Carbon Fiber Hoods

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03-13-2005, 01:51 PM
KingSix

Carbon Fiber Hoods

Just a thought, I have been searching the aftermarket for accessories, dress up items or what have you for the E34 and have come up fairly empty handed, there is a serious lack of aftermarket support for this car in the area of dress up type items. After speaking with a few friends that are "in the biz" so to speak, they all came up with the same answer to my questions... "make it yourself". After thinking about it I decided this may be the best course of action.. I mean lets face it.. the E34 is an "old" body style, so its not like the aftermarket manufacturers are going to come out with anything shockingly new for this car. I was thinking about making a hood out of Carbon Fiber, with a small, but tastefull "heat extractor" scoop ( concave rather than convex ). I was just wondering if any other owners of the E34 would like something like this, or would be interested in at least seeing it. This idea of mine is in the concept phase, and far from completion.. first things first, I need a decent( no dent, no dings) hood from an E34. I know of at least one company that manufactures a stock Carbon Fiber hood, but I was thinking about something a little more racy...Not "The Fast and The Furious hey look at me racy", but something along the lines of, "Hey take a look here, there may be something lurking under the hood" kind of look. As for working with Carbon Fiber, its very simple and straight forward, so thats not an issue .. having been a body man in the past I know something of finishing techniques.
Looking forward to hearing your feedback on this subject, who knows.. if its positive it could lead to other items for this car ...I truly love my 535 and can see myself driving it for some time.. I would just like to see it slightly modernized in the area of appearance, besides, why should the 3 series drivers get all the cool parts? .. Thanks for you time.. :D
03-13-2005, 02:18 PM
e34it

No offense....no but hell no........if u want a carbon fiber hood I think you should be driving a honda. That is my opinion, im sure some people out there might be interested though.
03-13-2005, 02:24 PM
adamsbomb

If all you want is a carbon fibre hood, I can give you a link to a stock carbon fibre hood.
03-13-2005, 02:28 PM
KingSix

Like I said in my previous post, I already know of the stock carbon fiber peice... as for the Honda comment, there are plenty of CF hoods out there for the 3 series .. just nothing for the E34
03-13-2005, 02:31 PM
crashnburn80

I dont think a scoop of any sort would be apropriate for an e34. At most I would say a nacaduct concave air intake at the factory air intake location to draw cold air without disrupting air flow. But I think the e34 is more of a classy car with a sporty attitude rather than a racey car with a classy attitude. But that just my opinion, I like it old school ;) A carbon fiber hood would save a bunch of weight though.

I am in the middle of producing carbon fiber hoods for my autocross rabbit. So far its coming along pretty well, the first hood gets pulled from the mold tomorrow (monday). They are really not that hard to produce, just time consuming. But I have access to a modern composites layup lab at my University. To make a quality hood your going to need to vacuum bag it. Do you have access to vacuum lines? Also I would highly recomend heavily gel coating the original part prior to making the mold, and laying up the mold over the tacky gel coated pat once the gel coat becomes tacky. This will transfer the gel coat to the mold and give you a perfect surface finish on your mold. I would also recomend using an air gun to apply Part-all to the mold, as we have found this also provides an excellent finsh over manual application.
03-13-2005, 02:47 PM
KingSix

Quote:

Originally Posted by crashnburn80

I dont think a scoop of any sort would be apropriate for an e34. At most I would say a nacaduct concave air intake at the factory air intake location to draw cold air without disrupting air flow. But I think the e34 is more of a classy car with a sporty attitude rather than a racey car with a classy attitude. But that just my opinion, I like it old school ;) A carbon fiber hood would save a bunch of weight though.

I am in the middle of producing carbon fiber hoods for my autocross rabbit. So far its coming along pretty well, the first hood gets pulled from the mold tomorrow (monday). They are really not that hard to produce, just time consuming. But I have access to a modern composites layup lab at my University. To make a quality hood your going to need to vacuum bag it. Do you have access to vacuum lines? Also I would highly recomend heavily gel coating the original part prior to making the mold, and laying up the mold over the tacky gel coated pat once the gel coat becomes tacky. This will transfer the gel coat to the mold and give you a perfect surface finish on your mold. I would also recomend using an air gun to apply Part-all to the mold, as we have found this also provides an excellent finsh over manual application.

Excellent ideas and thanks for your input, that was athe idea, a naca duct type of scoop, nothing disturbing the lines of the car, do you follow ? My methods until your input were a bit more old school, traditional mold mold and cast steps, having worked in a Marina in High School, that abouth the extent of my knowledge on this subject ... I do like your ideas though .. thanks again..
03-13-2005, 03:27 PM
infinity5

Does anyone know the weight savings off the top of their head? and can you paint them? or is that a dumb question... a lighter hood would be nice but a carbon fiber-black one on a white car wouldn't be.
03-13-2005, 04:56 PM
KingSix

Quote:

Originally Posted by infinity5

Does anyone know the weight savings off the top of their head? and can you paint them? or is that a dumb question... a lighter hood would be nice but a carbon fiber-black one on a white car wouldn't be.

If C/F is finished correctly, yes it can be painted , just like fiberglass, as for the weight savings.. I'll let you know when mine is done...