Thread: Seibon Carbon Fiber Hood Latch Hook Issue

Now that some time has gone by with many of us running Seibon Carbon Fiber Hoods and Trunks, I thought it time to show a preliminary issue I've found with my hood.

I do not daily my car but did notice some cracking beginning to show on the part of the hood that sinks into the latch mechanism to hold the hood down.

I do not run hood pins and would prefer not to honestly but am beginning to worry about safety down the road if I do not.

I've made sure the hood lines up properly and you can close it easily.

I've also checked my adjustment to be sure the hood is not raised in any way.

I'm wondering if there was just a band bond in that area.

Anyone else notice and is experiencing this same problem?

Hey Roger what the hood loose or hard when it latched or when you unlatch the hood might be hood alignment

I would say hard on the driver side, loose on the passenger. About 1/8-1/4 inch of up and down play.

Spacing on all sides looks even and my latch mechanism on the Radiator support is all the way down IIRC.

The hood would not shut upon first installation. Where the latch meets the mechanism didn't line up completely where it was set for the metal hood.

I moved the mechanism down and it's still on the allowable space originally given from factory. I did not drill out extra adjustment.

When I pull the hood release, the hood pops up quickly, which I attributed to the lightness of it but now wondering if I need to revisit.

I'll take some pics later of the clearances.

I know you may not like the aesthetics, but Seibon does state rather specifically on their website that hood-pins are mandatory.

You might also talk to Scott at Fontana Nissan. See if anyone else is running hood-pin-less and having issues.

There are hidden hood pins that bond to the bottom of the hood and are not visible from the outside.

If I were to install a CF hood, I'd use those.

ill take it off your hands when your ready to sell it and start over.

I am not saying you got a bad hood it seems to me that Quality control didn't catch that one

I know u said you would rather not run hood pins but like it has been suggested there are hideaway types like the sleeker aerocatch hoodpins.... Pretty sure mighty car mods did a video on the install for the unicorn s2000.

Seems all the hood latch folks gravitate to aerocatch. I just don't want to drill the carbon, but the frame underneath wouldn't bother me. Has anyone ever tried mounting the pins underneath? I imagine with our rad support and front design, I would have to remove the grill to access the pins. Thinking of doing something like this.

That could be cool... Maybe with a lil engineering u can build a spring loaded mechanism consisting of a sort of bar with a retractable end on each side in which u can realease/pull back the pins by pinching two tabs in the middle just between thr grill louvers

I may be over thinking this but now im just excited for new ideas