Don Nguyen

iTrader: (6)

I personally also say use this where you normally can't get a cf piece from (IE roof). Doing a cf hood is kind of moot, just because they are already so readily available/obtainable.

-Don

cfeclipse

iTrader: (1)

Very nice bUt there's nothing like real CF

Don Nguyen

iTrader: (6)

The only thing that beats real bare cf is painted cf, now that's baller.

-Don

4Trouble

Ehh but the paint would add back the few ounces the dry carbon was to save over cfrp...

IMO the vinyl is not rice at all, depend on how you view it. I think its a great alternative to a 3M protective layer although I personally don't use one since I prefer to take rock chips 'like a man'.

Most real aftermarket CF parts are rice anyways, except maybe for some dry cf hood, trunk, roof, seats and wings, the cfrp tend to weigh barely any less than the original plastic/fiberglass/aluminum OEM parts. Covers and trims are even more rice, I mean look at Porsche OEM option, you pay 6 grand to cover bunch of areas in your interior with CFRP, but in the end, if you don't have any trim pieces at all where those pieces go, it would be lighter, and would have no effect on function. Maybe it would look a little ghetto since it seems like some parts of your car is missing but thats about it.

upperguy

In addition to that, a lot of hoods on sports cars that are aluminum actually weigh less than the real CF alternative. A few great examples are the STI and Z3/4/M series which gain a few pounds switching out the hood. The biggest thing is though, how many people have gotten a CF replacement part that fits -perfectly-? because I've never gotten one, it's always slightly warped or doesn't sit right or needs a bunch of adjustment to get right. The MA Shaw dry carbon pieces for BMWs are the same way though... $1600 for a hood that weighs a few pounds less and needs a bodyshop to fit it.

Don Nguyen

iTrader: (6)

You do realize even stock hoods sometimes need shims and adjusting (hence why all of the mounting points on the hood are adjustable), to get it to fit correct, right? Who knows, maybe your car was slightly tweaked (or whatever car that was in question), causing you (or whoever) to have it fitted/put on by someone else.

The rest of your comments about MA Shaw also leads me to believe you know nothing about his parts and company (IE you can easily see that his hoods are not $1600, and also FYI, they are not dry carbon pieces either nor are they advertised as so). I don't know if you even own a BMW (Irrelevant if you own anything other than a E36 or E39, as MA Shaw doesn't make any other CF/FRP hoods for the other BMW models, so you can't say your hood is aluminum), since a stock hood for those cars weighs easily 60-70lbs, while his cf/frp version would be around 20lbs.

If you feel like throwing around half truths here and there, feel free to do it elsewhere and not here.

-Don

Don Nguyen

iTrader: (6)

Some more eye candy for you guys:











-Don

Don Nguyen

iTrader: (6)

Haven't posted in a while. Only the roof was done, the rest is real cf. Here are some more pictures:









Don't mind the tape on the rails, it was to hold them down, since they are glued in vs clip in as on most other cars.





And a quick shot of his engine bay:


-Don