Hi,

Looking at the Seibon and VIS Carbon Fiber hood for the 2011 Clubman S.
Leaning toward the DTM Carbon Fiber Hood by VIS, The question is does anyone on this forum have a carbon fiber hood? Is it as easy as replacing all the hardware from the original hood and putting them onto the carbon fiber hood? And anything else I should be aware of with a carbon fiber hood. http://bit.ly/yNUFME

Thank you

 

Wha?! Why no 07-08 option?! I'd be all over that!

Assuming the hood is reinforced in all the right places it shouldn't be a problem. I've had my stock hood on and off a few times for custom paint stuff and it wasn't too difficult. No special tools needed either. Just keep track of all the little clips and whatnot as well as hood alignment.

 

Thank you for your input

 

Not sure how the headlight trim rings are held in on the 09 and up cars, but if it's anything like the 08's then I would pick a couple of those clips up from the dealer.

They get lost/broken easily lol.

 

All I know about hoods from other cars is that you might want to have at least 1 to 3 more coats of clear sprayed on to help protect it better. If you park out side invest in a car cover. The carbon fiber has a tendency to de-laminate if not properly taken care of.

 

Very good point, a good double coat of a high end urethane clear coat is a must for carbon fiber goodies that see the weather/UV.

That's professional grade clear coat...not spray cans.

All the shop should have to do is clean it, scuff it, clear it...unless there are crazy dimples and imperfections in it...then they'd have to clear it, wet sand it, clear it, wet sand it...to fill the imperfections in. Plus ideally wet sand and buff it after they finish.

 

WOW great info. This is turning into a MUST READ for everyone interested in adding Exterior Carbon Fiber Products.
Thanks everyone

 

I know gen1 cf hoods and noots tended to be problematic....
The fit/finish on them was always just ok....took lots of time to get them to fit, since they are usually flexible....ignation noise and grounding issues were other items to watch for....remember, with a metal hood, it acts like a big radio frequency shield if grounded...with cf, no such luck.
Great for a race car, neat look, but most decided as a drily driver, it was high mx. Keep your old hood, so you can go back if yoi need too..
Heat around the turbo on gen2 cars is an issue....might worry about it, so maybe an extra shield would be good. Good luck, be sure to post pics!!

 

That is almost on all lower end cars. If you had something like a Corvette, Viper, GTR, or better you would have no issue. Mostly you wouldn't have an issue because you would be spending the big bucks on that kind of stuff. But when you are spending a couple of hundred dollars you are only going to get
a mediocre product.

 

Back in 03 we tried to find a suitable shop to create a decent hood and just never found one. The mini hood is a very complex unit shape wise and compounding that was with the first gen you were also mounting the headlights . We finally gave up on the project when we could not find anyone in So. Cal that could make a suitable product. We had several prototypes made and when you tried to go to production more than half were rejected; The main issue you will have to deal with is fitment and secondly finish. I have not seen a CF hood yet, whether it was from VIS or Seibon that did not look like it was still partially open from the front. The gaps on the sides and lower front are just un acceptable. If you are doing this for weight reduction you might find the difference to not be that big as the aluminum stock hood is surprisingly light . Good luck with your search and I would strongly suggest seeing one in person for your own approval before purchasing.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

I think UKSUV has one on his R50, if I recall.

 

So, I was thinking of doing this just for the looks and giving it a unique look.
With all the recommendations from the post I think I may look into other mods. I was looking to purchase the carbon fiber scoop from duell.jp until I got the price. For $150 more I was able to purchase an entire carbon fiber hood from VIS. The fitment and the finish is everything to me. Maybe I will just go for the duell.jp carbon fiber hood scoop. Bottomline. This is my wife's car and someone from my neck of the woods just purchased a CLubman S (same color) with very similar specs as her's. Every time she see's the car, she claims that the person is adding mods like her's. So she comes home and screams, "DO SOMETHING!!!"

 

Yeah are we talking 1st gen or 2nd gen?

 

2011 Clubman S for me so second gen

 

If you're just after the look why not wrap it in carbon fiber vinyl?

 

hi,

because it looks too fake. I would use the vinyl for the matte black look but not for the Carbon look.

 

Yeah the 2nd gen you don't have to worry about headlight mount issues like the 1st gen. You just have to worry about the ring mounting.

 

?

 

What is your basis for light? 40lbs 45lbs because that is heavy.

 

My bad I ment steel . I dont know what the thickness was but it is on the thin side. Didn't take much at all to cut a hole in it . We had mine off several times and i had expected it to me much heavier than it was .

randy

 

I would be curious to see how much it actually weighed. With the lamps mounted as in the first gen it might be that heavy but I don't recall it being that way, but it was a long time ago. The CF hoods were not as light as you may think as the internal structure to keep the proper shape adds a good bit. Its been over ten years for the first gen and you would thing there must be someone who has actually mounted one of these around here somewhere to give us the specifics.

Randy

 

I'm agreeing with Randy here. I bought a Siebon hood for my 1st gen S, and when I ordered it WAY was verry up front saying that not many of them fit verry nicely. I bought it anyhow, payed the outragous shipping but, I didnt care I was in the middle of Iraq with 6 monts to go before I would get to even see it.

At first it looked decent at best. Then I started trying to see how everything would fit. Guess what NOTHING FIT! The hole for the front grille was over a quarter inch too small, the framework was CRAP, if you set the POS on a flat surface you can see it is warped, and the carbon layover (Yes there is only ONE layer of carbon over an eighth of an inch of fiberglass) pretty much SUCKED around the edges.

I tried getting it good enough to actually use but gave up it's just a worthless $700.00 MISTAKE! (WAY you can say I told you so.) One that I wouldnt make again, but I can atleast share my firsthand knowledge to deter people from making the same one.

Do NOT buy low quality CF parts. SiEBON and ViS are the worst! If you are dead set on it, pay the rediculas price for a quality pice. I think Duel has one for the R56 but it is verry costly and shipping from Japan pretty much doubles the price.

(In case anybody is wondering the POS Siebon hood for the R53 is a whopping 7 pounds lighter than the factory 20 gauge steel! NOT even worth it for weight savings.)

 

I have heard with the 1st gen that if you take out the structual support out of the hood it is as light or lighter then a CF hood. I don't about the 2nd gen though.

 

Make sure you shop around on that hood. Quick search showed it for 1227 shipped. Goos bit cheaper than the link you posted