That looks nice. I may get one.

Also woohoo for hood dampers!

+1

any updates on the vmount kits?

have you gotten a new track core in yet to start modifying the brackets?

My fabricator that I go to for the FC vmount kits has a job now, so he only works saturdays, I should have some pics of the new finished core vrs the old one, the brackets stay the same, piping stays the same, only thing changes is the bracket that is welded to the IC that gets bolted to the metal brackets.

Ben

Everybodys FC hood dampers have been shipped, even to the guy in Australia...lol

Those of you with batteries, they will be shipped with the vmount kits.

Ben

Got my hood dampers yesterday. Can't wait for the rest!

Install them, make sure they fit with no issues.


Shit, I forgot to mail all you guys the longer bolts needed to go through the cnc bracket and the factory hinge....shit shit shit.

I'll send them out on Monday, sorry, but they are the correct bolts I need to give you guys.

Ben

I installed mine with the stock bolts and they seem to work fine. They went in a decent amount of threads.

Yes the stock ones do work, but the new ones make up for the thickness of the cnc bracket. Also the new bolt has a shoulder, so no washer needed. I'm going to send them out anyways so you can replace them.

By the way, hows the fitment. All works good?

Ben

Yup, fitment is great. I can't close the hood at the moment though as I have lots of tools in the way :p:

OK, I was able to ship everyone their bolts, the longer ones to replace the stock ones.

You should all have them by tues.

R0gu3 has installed the bat box but he has also said it teeters at this time.

Eage8 has installed the hood dampers but has metioned that when the hood opens all the way it bounces a bit.

I will address these two issues:

Bat box issue:

The 3 pegs on the bottom are supposed to be different lengths if you were wondering that.

You have to make sure the harness clears the base plate. That peg helps it do that. You may need to move the harness a tad. The other pegs sit on the brackets that are bolted down. You will need to loosen those bolts and re-posistion it to help it sit flush. Worst case senerio you need to either bend the bracekts to get the battery box to stop from teettering or add washers below one of the 2 short legs.

I made the box to fit on the sample car which was an s4, i was told the batteries are the same for s5. But its an easy fix. Also orchard supply does sell metal spacers.

The FC bat box had 3 different levels so it was a little tricky to make it sit flush. But it should be very secure with the minor adjustments.

Hood damper use:

Just guide the hood up until it is fully open.
The kit comes with 60lb shocks. When 40lb shocks were used the hood would start to lower even on a slight breeze. They do not make 50lbs shocks so I had to go with 60lbs.
Just remember that this is an aftermarket kit and is designed to just hold the hood open instead of useing the hood prop.

Please feel free to give any feed back that you want so that all issues can be addressed and help the next guy out. I am not like other vendors who try to keep a hush hush on issues / or do not respond.

I need feedback because it helps me fix issues and aids in improvemnets in my products.

Ben

Any recommendations on how to mount the dampers for a CF hood?

Should be the same as with a stock hood.

I installed the dampers on my car this afternoon, took maybe 10 minutes to do. Works beautifully! When the longer bolts come in I'll swap them in.

Yes, its the same for all the hoods.

The stock hinge sits at a 45 degree angle and that is secured in between the hood damper bracket and the bolts inside the hood.

The pressure that the shock applys is spread accross the entire surface of the bracket. The bolts just hold the hood in place. The pressure is not on the hood itself.

All you have to be careful of is do not tighten the bolts so tight to as where they will strip the nut in the hood or it will pull the bonded nut loose in a CF hood.

And just guide it up.

Ben

I asked because I thought there was concern that a stronger damper could possibly punch through a CF hood. I did get the struts, they look great. I'll just be particularly cautious whenever I get my new hood.

nah, they're mounted on the steel hood hinges, there is nothing to punch through

well, pushing the hinge plate through the hood. I've never touched a CF hood so I'm just not sure how stout it will be. one way or another it's going on there, so I won't worry too much about it right now.

It is impossible for the hinge plate to be punched through the hood because there is no pressure at the back side of the hood to allow the hinge plate to apply force on the hood. The hood it bolted down and gets a free ride, there is no pressure on the hood itself. When the hood is open or closed, all the pressure is spread over the hood hinge itself.

The only reason why any damaged would be cause would be due to operator error.

On a CF hood the nuts are bonded. It is possible to over tighten those and cause them to become loose. But hood dampers kits themselves will not cause to hood harm, unless you have those cheap one bolt ones that make the bolts act like a level.

The other reason is just the nature of the beast. Guide the hood up and don’t let it bounce. This is not a defect in the kit. The hood is very long and would need a more expensive set-up that would place the dampers toward the front maybe another foot. Then is nothing there to put a shock against and that would punch through a CF hood unless there is a metal plate.

The hood damper kits are designed to replace the hood prop so that the hood stays up on its own.

Don't worry, the kit wont damage your hood. Just don’t over tight the bolts on a cf hood. Use blue thread lock to help the bolts from coming loose. Blue is so you can un-bolt it later.

Ben

anything get fabricated last weekend we can look at? lol

the radiators are sitting at the fabricators shop

the IC that I test fitted is having a jig made for it.

all the IC cores and parts are stacked up waiting for the radiators.

Im negotiating pricing with another welder on pricing to weld all 9 kits.

Im not looking forward to paying like 3k to have everything welded.

That's over the initial estimate I got.....

Anyways, as soon as I have something to show I will.

Figured I'd hop in.

Hood dampers installed without issue. Definitely feel better with the longer bolts securing the bracket to the hood. Mine opens to max height without bouncing at the time and comes down nicely.

In regards to the battery box, the mount point on the fender well is too low with the peg lengths (S5 TII). Not sure if there was a bushing or something else there as I may have removed it. To rectify it, I placed a 3/4" spacer under the peg which levels the entire battery box.

Petty excited to see how the FD intercooler core changes the looks of the setup

Its not going to change much at all. It will be 1 inch wider on each side but its lika an inch longer too. You can only really see the differnce when the 2 cores are side by side.

I'll have that pic next week.

For the bat box, I made it on the S4.

I will supply 3/4 spacers with the bat boxes, thanks.

its little things like this that are hard to catch between the years.

This is why I am installing the kit on an S5 myself to make sure that all goes well. I did design in all on an S4. From what I have seen, there are no changes in the frame, except maybe the battery tray apparently. :(

uuuhhh yeah ok

S4 and S5 are the same where the battery tray goes.

The fabricator made the one peg closer to the fender smaller by 1 inch which makes since that r0gu3 had to add a 3/4 spacer. I found my sample and showed the fabricator so I hope it will not happen again.

I already test fit my vmounts, but I did not test fit the battery tray, I had trusted the stand-offs would be correct.

I am having the other boxes fixed, uugghh why did I not catch that.

Im also finishing the polishing on the new IC and will show you them both together so you can see the difference. I hope to have pics tomorrow.

Ben