junt

Is their any practical reason to get a carbon fiber hood over a fiber glass hood?

Import Convert

The stock hood is aluminum. That is good enough for me. However, CF is more durable and lighter than FG.

RotaryKnight

No big difference...FG is easier to work with thus more interesting hoods are usually made. Actually depending on who and how it is made FG can be more rigid and lighter tnat a CF hood.

Only down side I can see to CF is getting in head on collision and a sheet of unbreakable CF coming at you like a blade and decapitating your ***. Just a thought.....been curious to see that happen to a Honda guy.

junt

What I'm asking is whether the added expence would be warrented by the lighter weight and added durability? Is fg durable enough or would it warp, catch fire, etc? Also what would the ratio be in terms of weight between fg and cf?

RotaryKnight

Amemiya, FEED, KnightSports, R Magic have always used FG hoods on both their street and track cars. I'm sure that they run their cars harder than most of us in the states (i said most not all) It again comes down to quality of the FG.

Japan tends to use a different type of resin and so their kits are thinner but stronger than the stuff in the US. Everyone knows that Bomex is subcontracted by Amemiya to make their kits and Kepla makes the kits for KnightSports, Mugen and I think R Magic.

I daily drove my first FD for over a year with the KnightSports hood (real one) and put about 25k miles on it. The hood is fine (since it was one of the few things recovered) no warpage or cracks. But again I stress it is the quality..of the FG too.

There are some crappy FG hoods out there...look at some hondas. There is no real reason to get a CF hood except to say that "I have a CF hood." Heh do like the sound of that though.

martini

where can you find a FG FD hood? Are you making it yourself?

I would go for the CF. though Rotaryknight is right, it's like a damn blade coming at you if you get in a head-on.

Trexthe3rd

Correct me if I'm wrong on this. From every thing I have read about CF hoods, they are mostly made up of FG anyway, isn't it?? There is only a layer of CF that is laid over the FG (or two), the CF "fabric" if you will, helps to increase the tensil strength and elasticity of the FG components.

65Imp

iTrader: (8)

I'm making the mazdaspeed replicas with Attila, and the difference will actually be that both the FG, and the CF will be similar weight. The CF is just an overlay on the FG hood. We may lighten the FG a bit for the CF for the added strength of the CF, but mostly it's just cosmetic. The Fiberglass is really nice quality. dosen't look like anything I've ever seen that is made of FG. It's strong, light, smooth, and shiny, and it hasn't even been finish painetd yet! I'm extremely pleased with it, and can definately see the difference between the other resin the replicas before were made from and these... I have to hand it to our fiberglass shop, they really know their ****.
I'm pretty sure most CF hoods are actually FG with the CF layer on the top, or at the very least FG bracing making up the bottom half of the hood. This is great looking, and maybe for show. The Full CF can also be made, just the price is insanely high, and IMO dosen't justify the slight weight savings over FG. But I'm not racing competitively where ounces count. And since I'm painting my hood, I don't care about the CF on the top only.
(PS don't worry guys almost there, should be within a week for final products.)

JoeD

carbon fiber and fiberglass hoods are usually not for weight reduction. i think it was twinturboteddy that weighed his stock hood vs. Faspac carbon fiber hood, and the stocker was one pound lighter. and im pretty sure there is not a big difference in the weight of hoods by different manufacturers, so weight savings should not be a concern.

that said, most poeple get carbon fiber hoods for the cooling, and just for the sake of saying they have a carbon fiber hood.

94touring

I just weighed my faspac and compared it to my stock and the faspac was 7lbs lighter.