WARNING: For CF Hood Owners

If you're running a CF hood be sure to have proper hood pins installed and use them. A WRX owner who has competed at the rallycross recently had his CF hood latch fail at 70 MPH. Other than glass in his eyes (ouch!) there weren't any injuries, but the WRX suffered some nasty body damage.

Take a look then get some good pins: CF Hood Latch Failure.

Don't gamble. Cosmetic CF hoods are mostly fiberglass and the fabricators are just bolting the latch into inserts set in resin or just tapped filler. With heat and vibration it's just a matter of time before possible failure. Besides, hood pins look cool! :bgwg:

I've seen this happen before too. Not pretty, and removes all of the cool points said WRX owner earned by buying that CF hood in the first place.

As a (former) WRX driver, all I have to say is that the stock aluminum hood is still lighter than any carbon hood on the market.

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Originally Posted by Joe_Black

If you're running a CF hood be sure to have proper hood pins installed and use them. A WRX owner who has competed at the rallycross recently had his CF hood latch fail at 70 MPH. Other than glass in his eyes (ouch!) there weren't any injuries, but the WRX suffered some nasty body damage.

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He should never have passed tech without hood pins.

John C.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hotsauce

He should never have passed tech without hood pins.

John C.

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Not required for rallycross, only street-prep and a DOT helmet are required as it's entry level. The failure, however, happened on normal highway driving. It would've been a lot better for him and the car had it happened at a rallycross though, as the speeds are kept at 45 MPH or less by a technical course.

Well, not very smart on his part. With the light weight of the hood, hood pins are a MUST. He races, he should have known that. :(

I have been looking around the market for some good hood pins for when i put this C/F hood on, but have turned up more confused than when I started. There is such a thing as a "universal" hood pin assembly, but I recall trying a pair on a '70 Nova drag racer we set up years ago. They didn't work on that. If something pops up though, I will be sure to share.

Most hood pins are universal and pretty much idiot-proof for installation. Check here for a good set that I've had some experience with: Captive Hood Pins.
http://www.rallylights.com/Rally/images/hoodpins.jpg

You can mount them just at the leading edge for additional retention, or use four at the corners by ditching the stock hinges and hood latch for a completely removable hood. I did that with one of my competition Fiat Spiders and found it to be a real pain always looking for somewhere to put the hood though. Although it sure did make getting at the engine much easier! :p

Ya, I just stated that Nova experience because it was an aftermarket cowl induction F/G hood. Installation is actually pretty easy, depending on the hood itself. The C/F hood from CF-1 worries me only because NONE of the holes are predrilled. A little grease for closure hole marking and drilling and you are pretty much good to go though.

I don't have a clue if these are any good or not but came across them @ J.C. Whitney while searching for something else.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/P...odelId-1001150

I had that pin style also and got tired of mis-placing the pins. I later used plastic coated cables on the pins to keep them around alittle longer but didn't like the pins hanging (kids thought they were play things) Here's another style you might try. I had them on my Pro Street car and I liked them due to no pins to lose One thing I did, I used larger dia. washers on the hood surface. I had a Blown Big Block and used 4 pins (1 each corner) because my hood lifted straight up/off. They worked well, slide fwd/bck...



http://www.behrents.com/Merchant2/gr...R39010-lrg.jpg


http://www.behrents.com/Merchant2/4...._Code=MOR39010

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Joe_Black

Most hood pins are universal and pretty much idiot-proof for installation. Check here for a good set that I've had some experience with: Captive Hood Pins.
http://www.rallylights.com/Rally/images/hoodpins.jpg

You can mount them just at the leading edge for additional retention, or use four at the corners by ditching the stock hinges and hood latch for a completely removable hood. I did that with one of my competition Fiat Spiders and found it to be a real pain always looking for somewhere to put the hood though. Although it sure did make getting at the engine much easier! :p

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Getting set to do this C/F hood and looked into these pins. I'll be damned if I cant find anything but Redf or Blue ones though. Anyone happen to know where I can nab these in black or silver? My hunt continues.

Great place to get race parts: Pegasus Auto Racing Supplies

I picked-up a set of the locking hood pins at pep boys. They are in the performance section. I installed them on a friends Lancer that he races and so far so good.

Thanks Joe, just ordered a set. Hope to have this bad boy all set up within a couple of weeks. I am getting REALLY antsy.

Got my pins in the mail today. Very solid design and quite good looking. A little worried about how long before they begin to show rust, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it. Hopefully, this weekend or sometime this week (if work allows), I am gonna start drilling the holes for the insert mounts, hood pins, and scoop induction and then get it mounted on the VX. I am SO looking forward to it now.

hte pins shouldnt rust...arent they coated with some rust proof coatin? or aluminum?
________
OldBustyMilf

Don't know. The packaging if these things was about as ghetto as you could get. The quality looks pretty generic hardware store-esque, but the design looks like it is quite the product to use for it's purpose. We shall see.

Well, was hoping this weekend would be the weekend, but rain called that to a halt. Basically, I have everything now and am ready to try this out. Just need mother nature to cooperate with me. Even the guys at CF1 are getting kinda impatient cause they want pics, heh.

Anyways, cross your fingers with me in hopes that this coming weekend will be our classic, warm/dry May weather so I can get this thing done. Eeesh, come to think about it, I REALLY need to get it done then. Wont be in town starting the following weekend for a while. ARHG! Its always something!!!

LOL! Right there with ya, too many projects and the weather always tags me with the outdoor ones. Finally got my crane delivered, so that means I can finally start work on my big shop.

Definitely looking forward to your pics! :gring:

Installed the C/F hood today. Well, rather, I tried. I didnt fit well enough to close. It has some imperfections, and I guess since a VX isnt available for the C/F 1 guys to test fit on, I should have expected that. It definately was a great effort though. Just few measurement problems and with these reolved, it would be a great product.
To get a good idea of what it would look like final though, I took off the hood latch assembly and just laid the hood down in place. Man, did it look GREAT! Especially on a black VX, cause it simply doesnt stand out all that much.
I informed the C/F 1 guys about the problems. I wouldnt doubt it if they decided to can the idea of this project, especially with the fact that they have no VX available. I can understand their situation. But, at the same time, it would be a shame. It looked damned good.

Sorry, no pics. I didnt have my camera with me cause I was expecting to drive it home all finished. Alas, I had to put the stock hood back on since it didnt work out so well. :(

Hey: Maybe they have things fiqured out??

I think this is them on ebay for sale...http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=36475

It is them. Says "CF1" on the pics below.

I sure as hell hope they stop selling them or have it right by now. They are gonna get a LOT of returns if not. They need to take it back to the drawing board before they let these things go out. Hopefully the email I sent them gets them thinking.

It looks like there an "Authorized Vendor" selling CF1 Products. If the vcross hood there selling still needs tweaked, I wonder if the ebay seller (lilhondachick81) knows..