So I'm looking at getting a new hood. I might stick with factory hood/material, but I'm also leaning towards the Mazdaspeed fiberglass replica or a CF one.

I was told by my body shop that fiberglass will eventually warp or expand/contract due to heat and since it'll be right over the engine bay I don't want the hood to look like a sausage or anything.

My question for you guys is if it's alright to paint over fiberglass, or even carbon fiber? If I get a CF hood I don't want the attention so I'll have the body shop paint over it. Will that harm the hood or peel/crack after a while or under great amount of heat? BTW the body shop I'm with is great with paint, they do high quality work.

Thanks.

-Dan

 

I don't see why you can't paint a CF hood.

 

DAN---- The FRP one wont warp unless the hood is a POS, if it is a POS even the CF wont help it at all. You can paint the CF one, but your body shop will sand it first to get the clear coat off, which may take some of the CF off making it a fire hazard on the outside at least (all things burn) but just get a quality FRP hood CHEAPER and have it painted IMHO

 

Well yeah I know it can be painted over, but given the material of CF I don't want it to distort in any way later on due to high heat or anything like that.

-Dan

 

Um, what does FRP stand for again?


-Dan

 

I had my carbon fiber mazdaspeed hood painted. It cracked in the first week. The rest of the car came out great. Just food for thought.

 

Finerglass Reinforced Plastic

And you can paint carbon fiber just fine - look at champ cars/ f1 cars

And you shouldnt have a problem with a hood warping unless the hood is a POS (too thin of material) or you have a fire underhood

 

I have a fg hood on my gsx and it has never warped. I've had it for two years now.

 

my god, dont paint your cf hoods (on the top layer); are you guys goign stupid or something??? I repeat once again, dont paint your CF hoods!!! The only reason why you buy cf is for the look. The only reason why one would ever consider doing it would be because the epoxy/resin/clearcoat does not have UV protection in it and the yellows or clouds. If your concerned about heat, buy and install some heat sheilding. Personnaly i have never seen a hood warp; especially an aftermarket one with a vent (think Scoot ). Then again, why would you buy a aftermarket hood without a vent/s???

BTW: Unless you got a dry/prepreg carbon hood, your not gonna be saving any weight compared to a fiberglass hood dude. If you wanna paint your hood, buy a fiberglass one and just paint it. CF just cost more expensive and looks nicer!

As for "And you can paint carbon fiber just fine - look at champ cars/ f1 cars" They paint them because...
1: You can see the logos/decals better
2: They are made out of unidirectionaly peices of cut up CF which looks kinda weird (kinda like triangles matched together in a puzzle)

Lastly, you should try to see if you can get a fiberglass hood (if thats what your going to get) made with colored gelcoat. This way you can just polish it up like an Ultima GTR Saves a bit of weight

 

Well, having you said that, for me I'm not necessarily into the CF hood due to it's looks or light weight, but also the strength of it compared to fiberglass. Factory hood would be fine, but they aren't cheap either.

I'm leaning towards the R7Store Mazdaspeed fiberglass replica and having a good paint job done to it, hopefully there won't be any problems with it.




Fd3BOOST - for you painted cf hood, was it a good paint job or a normal/crappy job that caused it to crack?

-Dan

 

cf aint any stronger then fiberglass (well not the way 99% of the people make it)

if anything, its more brittle...

 

Once again, You can paint carbon fiber with no ill effects. Some people buy the wet layup carbon fiber for looks, and in that case, I agree, its a waste to paint it. You bought it for the looks. But Pre-preg is considerably lighter than FRP or Wet layup CF, and far less attractive IMHO. I think its beautful for its lightness and construction, but most dry carbon I have seen doesnt have the look factor most people associate with CF. Plus I dont like the look of dry carbon with a thin UV clearcoat. But, again, nothing wrong or detrimental with painting it to match the rest of the car (as most all racecars do). It's personal preference. I will most likely paint the dry/pre-preg prototype Im working on, but if the weave looks good, I'd leave a wet layup cf hood alone IMHO

 

if anyone wants a cheap factory 2nd gen convertible allmnimun hood, i have one ill sell for 200$. it was just painted red, but needs to be touched up as its ben sitting in my back yard. pm me

 

Carbon fiber will flex more than fiberglass without splintering. Ask me how I know :-(

 

I hate the look of CF. If and when I get my hood, I don't think they make a normal hood with the normal 2 slits in the middle so hot air can escape, so I have to get the CF one. That's all I care about. I'd paint it.

 

what hood is this?

 

Thats the Feed hood, sounds like the style u want, but is only available in carbon and is pricey. Hmm that ones painted too

 

That's not the one but it does look very tempting though.

I believe it's the Knight Sport hood is the one I'am after, after I did a little searching.

 

i Think that they didnt use enough flex additive. It only cracked in one place on the corner of the vent. No biggie.
I have no problem painting over carbon fiber at all. Race cars dont leave it unpainted why should I. It looks half *** unless your car is black.

Black hoods on other color cars looks ******* retarded.
Reminds me of the honda boy "i cant afford the paint right now" look.