so recently.. my aging lude just sits in my house and one of my family members (won't be calling out names) decided to back their car into my lude resulting in a messed up front lude. so here are my options as far as i can see for now!! get a carbon fiber oem styled hood or get a replacement hood and paint it to specs! i want to know what you guys think and what would be the best route? give me some pros and cons regarding about carbon fiber. As for pricing.. Im not too bothered by it, but when i factor in paint for a fresh steel hood, the value comes out close if not more than that of a carbon fiber hood!!! shoot away gentlemen... and ladies if there are any

 

get the carbon fiber and paint match that to oem color code. Functional and you dont stick out.

 

good option.. i don't have enough money to do all of that yet.. so probably going with carbon fiber hood... and most likely paint it later... any other suggestions ??? and comments ?

 

ohh.. i also have another question.. i was speaking to a VIS and seibon representative today... and they both recommended me adding safety pins on their hoods.. now i dunno much but anyone who has carbon fiber hoods.. is it necessary or are they doing it for legal/liability reasons?

 

Its for saftey, do not run a cf hood without the pins. It locks it down so it doesn't lift off and crack/fly off/whatever when driving at high speed..

 

1st question you should ask yourself is how much do I have to spend then go from there. which is the 1st question I am asking you to give you a proper response.

 

i was able to wait it out and found one on Craigslist that was the exact color...

 

Go for the carbonfiber with pins

 

thanks for your feedback guys!! much appreciated... i have done some researching and here is what i came up with similar costs and Im just having problems making up my mind so...

for lugzilla... I am well aware that it is for safety so that the hood doesn't fly off, crack, wtever during high speeds. My question is how many people are running out there with just the latch and dont have issues? cuz honestly... if i dont have to i dont want to be drilling holes into carbon fiber... ya know? is there anyone out there that can testify that they have been fine with only the latches? is there any statistics on this? Cus when companies tell me that it is recommended, I feel like they are telling me to install hood pins to minimize liability issues that they may potentially face. I've seen carbon fiber hoods without the hood pins... it's just that i want to know how reliable they are? i mean if they fail after 25 years or something.. im just not going to install hood pins... but if they fail after 25 days... u bet i am going to install that ****. so if anyone honestly knows out of personal experience and possibly seeing other peoples hoods... please let me know... thanks !!!

answer for crazes: i may have forgot to mention the actual cost of it, but i was quoted by two different places for around 4-500 dollars if I were to get a replacement hood (lower than oe quality IMO) + a paint job/paint match... and ive been finding carbon fiber hoods shipped online for around 500 bux or what not.. so the price right now isn't too much of a deal breaker for me...

question for Phunter: how long did u have to wait till you got the hood that u wanted and for how much if you dont mind me asking ?

 

Over the last 15 or so years I've had 3 cars with carbon fiber hoods (GTI MKIV, Civic and an E36 M3)...none of which were secured with pins. None of them ever had any problems. The bimmer got hood pins only after I was required to do so for track use. Is it safer? Unquestionably, but I've never found them to be necessary for road use.