yes

 

manntis....are you shipping from canada? if not could you? im so sick of paying duty.

 

yes! I'd want a vent upon purchase, if possible.

I was trying to think how I'd approach the hardware vent if not included as a purchase option. I was thinking that I'd have to use some sort of grill mesh found in speed shops (Advance Auto, Pep Boys, etc.) and cut it to custom fit into some sort of frame/border-trim insert; then, have a local body shop do the finish trim insert.
Also, I suppose a fine expanded metal mesh (chromed or painted gloss black)would work; similar to the material that GrillCraft uses (sold by PerformanceProducts.com) How would we fasten it, though, without it looking tacky. That is a great hood design, and I'd hate to screw it up with a tacky-looking "home-made" vent hardware insert. I could certainly do a CAD drawing for such an insert and get a metal-fabricator to do something; however, it would be trial and error.
Anyone have any ideas?

 

how much?

 

For the hood? $299 FRP or $499 CF. For the inserts? Dunno yet - probably around $75 for formed inserts, but that's before I've nailed down costs.

 

Whats the weight savings between stock, fiber and carbon?

 

Won't know until we're pulling finished ones out of the moulds and assembling them, but as I've said in previous threads these are being made for aesthetic and cooling purposes, not weight savings. There are thinner hoods that use hood pins, with no substructure, that will save more weight than these will. That said, the stock hood isn't terribly heavy.

 

the whole reason for composites is to save weight. i don't understand why your construction will be so heavy. why not just take the carbon cloth and resin it on a stock steel hood if you want the carbon look. but just wait untill you have your guy
start putting together the pieces. you know you don't have to make a buck to make the mould(s) cast it from a metal hood.. oh wait.. i get it never mind. as you were soldier.

 

woah - I didn't say it was going to be heavy, I said the stock one isn't terribly heavy. And I don't know what the final weight of the vented hood is until it's finally made.

In this case, the reason for composits is because it would cost me a fotune to make dies to stamp steel with these vents in them. Some people like the CF look so they'll be made available with top layers of CF instead of FRP.

I'm emphasizing that it's not for weight savings because
(a) with a full substructure it'll be more rigid than the 'race' FRP ones, but heavier, and
(b) With metal inserts for stock hood hinges, latch, and prop rod it's again heavier than a 'race' one that uses hood pins.

Point is, if you want to save significant weight with your car replacing your hood with a fibreglass one but expecting the hood latch to still hold, the hinges to still work, and not have the thing flop around at speed is asking quite a bit. There are better ways to save weight. I've designed this hood for better cooling, not to shave substantial weight.

 

...okay, we had a meeting about pre-cut vents.

What it comes down to is as an option we can pre-cut and sand the vent openings and integrate metal mesh in there. It'll run about $40 above the cost of the hood itself.

So
$299.00 = bolt-on hood, cut and style your own openings or
$339.00 = bolt-on hood only needing paint.

 

sounds awesome, when you say ready to paint, do you meant scuff and spray? Or will skim coating be nessesary to fill in any little bubbles that will inevitably show up with fiberglass. Just wondering what level of prep will be done. Also, with the pre cut vent one, will the entire opening be cut out or just part (I assume all).

 

The answer is... most. We'll leave a 3/8" lip around the opening to provide more rigidity to the form and a good anchor for the mesh.

 

I WANT ONE IN CF!!!! (of course that is after i lease my body to science for a medical study that pays in december...)

 

CF is gonna look sweeeet. Today we had it in just flat black and it made me drool.

 

Mantis, I'm afraid to have to correct you, I tried the same design on some old hoods, but it won't fit because of the triangular RB strutbar I got in my car. The strutbar is so close to the frame of the hood, there's no room left for the vent to come under the hood-frame .
That's proberly why RB did put some small rubber spikes on some places of the strutbar...

Bummer ..... I would have ordered one from you, the hood is really reflecting your time and efforts you have put into the designing....

I don't know all the strutbars availeble for first gen's, but many I have seen are placed lower than the RB 3 way strutbar, so i think you're right about the fitting the hood with a strutbar in common...

Well, you can't always make everybody happy...

keep up the good work!

 

As I said, it's a 1/2" dip - only about 1" long before the vents retreat up into the thickness of the hood. If the strut bar is within that inch, there'll be fitment problems but the dip is quite far forward, almost at the rad shroud.

 

I would gladly tested it on a Trianglulated RB Strut Tower equipped SE for free!

 

Any chance one of these hoods making it to Sevenstock so we could see it first hand?

 

Thanks for the measuremets Mantis, I will measure it with the old hood I have. I maybe ordering a hood after all if i find it might fit.
I assume the fiberglasshood is the same thick as stock?

 

id really like to see it on a car. and see down the vents and see how close it is to the rad. and stuff.

 

Got extra paint from my new paint job.... got a car that's DYING for sweet vents.... Hurry up!!! LOL

Dan

 

almost there... hopefully you'll find it worth the wait

 

yea I know i'm gonna have paint left over on my project car, I want one, but I'm a little concerned about snow as this will be a year round car. I know rain won't be a problem, but what about snow and ice getting in there? any thoughts?

 

Snow isn't a problem on other cars with larger, more horizontal vent openings (for example, the one on the hood of my Daytona, my winter beater) Snow tends to sit on the vent then, when I start driving, engine heat venting up melts through it.

 

yea I guess the snow would tend to collect on the metal mesh rather than piling up in the engine bay. How find a mesh do you plan on using? Seems like the finer the better to me, just my $.02