i am in the market for a carbon fiber hood. however i am on some what of a budget. i need to know which brands are the best made, and approx cost (if you know, otherwise i can scope it out myself). i want to know what you do and dont like. right now im looking at a seibon hood, $625ish, but i want to know how u you guys feel about siebon.
i really want construction quality, and fitment, if i have to pay more for it i prolly will.

 

Look into ShineAuto, they're a vendor on here. They make CF hoods for about what you're looking to spend and they're known for making them fit right.

 

i think there are a lot of threads about brand quality / fit.

anyway, i have think i have a VIS brand "knight sport" style hood. the fit is great, the quality is very nice as well. no complaints.

 

i have/had the seibon ts hood in CF, fitment is great, no problems.

 

From my experience, Seibon stuff i have seen has been horrible (for the GTRs at least). The VIS and Seibon Scoot replicas fit like **** too compared to the original.

It's either a hit or miss.

Shine hoods seem to be much better from what i hear.

 

i was gunna go with the seibon hood cause it allows for the use of the stock latch. and i have heard mostly good things. "mostly" cause i hadnt heard any thing bad til miata mx5's comment.
additional opinions and reviews are very welcome.
this is the one i was lookin at. http://www.carbonfiberhoods.net/mazd...od-p-2016.html

 

i personally dont like the scoops on FD hoods i think it distracts from the amazing lines of the car
if you must go with a CF hood go OEM

 

But then you don't take advantage of the openings in the hood to let all that really hot air out.

 

A vented hood is great for airflow and the removal of heat from the engine bay, its not all about looks.

I have a feed style hood from Shine Auto, I had to shim the hood where it bolts to the hinges to make the hood sit flush with the fenders, and the latch is garbage in both function and cosmetics, hood pins are a must.

 

so the shine hood latches are garbage? or are u referring to latches on CF hoods in general?

 

I am reffering to the latch on the hood i received from Shine. it is garbage and i am embarrased for anyone to see it, let alone trust it to hold at high speeds.

Here's a couple pics, they speak for themselves. Maybe there is a chance that Shine has fixed this since i bought my hood, but it really is pathetic.

 

that is pretty ******* hilarious Smitter --- I think that is why most fab shops highly recommend using hood pins with these aftermarket hoods

creative hood pin i must say

 

Aerocatch hood latches

Problem solved.

 

Yeah, i dunno if hilarious is the word, more like embarassing. I dont know what shine was thinking on this one. everyone always praises there stuff, but i had fitment issues and then, well there's the hood latch. i would like to here shine auto's explanation or defense on this garbage.

The hood pins dont disguise the ugly hood latch, unless your are suggesting to remove it completely. That is an option of course but the "Sea Turtle" (to quote Jason Ellis) of a latch will at least provide some security not allowing the hood to be opened without access to the inside of the car.

 

With the Aerocatch latches though it's a lot easier to see if someone messed with them since they will be sticking up. They also have a locking model too.

 

is that seriously a cut and bent bolt or threaded rod? how do the actually attach it to the hood?

is anyone familiar with an after market latch for the oem spot? (to clarify i mean if i got a shine hood with a shitty latch could i replace it with a better one?)

 

which hood would you recommend? or at least which company? in terms of fitment, rigidity, strength, longevity, finish quality, and any thing else that you feel would influence the purchase of a hood. (not necessarily the style, unless the quality of a hood is more influenced by the specific style than brand)

 

I have a seibon CF (painted though) hood. It fits rather well. Not better than OEM but it fits good. Keep in mind that NOTHING fets better than OEM.

check it out not the best pic but you get the idea:

 

There are some hoods that fit on the same level, but they are expensive (1000-1500 range), kinda like a new OEM hood.

 

I've had about 6 CF Hoods at this point. 3 of them were Seibon, one of them was VIS, one of them was Rotary Extreme, and the last one is an Original Japanese Manufacturer (Garage S). My impressions go like this:


VIS - I can't speak for others, but low quality and poor fitment.

Seibon - All 3 of the hoods I've had, have fit great! No complaints whatsoever aside from the fact that I'm not the biggest fan of their weave (I prefer JDM Plain weave to Twill).

RE - Excellent! Wish they still manufactured products...

Garage S - The best! There's a reason Japanese originals cost so much because they are absolutely worth it...hands down!



Since you did mention that cost was a concern, I'd go with Seibon overall. You might also be interested in my thread: https://www.rx7club.com/interior-exterior-audio-26/seibon-products-found-out-something-very-interestin-773405/


Hope this was helpful. Take care.

 

wow thanks for that. what did the jap one cost u? was just oem style?

 

that "Latch" ... i just cant find the right word to describe my feelings...

I have the Feed hood from shine auto but it doesnt have that...(or at least i didnt see it since i havent installed it yet)

 

^^^check yours out and let us know what it looks like

 

No problem...here to help. The Jap one cost me less than retail, but retail on it is approx. $1500 + shipping and it's definitely NOT OEM style lol. It's a "Garage S" hood. If you can't find pics, I could post them up.

 

Ramy has a pic of the Garage S hood on his site. http://www.fdnewbieimports.com/Backu...cts.php#aeroex