My girlfriend and some friends just bought me a cf hood for my birthday a few weeks ago. I have hesitated to put it on my 94 GSR just because i have heard stories of hood flying up on the freeway or at high speeds. I'm curious as to find out if this is a myth, or if it is true. My other friend just bought me hood locks, so that will definately give me some security.....question is, do you guys think it'll be safe for me to drive around..city/freeway...aprox 0-85mph.....w/o the hood locks in the mean time? Your response is greatly appreciated.....

thanks
-J

 

who makes it?

 

my buddy just got one on his 99 gsr and hasnt had any problems with it

 

i think it depends on the brand, some will be fine, some won't... be safe and wait for the hood locks

 

Dont let the brand fool you, I had a vis cf double sided hood on my 97 teg and going 65 on the freeway the fuking hood latch gave way and the hood flipped off, damaged my roof right in front of the sunroof. The crap part is that was the 2nd time it happened to me. The first time it was with a fiberglass hood. Best thing to do IMO is if you are going 60ish+ and you can see the hood move you need hood pins or a better installation

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by black_cap &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dont let the brand fool you, I had a vis cf double sided hood on my 97 teg and going 65 on the freeway the fuking hood latch gave way and the hood flipped off, damaged my roof right in front of the sunroof. The crap part is that was the 2nd time it happened to me. The first time it was with a fiberglass hood. Best thing to do IMO is if you are going 60ish+ and you can see the hood move you need hood pins or a better installation</TD></TR></TABLE>

exactly the kind of feedback i was looking for...thanks!

As for the brand....my friend has a sponsorship through a shop in santa cruz....they hooked him up w/ a cf hood, and he hooked me up w/ the same brand cf hood..but he has no clue what brand it is. The hood latch came seperate, but it came w/ 6 good size screws to hold down the hood latch..just not sure if i trust it going at high speeds.......

 

i got hood locks on my CF hood just for the same reason. just a lil peice of mind. on my g/f's teg we didnt get hood locks. went 120mph+ and the hood didnt move one bit. just depends on you tho.

if you wanna compare click my sig for both cars!

 

What happens if you get in an accident? I've heard that the hood will not bend and it will just cut your head off...is this just a bunch of bs?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by redGSRguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What happens if you get in an accident? I've heard that the hood will not bend and it will just cut your head off...is this just a bunch of bs?</TD></TR></TABLE>

i call bs.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by redGSRguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What happens if you get in an accident? I've heard that the hood will not bend and it will just cut your head off...is this just a bunch of bs?</TD></TR></TABLE>

No CF is suppose to splinter off as an additional safety feature (Low tinsel strength).

Like CF Drive Shafts for RWD's they're suppose to splinter and snap in half in case of an accident, so it doesn't pull-vault the car or worst impale the driver.

 

i got a fiber images on my 94 gsr. ive been up to 90 mph without any shaking whatsoever. so i think ill be staying hoodpin free. :

 

i had a no brand hood went 140mph+ all the time never popped up had the 6 bolt pattern too........you should be fine i honestly don't like hood pins too aggressive......only time i had hte problem of hood smackin my windshield and dented my roof was after my light frontal accident my hood latch broke i tried to hold it down with tape......hella of it too......went like 75mph and that thing smack my windshield so hard my freaking rear view hit the back seats........but lucky the otehr person insurance covered for it....


my advice is with the latch actually mounts too the 6 bolt pattern piece of metal reinforce the welds when i got hit that thing broke clean its only held together with a tad of weld so once u reinforce that you should be good to go.....

hopefully this helps you

 

thank you all for your responses......i really dont like the hood pin/lock look...think it ruins the hood....but i need to have it for security purposes...people trying to jack my car all the time...now w/ a cf hood, they'll try even harder.

as for:
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by redGSRguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What happens if you get in an accident? I've heard that the hood will not bend and it will just cut your head off...is this just a bunch of bs?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I think if you do a search in the archived threads, I made a topic about this because my uncle told me something about this..i wanted to find out if it was true or not. I think it was posted in the ITR forum or this teg forum...not sure, but everyone said its NOT TRUE.........people even posted pictures of their accidents w/ cf hoods...pretty amazing if you ask me. Saved some of the people's front ends.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by redGSRguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What happens if you get in an accident? I've heard that the hood will not bend and it will just cut your head off...is this just a bunch of bs?</TD></TR></TABLE>

WOW.......

