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Old Jul 10, 2006 | 11:47 AM
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Fabrik8
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From: How long is a piece of string?
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Default Re: carbon fiber hood

Rolled edges have nothing to do with quality. Neither does double sided carbon. They're both purely cosmetic, nothing more. THey only reflect price, because the lower end fiberglass companies don't spend the extra time (and money in the case of the other layer of carbon) to do that stuff. The only time you actually see useless features like that on composites are on aftermarket carbon dress up parts for cars. Rolled edges just make the edges look prettier, so there is no visible trim line. Contrary to marketing hype, there is no risk of delamination unless the part is so badly made that it should never be sold in the first place.
Double sided carbon is cosmetic also, it's just to hide the fact that most of the strength of the hood comes from the fiberglass plies, not the cosmetic carbon plies. Carbon on both sides hides the fiberglass. Carbon hoods are for looks, fiberglass pieces made exactly the same way will be just as light and strong. There is a heavy useless layer of deep, glossy resin that doesn't add anything to the strength of the hood, and the carbon is not consolidated at all. Have you ever noticed the streaky look of many carbon hoods in the carbon weave? That's from a squeegee unevenly pressing the carbon down into the thick gelcoat, and pretty much no one uses any type of consolidation. Most of them are made with cheap polyester or vinylester resin instead of epoxy resin, again weak and cosmetic only..

Seriously, everything on the market under $1000 is crap. They're nice looking, but as far as composites go, they're crap. Period. Actually the CompositesFab stuff is pretty nice for the price, so I take that back.
A good composites part doesn't have that deep wet look finish, and needs to be painted to protect the resin from UV damage. Also, many/most of the good resins are either brown or amber, not the best for looks.. If you saw a real carbon hood, it would be a lot stronger and a lot lighter, and a lot less pretty. Check out vr4-ever's sunroof if you want to see the difference in surface appearance that I'm talking about. His is vacuum bagged and epoxy resin. It's fiberglass in the middle though, for cost and the way it mounts. He didn't pay a grand for it though, or I would have made it differently.

So what I'm saying is don't worry about your hood, they're all garbage anyway, so as long as what you bought fits well, you're set.
Do you feel better about your hood now?

Last edited by Fabrik8; Jul 10, 2006 at 02:23 PM.