Carbon Fiber hood? (For weight not bling)

slooowr6

Explorer
The Carbon Fiber hood weights 25lbs for my Tacoma. The stock hood is heavy but I have no idea the exact weight. If I ever get one I'll paint it white so no one know it's CF. Any drawback with a CF hood??
 

ntsqd

Heretic Car Camper
IF you have an accident the shards are particularly nasty. As an example, in collegiate Human Powered Vehicle competitions any CF cycle fairing must have an inside layer of Kevlar in the lay-up. They do not want the rider to be able to come in contact with CF should there be any sort of accident.

I vaguely recall (read: could easily be wrong here) that CF shards are not recognized by the body as a foreign material. So they will not fester, they have to be dug out.

Then there's the other lightening aspect, your wallet.
 

7wt

Expedition Leader
slooowr6 said:
Any drawback with a CF hood??
It would be the potato cannon tailpipe you would have to install to legally have a carbon hood in California.
 

Life_in_4Lo

Explorer
nice, you should get a good weight savings from it. The only thing besides fit quality is to have a substructure for support.

it has a metal hood latch but check the reinforcement of it and I would still run hood pins as a safety.

i would leave it carbon. it looks cool and is a lot cheaper than painting
 

cruiseroutfit

Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
I'd be extremely interested to know what the stock hood weighs sans the latch mechanism and the hinges... I don't think your going to save as much weight as it initially appears, surely not $522 worth?
 

adventureduo

Dave Druck [KI6LBB]
I agree with Kurt. The weight vs. the price tag does not balance. It's not worth it. It's almost like me trying to save weight by putting synthetic winch line on my Warn M12000. That would cost $250.00+.. so it's not worth it to me to save 30 lbs.

The one cool thing about having a after market carbon fiber hood, would be possible hood glare with overhead lights. Its might decrease a tad.. but still at that price tag.. again not worth it.

Just run make a lexan hood :D
 

slooowr6

Explorer
Not sure how heavy the stock hood is, but it won't surprise me if it weights 50+lbs. If it does weight 50lbs by going to a CF hood that's 50% weight reduction. Is it worth the $, not at this point for me... :xxrotflma
 

Spikepretorius

Explorer
It's really simple. You'll just need a fair bit of materials though because you'll need to make a mould. I've got no idea how affordable resin and matting is in the States.
But make a decent mould and you could churn out several hoods and sell them to fellow taco owners to recoup some of the money.
Take a mould off your own existing hood.
 

hoser

Explorer
Spikepretorius said:
Can't you make a fibreglass hood for yourself? DIY
In my experience, a fiberglass hood would not be significantly lighter since it will need a metal frame anyway. So it's added cost with no benefit plus the drawbacks of fiberglass. The only reason to do it in fiberglass is to change the style.
 

Paul R

Adventurer
slooowr6 said:
Read it on another forum, the stock hood is 55lbs, CF hood is 25lbs.
I think I could lose 30 pounds my self then the weight loss will be free and useful! ;)
 

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