Thread: Carbon Fiber vs. Fiberglass hood

I'm looking into getting a slightly lighter hood. As most of you know, the B13 stock hood is somewhat hefty. Mine has a rust hole in it and I will soon be able to afford an upgrade, so I figure carbon fiber. But I've heard the that carbon fiber hoods can be pretty pricey, so I started lurking around for a fiberglass piece. My question to you is which is better for the money?

It depends on how much you wanna spend. You are right CF is gonna cost you more. Either will lose you some weight.

Usually carbon hoods are fibreglass with carbon on top i always though??

Getting a pure carbon bonnet is going to be mega $$$.

it depends on the quality of your supplier. You should probably research the material and process first. I would say 80% sux out there for the mass produced automotive. You'll have to find someone that has good layup technique and proven quality parts which like someone mentioned above, gets $$$. Hence the word layup. Most process jus spray frayed fiberglass w/ lots of resin from a gun on a mold and call it a good part. Slap on ONE layer of carbon fabric and call it a carbon fiber hood and triple the price. Compared to weight, carbon n fiberglass is about the same, but strength wise, carbon of course. Its hard to find a good layed up fiberglass parts these days or at least i don't know any. at the end of the day, u always get what u pay for...

My question to you is where exactly do you think you are going to purchase either hood?

Here is the current CF GB that you missed:

NissanRaceShop -- CF Hood/Trunk Group Buy - SR20 Forum

The most recent CF GB on this forum was a complete and total disaster, and the vendor ran off with the money. Look it up.

Before that, forum member Ciclon-something-or-other attempted a GB with a fiberglass hood. Didn't happen.

Aside from a GB, no known vendor keeps any B13 CF products on hand. No hoods nor trunks. Never heard of any source for fiberglass peices either.

You gonna pay a shop to make you a mold and then make you a one-off custom hood? That would be crazy money.

You basically asked "Should I buy product-X or product-Y?"

Doesn't matter if you cannot get either one.

Your best and only current source would be the forum Classifieds, here or over there, and snag a CF hood from someone that has been in a GB.

This is exactly what I needed. That's why I've been searching and found nothing. I see CF parts go up on here and get sold like hot cakes. I guess once I gather up enough, I'll wait for another piece of pop up and snag it quick.

91, 92, 93, 94 Nissan Sentra Carbon Fiber Hood

This is the website I purchased my CF hood from a couple years back. Received and installed it no problems. It is a fiberglass skeleton with CF over layed on it.

They recommend you use hood pins but I just used the stock latching mechanism and ran in that way from about 2 years without any problems before selling it along with the shell.

I know that they also offer a fiberglass hood that is about $80 less. Also dont forget to take into account shipping which is about $165.00

I got priced about 1500 for a pure cf hood or trunk. The pricing was from a guy my cousin knew who builds cf chasis's.