Steel VS. Aluminum Hood?
 

How can you tell if your car has the steel hood or the aluminum hood?

The steel one weighs way more....

--Alex

lol very funny- I know that, but were specific models made with the steel hood versus the aluminum hood, because my hood feels a little heavier than i think it should.

magnet? haha

I used to have a steel hood, but now I have an aluminum. It's a pretty significant difference in weight.

I'm just curious because i might change my hood to aluminum if its steel, or fiberglass, or even carbon fiber- i want something that vents well and lightens up the car, if its worth it

on a similar note does anyone know why some TII's came with a steel hood and why some came with a aluminun hood?my freind has a 87 and so do i and mine is steel and his is aluminum??

If a magnet sticks to it, it is steel. If not, then it is aluminum.

On topic. Are there any good places to buy aftermarket hoods?

Maybe later in the year of 1987 they realized that steel wasn't cutting it... aluminum was way lighter and more sporty or something. Just a guess. Don't quote me on that.

As far as I can tell, it was pretty much random as far as what the hood was made of. For aftermarket hoods, it depends on what you want to spend. I think there's a group buy or two for aftermarket hoods going on right now, check the GB section. Be warned, they can be very expensive.

carbon fiber hood makes barely any difference in weight.

if u really want weight difference wid carbon fiber, u gotta get carbon fiber fenders, front bumper THEN it will make a difference.

cf hood is more for show than performance.

-jimmy

I dont think front bumpers will make much difference, as they are already quite light, but I could see the fenders helping.

well, a carbon fiber hood will make a nice difference in comparison to the steel hood :) but if you already have an aluminum one, forget about it. stick with what you got WOOT!

you have a steel hood

Aluminum hoods have rivets instead of welds and weigh about 20 lbs. If you want an aluminum one go to a scrapyard and find one, don't say it's aluminum though, I got mine for like $50, ridiculously cheap, totally undamaged.

you used to be able to buy aftermarket TII hoods, they were steel.

Yeah, the cheapie replacements.

once upon a time parts cars were not plentifull, damaged your hood and a $150 aftermarket hood looked good next to a $900 aluminum one

I would still rather have a perfect steel hood then a banged up aluminum one!

aluminum hoods weigh about 32 lbs, while steel hoods weight about 52 lbs (including factory paint, stickers, scoop and nuts to hold scoop, not including liners or hinges).

You post an "about" weight, and say it includes stickers? They can't weigh more than a few ounces.
Sorry, just giving you a hard time.
Seriously, though, even though it doesn't sound like much, that 20 lbs makes a major difference. I can take the aluminum hood off my car without much problem, but it was a bear getting the steel hood of the car I'm parting out.

Ted weighed the steel one as I recall with that stuff so I included them so that no one would be anal and say, "Oh my hood weighs less, because I don't have..."

and maybe you need to get to the gym, because I don't have that much trouble lifting either.:)

Its not the weight, its the combination of weight and size. Its kinda an akward weight to lift it. Its not that I can't, its just noticable more difficult. It also probably didn't help that it was pretty crunched up, which made it even more akward to lift.

Not to be a grammar Nazi. Id just like to say that barely any difference would be a couple of ounces, aluminums Atomic Mass is 29.2 AMU while Carbon Fibers mass is less than half that at 12.017 AMU. Also saying if you really want a weight difference “WITH” carbon fiber “YOU” would have to get fenders and a front bumper is true but also a farce. Mainly because that would be saving about 200 LBS on the front end alone, while replacing an aluminum hood with paints with a carbon fiber hood depending on maker you can save 10 lbs, witch is a lot of weight to someone who is trying to save it.

Also size and weight of the car is a nice variable, youd be trying to keep weight on the rear and front as even as possible for autocross. Mainly keeping your steering radius as tight as possible.


Seeing as this is the “Technical” forum lets try to save the AIM Jabber for AIM and use real words instead of trying to figure out everyone’s way of saying you and with.

- Pete

While carbon fiber is lighter than aluminum, it has to have extra bracing for stiffness that adds to the weight. I think 10 lbs is probably a reasonable figure for weight savings. To me, 10 lbs is a damn small weight savings for how much a CF hood costs. You can easily make that up just by going on a diet.

What? Carbon fiber is a much stiffer material than alluminum. Even standard modulus carbon is stiffer than high quality steel.

Rocket: Carbon fiber doesn't HAVE an atomic weight. Pure (elemental) carbon does, but carbon fiber is a polymer. In any case, molecular stucture has such a large bearing on material density that atomic weight is fairly irrelevant for our uses.

--Alex

The biggest factor for me is that a carbon hood costs 100's of dollars, and an alluminum one costs $50. With carbon being many orders of magnitude more expensive than alluminum, it doesn't really make sense to me.

--Alex