Which Carbonfiber Hood to get?
 

Hey guys im looking to get a carbon fiber hood but it seems like there are two choices. ViS and SEIBON. I have a few questions though.

Which company is better?
Which one doesnt have the moded scoop(i want a different scoop)?
Know of any vendors with low prices?
Hows the install? Do i have to cut or sand any carbon fiber =/?

Thanks guys. And yes ill be painting it!!!

I prefer ViS.. just about everyone I know with CF on a mini is running ViS as well. ViS does come with a removable scoop (which you can easily sell:wink: ) As for the install, you do not have to cut or sand any CF, rather you might have to dremel out a few holes for mounting the headlights and grill, but its all into the underbody of the hood.. PM me for details on where to get a hood.

Let me give my input on this

Anybody who knows me and my car, knows how bad my hood is.

I have a ViS hood and that crap sucks. Its not even close to fitting right. The shape just seems to be wrong. It lines up in some spots and sticks out in other. The holes were all in the wrong places. The headlight openings are too small, the grill area is all wavy (Which results in my grill being held on by zip ties,) the latches dont line up right (theres a technique to closing my hood,) and theres a pretty decent gap between the hood and the front bumper.

Before anyone starts chiming in with "blah blah blah you need to adjust it." It ahs been adjusted. Its as good as its gonna get.

That being said, it looks fine from 15ft away, but once you get close you can see how bad it is. I prefer it over my stock hood any day.

I know several other people who have had bad experience with ViS so if I had to pick one, Id go Seibon. Thats probably just as bad though. The MINI hood is a pretty intricate one so its (obviously) pretty hard to make out of carbon fiber.

If you wanna see pics of just how bad my hood is, I'll snap some for you in the morning.

I might just add that its not necessarily the company at fault as it is a VERY tricky hood to duplicate. Combine the complex shape of the hood as well as providing mounting points for the lights and their accompanying systems and the latch locks and there is a lot going on. This isn't some relatively flat civic hood that anyone can knock out easily. Back in 02 we had a company making hoods for us for a brief time . I say brief as in the first 10 they produced 2 were barely acceptable and we just did not want to pass those issues on to the consumer . They all required a good body shop to get them anywhere close to fitting properly. I still look at he CF hoods I see out there and to me they almost all look like the hood isn't all the way closed from the front as well as many having larger than stock gaps at the fender lines . Believe me i really wanted them to work from both a personal as well as business stand point but we gave up on it . Buyer beware .


Randy
M7 Tuning

Thats exactly the problem. Its a difficult to duplicate hood. The short story with my hood is that it's just the wrong shape. It fits like it was made for a different car.

If my car was a show car or a demo car, I wouldnt be running the CF, but for a regular street car, Im happy with it.

i agree with the above posts 100%. i will be making my own cf hood for the racecar. if you are going to paint the hood, material can be added or removed to improve the fit and reinforcements glassed in to improve shape. a lot of work required for a fairly expensive product.

Thats another hang up I have

You'd think that for almost a G, you'd get a better product.

Thanks for all the info. So the ViS is basically luck of the draw. Hope someone with a Seibon hood sees this and posts their thoughts! Does anyone know if the Seibon's hood scoop is removable?

Why get a CF hood just to paint over it?

I'll sell you a Seibon, that's what we prefer as they seem to fit better.

I've always liked the idea of a CF hood, CF doors, and CF hatch, all painted to reduce weight for a sleeper. You could get away with an artistic paint scheme for the hood where you cover the 'fixed' parts with paint (a well thought out design of course, like AZblackOUT's hood) and only show some of the CF where it is undamaged.

That's all out of my price range, but good luck to you on finding a hood!

That is actually what im doing, im leaving the middle (inbetween where the two mini stripes would be) carbon fiber and painting the outsides BRG to match the car.

Whats your price? Thanks

I have seen two examples of a ViS hood in person...1 being AZBlackOUT's, which looked pretty nice to me, both in fitment and quality, and certainly was lighter than the stock hood.

The other one I've seen though looked like complete crap...and admittedly so by the owner of it as well.

Seibon makes some nice stuff for other cars, I'd give them a whirl if you have your heart set on getting a CF hood. Both ViS and Seibon are wet-lay carbon...which is inferior to true dry carbon. Granted its about 3 times cheaper though. But...you get what you pay for in the end. :nod:

There are some companies out there which will make you a custom carbon hood...all it takes is some $$$$.

I'm curious, exactly how much lighter it actually is over oem?
Has anyone weighed both to compare?

It aint all that much.....that's why I asked. Not sure why someone would go that route just to cover it up?

In my opinion the shape of the hood itself is why most people would like to cover at least some part of it . The direction of the gap on each side of the fenders is all wrong aesthetically. If it was sloping the opposite direction it would flow a lot better . My plan was to paint the majority of the hood body color and the leave the center raised " spear ", if you will, clear carbon . I've seen a couple of cars where they left stripes or other designs clear CF and the rest body color and it can look pretty sharp. I would never paint it entirely as I would like it some what apparent that a mod had been made .

Randy
M7 Tuning

I had heard 20lbs, or 30lbs less. I forget which one.

Im almost positive the CF hood is only 9lbs lighter than stock.

I know it aint much once the lights have been removed.

I've done some searching and i still cant find anyone whose tried Seibon. Just people saying dont get it and not backing it up. Im trying to get prices on Seibon's stuff from my friends carbon fiber "guy". He might be able to get a discount. I think im going to go with the best price at this point.

I have put a few Seibon and VIS parts on cars...frankly, the fit of just about all VIS and Seibon parts is 5' material. As in, they look good from 5' and get progressively worse as you get close to them. You can make them work and look fantastic if you have a ton of spare time and some knowledge with body/fibre work.

Remember that most of these parts are made for race cars where factory finish is just not that important. It's hard fitting body panels right to begin with, add poor fitment and finish and there is almost no hope of getting them to line up right.

Well i bought ViS and there still in the shop getting painted and vlear coated ill let you knnow how it goes.

i bought VIS after hitting a deer and had the outsides painted leaving a tapered stripe up the middle, the fitment is not that great though gaps on either side of the bumper and the gaps at the fenders are a bit larger than stock.
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...h_P4080204.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...h_P4080203.jpg

I put a Seibon hood on the scale this week and with the carbon hood scoop it comes with it was only 22lbs.