More carbon fiber hood nonsense..

[PrimeraGT]

Well boys and girls (those of us with P11's) I found a shop locally in Orlando so we don't have to solely rely on the west coast manufacturer who so gracefully was not able to provide me with a decent hood that was worth the money spent. We went to the facility today and spoke the to people in charge and got some insight as to what they have done in the past. They were in the business of making composite parts in the aviation field and they have a full facility with pretty much everything you would want. They have C&C machines, CADD workstations and just about everything else. They have a great facility and at this point I have agreed to supply my OEM hood and we are going to give it another shot. They looked at my existing carbon hood and we are pretty confident they can make a better product. Also there is more flexibility with the colors as well. I do not know the cost yet but if you are expecting a $400 hood, this may not be the place. This isn't a bunch of guys in a garage working on fiberglass making hoods, this is a professional operation making high quality composite hoods, they have been in the business making composite parts that require much more scrutiny than the hood on a car so I am confident of the quality, and I will be local so I will be able to see the progress. After my experience with Fiber Images and their sidekick Andy Reyes who so tactfull left me hanging in the cold after taking my money.. I am happy to be there first hand to see the progress. On a sidebar.. I unbolted my touring wing so expect raplicas soon. I do see other parts being made in the near future, hell I will be donating anything I can to get it back in carbon. Email me if ??'s

-Henry

[b-b00gie]

I'm down for one of these.

I've noticed that even though Fiber Images raves about how great and un-wavey their carbon hoods are, they are pretty shoddy looking. After reading all about Henry's quams with them, I really didnt want to get a hood from them.

These new hoods sound like they will be great, especially since they laughed at Henry's hood quality. This new company has made stuff for NASA from what Henry tells me, so I'm expecting top notch stuff...

About the colors.. Henry told me that they can color match the colored carbon strands to your paint color before making your hood. Thats awesome! Fiber Images only offers generic grey, blue, red, green. The colored ones rarely match the paint color..

Henry can they do white?

[RCer]

White pearl you mean, b00gie.

will be interesting a JDM hood.:silly2:

[PrimeraGT]

What they do is they paint the fiber whatever color you desire before it becomes a hood or fender or whatever. I saw today on one of the guys cars, a jeep, the cover for the winch, he did it in silver just like the color of his jeep, you could see the fibers still. It was very nice. They can overlay the carbon on practically anything.

[Dprotech]

Henry ..you can count me in ...and I think I speak for Jason as well who is missing in action ...taken by a giant lobster out in Nova Scotia.

Both our cars are black ....so its the standard black/grey carbon fiber for us....

thankkkkkkkkkkkks

and the BTCC wing for me too ....Jason doesn't want one so count him out of that one.

[PrimeraGT]

Anyone interested mail me at [email protected] so I can keep a list please? That way I can keep better track of it. Thanks. Also, by letting me know you are interested, once I say go, plan on coming up with a way to pay as he won't produce a hood until you firmly commit. Since I am up the street from the shop, I will be able to see progress as well as the quality of the finished product as well so we can be sure we aren't getting a bad piece like the one I got from Fiber Images. The carbon can be painted to the color of choice to match your car closely. Remember, this all has to be treated and such so it won't be exact, but it won't be way off. I am just as excited about this because I am tearing out my dash practically to get a full carbon dash. hehe. I will get with them on the price to hopefully get something reasonable for us. If the quality is how they boast, I don't mind paying for it. In this case we get what we pay for. I mentioned earlier, we aren't Hondas that will be able to sell them hundreds of hoods, we are just a small bunch so the cost will be higher, but their work I have see it A plus. I will be happy to answer any other questions or comments.

[BryanS1620]

Hey kids.

Watch out for anybody offering to make you carbon fiber hoods who doesn't have experience doing exactly that. A lot of these dudes are guys who have been laying up fiberglass for a few years and want to cash in on the CF craze. So they lay-up a fiberglass hood with a single ply of 2x2 carbon fiber on top-CRAP!!

I've talked to a lot of people about the subject, I'm opening a custom CF fab shop. I'm staying out of the hood business though after finding out how shoddy these dudes are making them for $400-$500. The only place I talked to that makes REAL Carbon Fiber hoods charge a GRAND and UP. A carbon fiber hood that is made the way it should be made- would consist of CF pre-preg material, honeycombed(alum. or Kevlar) and be autoclaved.:smoker2:


See Ya,

Bryan

[PrimeraGT]

You are exactly right. A real carbon hood costs a bunch of money and isn't cheap at all. The cheap hoods are just that.. cheap. Its just that people are used to getting the shit Honda hoods at $400 and expect to pay no more than that but expect a perfect high-quality hood and that is just not the case. As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

[BryanS1620]

:flash: You got it! And by the way, I f'ed up. There's no such thing as Kevlar honeycomb core material, I meant to say Nomex honeycomb


:bandit: See Ya,

Bry

[RCer]

Henry, what about the CF touring wing? are they doing it?