I have a couple of questions for people familiar with carbon fiber hoods.

First, I am sure not all brands are created equal. Any brands to stay away
from or others that are highly recommended? Better fit, quality, etc.....?

Second, I want to paint the hood to match the car. Anyone have good
luck or bad luck with doing this? Anything special I need to know when going about painting carbon fiber?

Any help on these questions would be appreciated!

 

this will help- also, if you search for carbon fiber hoods- you'll find endless amounts of threads related to this.

https://www.rx7club.com/interior-exterior-audio-26/vis-vs-seibon-507401/

 

Any special reason why you want to buy a carbon fiber part just to have it painted over? It seems kind of a waste, especially considering it's a lot more expensive than other material.

 

Light coats on CF looks sweet when done right so that you can still see the weave thru the paint. You can see it on some showcars.

 

I want to paint it because I want it to look closer to stock.
The main reason I am contemplating getting a cf hood, is
to get something that will let all of that heat escape. You
can find cf hoods with nice amounts of ducting. If I could
figure out a way of ducting a stock hood, without making
it look too "race car-ish", I would.

Any suggestions on how to duct a stock hood?

 

You could probably find more different styles of vented hoods in fiberglass and it will be cheaper than carbon fiber too.

 

^That's exactly what I was thinking. If you still plan on painting it no use in getting CF.

 

Yep... Almost every CF hood available is a reproduction of an existing FG hood, so with availability in mind, FG would be the way to go... And with the worldwide shortages of CF, it would be better to let the CF hoods go to people who want to leave them that way...

Besides FG is lighter anyways...