 

really hard to say.... my friend has a prelude (5th gen) and with a vis hood that's pretty heavy duty supposedly, yet it flew up on him while he was driving without hood locks.

now i had a cf hood on my prelude (5th gen also) for the longest time with no hood pins and it wasn't that heavy, a lot lighter than the vis and quality not nearly as good and it's never flown up on me....so be safe...use hood pins..better yet...use hood locks. Good luck

edit: btw...this is iLUVmySH

 

yeah it can..you need to get hood pins that lock

 

Well I've had my Fiber Images carbon fiber hood for a good 6 months now. I had it on for about 2 months before i had time to install the stock weather stripping and bumpers. They make a HUGE difference. Fiber images hoods are really light so they do flap around when driving (quite scary). After I installed the stripping and bumpers most if not all the vibrating was eliminated. I am NOT running hood pins, and am pretty confident (for now). When i didnt have the weather stripping and bumpers was scared everytime i drove my car on the freeway. I do 60 mile trips at 90+ everyweekend and my hood is fine! All in all it really depends on the company and how they hold down the latch. If the latch is of good quality and you eliminate as much wind as possible from getting under the hood (with the weather stipping), you should be good!

 

It's not always just the latch, but also the overall construction and structural integrity of the hood. Our CF hoods have a strong structrual integrity so they do not "flutter" or lift at high speeds, and that's on Civics where the front of the hood gets all of the wind. We've had other hoods that are lighter or have different construction and the sides start to lift up on the freeway. On a DC Integra, the bumper comes up more, keeping the wind resistance on the hood even less as it's not directly infront of the car like a Civic. As for your particular hood, can't say, but all hoods are constructed differently so some can withstand getting away w/out hood pins/locks and some are going to need it. I'm not saying that we guarantee our hoods do not need locks/pins.... they don't, but we always recommend the use of them for extra assurance.

 

Good topic. I had this fear too, as looking into a CF hood in the spring, but dislike the look of pins on my application. Also heard of that "people's head getting cut off in an accident", and curious about it's validity.

 

Ive got a VIS hood on my 95, really high quality hood but it would lift the corners at high speeds (if you figure wind and ground speed I was going well into the 120mph area), scared the crap out of me so I installed a set of sparco pins... its rock solid now.

 

this is all y they recommend getting hood pins if ur skeptical about just go and buy them better safe then sorry
i also have a question about cf hoods i would like to get one b/c mine is all fucked up with hairline scratches and chips due to road debris and a hood will b cheaper than repainting it. my question is i have an alarm with a hood pin and im kinda scared drilling into the hood b/c knowing my luck ill freakin split it trying to drill. anybody have a hood pin on their cf hood?

 

I had a fiberglass hood on my integra for over 100k miles, no hood pins. then I noticed that it was starting to split up front, so I put on some hood pins.

do not sweat the hood pins, just keep a close eye on where the hood latch is, and keep an eye on the front seam. I mean, every time you gas it up, pop the hood and look at it.

but put the hood pins on asap, for security and so you don't have to look at that stuff every time.

 

for all of you guys that say if it shakes, or not.

regardless of whether it shakes or not, the forces acting on the hood are the same in any teg. always do as I have written above, for your own safety and for the safety of others on the freeways.

 

GunMETAL_TEgRa:
went like 75mph and that thing smack my windshield so hard my freaking rear view hit the back seats

This is, without a doubt, one of the funniest lines ever

 

yes, the forces are the same but the materials are different...just get the hood pins and have done...

if you use sparco pins, install the pins about 2.5-3 inches up and put a dab of grease on the very tips, lower the hood untill it contacts

using a fairly small bit drill through NOT perpendicular to the top of the hood... try to visualize the path the pins would take going through the hood and drill by that

the first hole should go all the way through, then hog out the lower layer of hood using larger and larger drill bits untill the pin goes through and actually touches the CF top layer... be careful not to drill all the way through.

look through the first hole (I suggest about 1/8th its big enough to see through but if you bork it then it will probably be covered by the pin plate) find the pin (if you are luck or good like I am, the top of your pin will be sitting right under the hole) remember that as you shut the hood the bottom hole needs to get bigger and the top hole needs to end further back... keep hogging **** out untill the hood closes with no restrictions

set the bolt height so that you can put the plate on and EASILY put the pin in if you have to push down you are going to crack your hood, the idea is to allow a little movement but not a lot

once you are happy with the alignment of the pins drill three small holes and use POP RIVETS!!! go to a hardware store and pick up the rivets and a gun, you will thank yourself later... and if you do it right it snaps the little thing off so you dont have to cut and grind...

the third hole between the guides is a bitch, just drill a really small hole and use a small screw

and presto hood pins...

PS I still use my stock latch system with the pins, just like everyone I know