I figured I'd pass this information along to those who were looking into picking up a carbon fiber hatch.

Both were weighed without the rear glass in place, no harness installed and then rounded to the nearest pound.

Stock Hatch with wiper motor:
25lbs

jdmshit hatch w/ wiper delete:
16lbs

There was a total of 9lb savings switching to the carbon fiber hatch.

Onto the issue of fitment

Exterior:
I'd say it wasn't the best fitting carbon fiber piece I've owned. After a lot of pulling and pushing -- the car I took my bodyshop to finally got it to line up rather decent. Not 100%, but a lot better than what it initially looked like. The license plate holes do not line up either.

Interior:
Even worse. The interior pieces that clip into the hatch had 0% chance of fitting and lining up without modification. I wasn't about to start cutting into the hatch so I toyed with the plastic pieces. The two outside clips on the side panels for the hatch lined up fine, the two inside clips did not. I broke those off, and had to grind the outside of the plastic just to get it to clip in.

Harness install:
Again, very frustrating. The inside portion where you pull the harness through has next to no clearance. To have any chance of fitting the harness through I had to go through the entire harness. I eliminated any wires that went with the wiper motor since this hatch deletes the rear wiper. I then had to extend and tape the harness really tight in attempts to make it as skinny as possible.

Note: To those who are looking into the same hatch I found it a lot easier to pull the harness through the top (area near the wing) going in with the license plate light plugs, etc. Yes, theres more plugs on that side, but they're smaller, you can separate them and pull them through easier. The two plugs that go to the interior harness will not both fit through the hole on the hatch at the same time.

Overall, I would not recommend this particular carbon fiber hatch. I cannot speak for other companies, but I was not pleased with the process or fitment required for this hatch. I am more than happy with the appearance of the hatch, but it will never justify the time or money spent when there are a lot of other things out there for an EK.

UPDATE:
For those asking, the wiper motor weighs 2lbs.. digital scale, varied between 2.2 to 2.0lbs.

 

Good info thanks

 

good info

 

Very well written. Photos would have been nice.

 

good unbiased info... didnt even save 10lbs, damn.

 

Good info, but I would also like to know for reference how much just the wiper motor weighs as that would further decrease the benefits seen from this weight reduction.

 

Thumbs Up good review.

 

Knowing the weight of the wiper motor would be good, can you weigh it and get back to us?

 

With "****" in a name, I wouldn't expect much as far as quality goes.

But, thanks for the review and comparison. As stated, pictures would have been cool.

 

Updated with wiper motor information.

 

if only i had money for a cf trunk..

 

Thank you kindly for the great info.
So:
Cx hatch = 23lbs. ---------------------7lbs over CF
Dx hatch = 25lbs. (w/ wiper motor)-----9lbs over CF

Pardon my ignorance but how much do the CF hoods typically save? (Just to get this all in one thread)

 

Excellent review! I am not too familiar with "jdm ****" as a company, but I can tell you this: most of the carbon fiber companies out there, and keep in mind I said "most", make their parts out of fiberglass(wet lay at that) and simply overlay the part with carbon fiber. This makes for a much heavier part due to the in-ability to achieve a low resin/fiber ratio, not to mention the extra material that is involved. Buy a higher quality hatch and the weight will be much lower. Vacuum infused parts always have the lowest resin/fiber ratio(not including dry carbon parts). When I worked at Composites Fab (before **** went down and I, with many others, were screwed)we were able to make a full frame dc2 hood weigh 9.8 lbs.(with the latch and mount brackets that weighed over a pound themselves)
That is a less than 1lb/sq.ft. Race hoods were even lighter. Approaching 6lbs. All in all, just buy a quality part and you will be happy with the reduction and the fitment.