B18C5-EH2

<FONT COLOR="red">Disclaimer:

This topic is not for the debate of whether or not you think a carbon fiber hood should be on MY car.

This topic is not for the debate of whether or not MY hood should be painted of not.</FONT>

Now that we're clear on that, let me begin.

Forgive me for the story, but I like to be thorough with my posts on stuff like this. I'm not trying to have a simple "show and tell" type topic, so I figured i'd throw in some tech info, background info, etc.

I had always wanted a carbon fiber hood, but I wanted to make sure that what I purchased was an excellent fit, lightweight, and affordable. At first I was saving up for a Benen hood, but they have not been producing hoods for quite some time now and I will not buy a used one. So my choices were limited because I did not want to buy any hood that I had not seen in person for the fear of it being heavy and/or fitting like ****.

A few friends of mine have had VIS hoods since a few years ago. The fitment was absolutely bad-*** and the finish was excellent, but they were undoubtedly the heaviest carbon fiber hoods I'd ever felt. I did not want a hood that was only marginally lighter than stock.

I heard from a few people at a few local parts shops that VIS had retooled their hoods for the 1992-1995 Civic (probably others too) to be lighter and that they would be getting them in soon. Shortly after that a local member on H-T (118240 I think - never remember his exact SN) got the "new style" VIS hood for his hatchback. He brought it by the shop and needless to say I was impressed.

So I put a reserve on one at a local shop and waited two weeks for it's arrival.

I took my hood off of my car and drove to the shop (NEXGEN in Morrow, GA - (770)960-9731 - ask for Juan) and drove the short trip to pick up my hood and install it there.

Upon ariving I saw about 5 hoods for the 1992-1995 Civic. 4 of the "new" style hoods and one bastard "old" hood that was shipped by mistake.

We go to fit the new style hood on my car and immediately I notice that the c/f under bracing is very thck and a large potion of it on the passenger side looked to line up directly with the cam gear side of my B-Series valvecover. i also noticed that the under bracing already seemed to be coming "unglued" from the rest of the hood. The "glue" looked to be applied liberally in some spots and very sparingly in others - not good.

The weave looked awesome and the finish was amazingly smooth. I was highly impressed with their attention to detail when it came to finishing the hood.

Before lowering the hood I tried to install my washer nozzles since the hood had holes for them. Niether hole was even big enough for the nozzles! So that pissed me off since they were fucktarded enough to even have holes in the first place, but didn't even make them big enough.

So after that we lower the hood and then it happened:

BEFORE THE HOOD COULD EVEN HIT THE SAFETY LATCH CLICK, IT WAS RESTING ON MY B-SERIES VALVECOVER!!!

We forced the hood shut and it was undenable - the hood simply does not fit on a 1992-1995 Civic with a B-Series engine swap.

I waqs pissed that I had waited two weeks and drove up with no hood in hopes to drive home with my new hood, but there was no way I'd accept this piece of **** hood.

So Juan (the guy who sold me the hood) says "Let's try that one old one" and I told him no way. I told him that if I had wanted an old heavy one I'd have bought it over a year ago when I put my car together. He told me that this hood did not feel any heavier than the "new style" hood and that they had a scale to verify this.

So I stepped up onto the scale and it read 175lbs - I weigh only 160 tops. I haven't weighed 175lbs. since I stopped working out 6 days a week on creatine and a rigorous routine.

So I added the "new style" hood and it read 195lbs. So basically I know the hood is either right at 20lbs. or even less considering the scale reads heavy.

So I pick up the "old style" hood and to my amazement it read 197lbs. - only 2lbs. heavier!

WTF?

I know I had not imagined the heaviness of those old hoods, right?

Well it turns out I wasn't crazy. It seems that VIS made a "first run" of hoods which are the heavy ones. they can be identified by the fiberglass looking under skeleton with the rough backing.

They also made a "second run" of hoods which look identical to the first run, but have a smooth under skeleton. This is the hood I ended up with because it fit fine over my B-Series valvecover and doesn't rub at all.

Then they have this newest run of hoods. These are easily identified by their lack of dimples for the "H" emblem, and a 3 bar carbon fiber underbracing. They also have a bolt-on brass-looking hood latch on them as well. This is the hood that does NOT fot on a B-Series-powered Civic unless you CUT THE HOOD'S BRACING!!!

So in closing, the oldest hoods are heavier, but the newest ones don't fit B-powered Civics - WTF?

Well I took some pictures of the hood to show you guys what it looks like in terms of weave quality, fit, and finish. The car was not cleaned due to the fact that it's been raining on and off really bad here in my area for the past 3 days and I had to drive my car because my beater is still inop.

Tight weave y0!



Front view:



Side/front view:



Another:



Nice fitment with the bumper:



Another bumper/hood fitment shot:



The next 3 shots are of the fitment along the side of the hood - it's the same on the other side:







I figured I'd try to guage the fit versus an O.E steel hood on my fiancee's hatch:

Stock steel:



VIS Carbon Fiber - yep it's a little more gap, but not nearly as bad as some other aftermarket steel, fiberglass, and c/f hoods I've seen.



Left headlight fitment:



Right headlight fitment:



So let's look on the underside, shall we?



