With hoodpins, the hood stays put. You will still see a little vibration where the windshield washer nozzles are. They are not hard to install.

Do a search on "how to install hoodpins" Just be very careful on what drill bit you use, when securing the rings on the hood. I had to use larger screws

Don't take it to a shop to do, I got quoted $177 at autothority. Just do it yourself. Post what state you live in and maybe an org member can help..

 

For the love of God use hood pins. Just found out the hard way this past week on a friend's Maxima that hood pins are a must. They forgot to put them back in after the dyno, and the hood just flipped up at like 20mph and cracked the windshield. 2nd time it's happened to him too. So use hoodpins.

 

i live in south jersey. that would be great if someone could help me out from here.if you could please let me know thanx

 

 

Drilling through the carbon fiber is not a difficult operation. Start with a small diameter bit to make a pilot hole and then use the final diameter bit for the final hole. It is important when drilling holes in composite to dress the exposed, cut fibers with epoxy. This helps prevents crack growth in the composite that may start at the cut surface. Carbon composites are brittle materials and have a pretty high notch sensitivity, and crack initiation and propagation are always a concern in highly stressed parts. In this case you can probably get away with not doing it since hoods are not a highly stressed part. Doesn't hurt to do it, though.