relax. You haven't been on here long, but long enough to notice that everyone voices their opinion on here and it's nothing more. It just seems that if he's having such a hard time getting the thing installed, maybe it's not worth the effort for something he'll never really notice a performance gain from? You must've had one heavy ass stock hood? My stock Z hood isn't even 20lbs total; although it is aluminum. I do agree with painting it; looks much better than the unpainted carbon IMO.

And yes, shift knobs are a pretty pointless mod IMO. I mod for a purpose; very little I've done to my cars are just for looks. I'd argue "rims" are a much more performance oriented mod since they save you unsprung weight, but more importantly, they are usually much larger and allow for bigger tires; which is something the average driver can feel. Saving ~20lbs on a hood is hardly noticable to most; running 17x9" with 275 tires is pretty noticable over 16 x 7" and 225 for example.