Notice the stock rubber trim piece is there? The 1st and 2nd runs are predrilled deep enough to get mostof the clips to fit in nicely. I do need to swap to smaller clips in two spots, and I had to make new holes in my trim to accomodate for some misalignment on the drilled holes in two spots too:



What about the latch?



Does it have stock-type hood prop holes? Yes it does - even the upper one which the hood is resting on in all of these pics:



Hood propped on the upper hole:



Proof that it doesn't rub the valvecover:



And a few more shots:







How'd I get that last shot?



Looks like the beater is good for something after all, eh?

Then the car got sleepy, so I put that bitch to bed:



You have to use something when you have 4 cats that love to climb on cars

So in closing I'll say that I'm pleased with the hood for sure.

It was inexpensive, weighs 20lbs. or less (depending on how off the scale was), fits great, and has a great finish.

I'll be back with more details later - I'm off to lunch!!!

CereaLand

Good info, Nice car How much did the hood cost you?

mycvc8u2

i likes man!! sometimes it is a pain on the *** to get what you REALLY want but in the end it is worth it.. right??

2000CX

JESUS your car is clean...nice hood tom

betterwind

how much for the hood?

SRT-WHORE

Sweeeeeeeeeet!!!!! Too bad that the new style didn't fit. The new VIS hood owns you, Tom!!! You don't get that bronze latch like me, hahaha!!! I need to borrow that blanket to cover my car. I still haven't got those little damn clips for my rubber trim at the edges. I'll see you a little later today after I get back on that side of town.

Fred n J_v2.0

good info to know Tom. hood/fitment look really good compared to a few others ive seen.

WAFFLES

Thanks for the heads-up Tom.

m3dia_lab

yeah, so what was the total on the hood?

ken-e

iTrader: (2)

good info

SpyderZEX

Great info as usual, Tom. I was thinking about get one of those hoods myself, but I had heard that VIS has a problem with shipping. Looks freakin' great though!

b Team

looks like im gettin my new lip from vis

slvrcivic97

Looks great!I'm very please with my BKNW hood too. Perfect fitment to say the least.

eeeeeeeek!

Nice write up. Do you think the hood needs hoodpins? I know I had to put hoodpins on my VIS hood because at high speeds the edges would come up. Looks very nice though.

owen_the_soyboy

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by WAFFLES &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks for the heads-up Tom.</TD></TR></TABLE>

cre18

thanks for the info and pic. looks like vis is the way to go for cf hoods, just hope the 96-99 models fit that good

sammysnakes

i never thought i'd see the day you put a CF hood on your EH.

i've always been impressed with the look and fitment of VIS hoods. when i first saw the new style w/ the full carbon skeleton, i was even more impressed. too bad they won't fit on a swap. thanks for the heads up.

The Destroyer

NVM, Read the Red Wrong.

Looks nice hehe, does it have holes pre drilled for the H?

ransack

nice!
car looks sick with the hood IMO

I have a ViS that I bought late last year and it fits with my bseries swap in a 96 hatch. I had several people tell me that I would have to cut my hood. but I didnt. so I suppose I could have the 2 lb more one? oh well, I payed 150 out of my pocket for it, so its all good for me

Mr. Thunderlips

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by betterwind &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how much for the hood?</TD></TR></TABLE>

You know as well as everyone else, different people get different prices. What he tells you is different than let's say what I would get it for...Just take that into consideration.

And once again Tom, you have overdone a post with too many words, and just two pictures too much.

tominos

another great write up

Apex i ITR

The old style VIS hoods hit your valve cover on the left top corner If you have a B series motor.

I sold my old style VIS for a new one......big mistkae.

I had to cut 5-7 inches out of the under bracing and I had to cut a 4 inch space out on the other side for my Comptech ice box to stop pushing the hood up (Well in the carbon fiber hoods defence it was hitting the stock hood anyway).

I like but if I had known there would be fitment issues I would have kept the old one.

B18C5-EH2

I cannot divulge what I paid for the hood, but I can assure you that if you look around the net for deals, it'd be easy to get one under $400.00 plus shipping.

I got mine local, so shipping wasn't an issue. That's why I waited two weeks. they had to order up a bunch at a time to break the shipping price way down.

Also for those that asked, it does have dimples for the "H" emblem, but not holes.

As far as hood pins go, that's a tough one. See if I ever need money in a pinch, this hood will be the first thing I sell for easy money. This is why I won't paint the hood, install hood pins (maybe), or consider putting an "H" emblem on it.

I'm thinking about hood pins though, because I'd hate to see my new windshield moldings, windshield, nice roof and pillars go to **** because I was too lazy to have pins put in.

A few questions:

Who sells black hood pins that are the locking type? I'd like to have the key-lockable pins if possible, and I don't want the silver type.

I'm also not wanting to have the pins installed into my core support either, because it's just too easy to **** to mess that up.

Thoughts?

CoolKat

very nice hood indeed.
fitment looks superb(sp?)

i was wondering how you took the last picture but then i saw you mention teh beater...lol

Trey

I've had my "cheap" TCSpoilers hood for three years and no pins. No problems so far. Your's is heavier so I dunno, might need them. Pics looks sweet too, bout time. :D