Carbon fiber?

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greasychevy
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Carbon fiber?

Post by greasychevy »

So I'm building a drag car out of mine, as some people know. I have been keeping an eye out for a new used hood I can cut up so I can put a scoop on it to try to get more air into the blower. But I Know a few G8 guys with carbon fiber hoods and I get a little jelly, they weight like 10 lbs. . Does any one know if there's carbon stuff anywhere in this world for our cars? Crazy Paul? if a hood something that could even be shipped reasonably? Does anyone have a line on a factory hood?
2011 9c1 Hugo Blue
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Crazy Paul
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Re: Carbon fiber?

Post by Crazy Paul »

No you won't find a CF hood for a Caprice, they're not a high volume car & nobody really wants to drag race a barge.
Hoods are like magnets for destruction during shipping. Metal ones get bent buckled and mangled all the time in shipping. It doesn't matter if you double box them, some moron will always find a way to stack bulldozer tracks on top of it during shipping.
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greasychevy
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Re: Carbon fiber?

Post by greasychevy »

Well, that's a bummer.
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CrashTestDummy
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Re: Carbon fiber?

Post by CrashTestDummy »

You'll probably have to mold your own. I doubt we'll even see fiberglass parts for these cars. The SS has an aluminum trunk lid, but I believe that won't fit our rides. :(

You'll probably have to look elsewhere to add lightness.
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Re: Carbon fiber?

Post by Gulf caprice »

Yes you can find in Australia they have the caprice for a long time now, although it well not be cheap!. And you can always customize a hood from fiber glass or aluminum.
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Re: Carbon fiber?

Post by CrashTestDummy »

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
2012 Caprice 9C1
1992 B4C 1LE Camaro
2018 Tahoe PPV (her car)
1995 DGGM Impala SS
1985 Firebird - 310 LS1 C Prepared autocross car.
1980 Bluebird Wanderlodge
And some others
Do YOU have my SPID?
Navy Lifer
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Re: Carbon fiber?

Post by Navy Lifer »

Way back in 1997, I became obsessed with the same question for the Impala SS. I went in search of someone to build CF hoods and ended up getting a company (ACE) in Temecula CA to build them--it took a major investment on my part, so you have to think big picture doing this, as a shop will be able to build it, but as a one-off, it's costly--the only way to make it affordable is to plan to make enough of them to recover the cost of the mold spread over "X" number of (sold) production parts. I can't tell you how many B-body (Impala SS) composite (both CF & fiberglass) hoods were actually built, or if any of them are still out in use. I did lose some money and ended up with no hood of my own....big risk unless you don't care. Side note--this project started the popular trend of using the 91-94 Lumina Z34 hood vent panels on the Impala SS by integrating them into the very first CF hood produced for this project.

Here's a thread that covers this--one of many on the Impala SS Forum: http://www.impalassforum.com/vBulletin/ ... ht=louvers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Link to the company website: http://www.advancedcompositeseng.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - talk to Joe.

There are plenty of small shops doing specialty carbon fiber for all kinds of applications, including auto stuff. The current SS Forum has an outfit called Maverick Man Carbon doing this sort of stuff, check with them. http://www.maverickmancarbon.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There were/are plenty of other hood manufacturers - SLP, Suncoast, etc.

It might be worth approaching Suncoast, now located on the Gulf Coast in Sarasota FL, I recall, when I was at their shop several years ago, even though the website seems to indicate they're in Melbourne, on the Atlantic coast--they don't do CF, just glass, which may be no lighter than a stock hood, depending on construction methods.
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Re: Carbon fiber?

Post by Gulf caprice »

Navy Lifer wrote:Way back in 1997, I became obsessed with the same question for the Impala SS. I went in search of someone to build CF hoods and ended up getting a company (ACE) in Temecula CA to build them--it took a major investment on my part, so you have to think big picture doing this, as a shop will be able to build it, but as a one-off, it's costly--the only way to make it affordable is to plan to make enough of them to recover the cost of the mold spread over "X" number of (sold) production parts. I can't tell you how many B-body (Impala SS) composite (both CF & fiberglass) hoods were actually built, or if any of them are still out in use. I did lose some money and ended up with no hood of my own....big risk unless you don't care. Side note--this project started the popular trend of using the 91-94 Lumina Z34 hood vent panels on the Impala SS by integrating them into the very first CF hood produced for this project.

Here's a thread that covers this--one of many on the Impala SS Forum: http://www.impalassforum.com/vBulletin/ ... ht=louvers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Link to the company website: http://www.advancedcompositeseng.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - talk to Joe.

There are plenty of small shops doing specialty carbon fiber for all kinds of applications, including auto stuff. The current SS Forum has an outfit called Maverick Man Carbon doing this sort of stuff, check with them. http://www.maverickmancarbon.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There were/are plenty of other hood manufacturers - SLP, Suncoast, etc.

It might be worth approaching Suncoast, now located on the Gulf Coast in Sarasota FL, I recall, when I was at their shop several years ago, even though the website seems to indicate they're in Melbourne, on the Atlantic coast--they don't do CF, just glass, which may be no lighter than a stock hood, depending on construction methods.
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Re: Carbon fiber?

Post by leadfart »

I have one of the ACE CF hoods on the Impy. :mrgreen:
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S13REMI
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Re: Carbon fiber?

Post by S13REMI »

Another path that would probably be worth considering is "depolicing" our car. I stumpled apon some videos on youtube and it looks like they add some serious weight in wiring to our cars. Its something i know Im going to seriously look in to this winter. Possibly even drop down to just one battery.
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