Alright, so i need anyone who has a vis c/f hood personal experience! i also have a question about them with using hood pins? Now i want 2 go through gravanatuning.com for ordering it; because of my experience with them! But on their website for all of the vis hoods. they claim that vis hoods require hood pins?
I DONT WANT 2 USE HOOD PINS! Does anyone have a vis hood, and not using hood pins? I want 2 modify my ride, but want it 2 be done right! And most importantly i want it 2 be done SAFELY!
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you dont have to use them. ive seen alot of people w/o them but when i had my cf hood i had pins on it. to me id rather have them then not have them. its like a car alarm. you dont need it but its there for extra safety.
I didnt use pins when I had my first CF hood about 2 years ago.. Now I have the same VIS Invader hood again and im not gonna use pins on this one either..
~2014 New Z under the knife, same heart different body~
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2012 numbers - 4SPD AUTOMATIC!!
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well...this is my 3rd cf hood, and ive done both pins and no pins. after trying no pins, id never do it again. when i would be driving on the thruway, or anything above 50, i could literally see the hood floating like it wanted to pop off. after that and seeing a few fly off my friends cars, id never not use pins. its really upto you, but there are pins out there that can be concealed a little bit and not stick out so much. you said u want to mod with safety in mind, so i would think u want pins. small price to pay for saving a $400-600 investment, and your roof, and possibly others on the street around u when it flys off.
just my $0.02
PINS FTL!!!! god i frickn HATE pins, its not a frickn race car. go with the stock latch.
hmmm, my personal experience...
well, we had to "modify" my stock hood latch to get it to work...as the VIS hood doesnt have the hole in it above the catch latch.. so we had to cut off the extreme sharpe edge of the latch so it wouldnt BANG into the hood. (ohh and yes we did try moving the latch all the way down on the adjustments...it still didnt work)
as for bolts... awesome-every stock bolt went in perfectly. although, i used stainless steel alan head bolts.
as for the quality of the hood, very nice... ive seen VIS hoods stay nice, and others dull from the sun... IMO its not a good idea to expect any CF hood to hold up to snow/rain/weather... even the sun will dull the "gel-coat" so u must wax the crap out of it and keep it nice n clean.
the only complaint i really have is the fact that the hood seems to be 1/8 inch SMALLER all the way around, so on a white car... you see the fender bolts, which is tacky as hell IMO, also...the body line that comes off the fender, then continues with the hood over the headlights looks tackey because its an 1/8 inch off...but it couldnt be corrected, like i said...the hood seems to be an 1/8 inch smaller all the way around.
all n all, for the price, id say its OK...not the best, as the hood is actually fiberglass with a top CF layer layed on top, but they are a nice company, and everything seems to be in order with them.
z yaaaa wrote:PINS FTL!!!! god i frickn HATE pins, its not a frickn race car. go with the stock latch.
like said before....pins are for safety, not looks. u think race cars have them there for looks? i think not
i stopped arguing w/ people. i just let people believe what they want.
Im gonna put 2 washers and nuts on the back of the hood latch just to make sure those threads dont bust loose at high speeds.. I think I can get a small nut back there, Ill have to check when I get home.
~2014 New Z under the knife, same heart different body~
______________________
WHITECAVY no more
2012 numbers - 4SPD AUTOMATIC!!
328 HP
306 TQ
I've had both, I currently have the VIS Invader hood without pins, but if you are worried about it, I would be safe and get some pins, they dont have to be huge pins that stick up 2 inches, they make some nice flush-mount pins
if you search "Eazy" in photos & media, you can see the pins i have. they blend in quite well. you can obviously tell they are there, but not even close to as noticeable as my older pins
thanks guys for the tips! i'm definately leaning alot towards using pins. anybody have a exact site that has flush hood pins. i'd look myself, but that can take some time, and why not ask?
thanks Joey Baggs (Eazy716) 4 the advice and the pics!
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| < Chillin' Lake Side!
WI-Jtuners member
if you go to ebay, just type in hood pins and you'll get hundreds of different kinds to give u an idea.
thats how i went about picking out my last 3 sets
Joey Baggs (Eazy716) wrote:z yaaaa wrote:PINS FTL!!!! god i frickn HATE pins, its not a frickn race car. go with the stock latch.
like said before....pins are for safety, not looks. u think race cars have them there for looks? i think not
u say it like the hood is going to fly up, im sorry for your problems...i really am, im just going by my experience, my hood is tight and safe, it would never fly up on me.. the latch and everything works quite well.
pins may be SAFER in terms of "race" cars, but on daily drivers, i really dont think they need them.
and yes i realize they aint for looks.
and btw...joey.. ur car is frickn awesome, how come u dont post many pics of it?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Wednesday, December 27, 2006 9:51 AM
Yeah I wont be using the pins either as stated earlier lol
~2014 New Z under the knife, same heart different body~
______________________
WHITECAVY no more
2012 numbers - 4SPD AUTOMATIC!!
328 HP
306 TQ
z yaaaa wrote:Joey Baggs (Eazy716) wrote:z yaaaa wrote:PINS FTL!!!! god i frickn HATE pins, its not a frickn race car. go with the stock latch.
like said before....pins are for safety, not looks. u think race cars have them there for looks? i think not
u say it like the hood is going to fly up, im sorry for your problems...i really am, im just going by my experience, my hood is tight and safe, it would never fly up on me.. the latch and everything works quite well.
pins may be SAFER in terms of "race" cars, but on daily drivers, i really dont think they need them.
and yes i realize they aint for looks.
and btw...joey.. ur car is frickn awesome, how come u dont post many pics of it?
http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=59&i=5299&t=5218#5299
theres just one example. i remember Steve from MD had his fly up and not only smashed his windshied, but crushed the roof totalling the entire car. just from a hood.
and we're talking daily drivers. no race cars here.
im in the process of my rebuild(secret
) so ill have pics up of the final product around march
z yaaaa wrote:Joey Baggs (Eazy716) wrote:z yaaaa wrote:PINS FTL!!!! god i frickn HATE pins, its not a frickn race car. go with the stock latch.
like said before....pins are for safety, not looks. u think race cars have them there for looks? i think not
u say it like the hood is going to fly up, im sorry for your problems...i really am, im just going by my experience, my hood is tight and safe, it would never fly up on me.. the latch and everything works quite well.
pins may be SAFER in terms of "race" cars, but on daily drivers, i really dont think they need them.
and yes i realize they aint for looks.
and btw...joey.. ur car is frickn awesome, how come u dont post many pics of it?
haha !!!...
NEVER is a pretty strong word...
I have seen many pictures of peoples hoods that flew up and broke the window...Do you know why?
Probably because they said, "I don't need hood pins on my car, the latch feels tight"
"The latch and everything works quite well"
What is this everything that you are speaking of? Some kind of secondary factory latch that only YOU have?
BOTTOM LINE- If you don't use hood pins on your carbon fiber or fiberglass hood, you run the risk of having the hood fly up &
hopefully only damaging
your car.
Latch feels tight or not- it doesn't take much for the wind to get under the hood & rip those bolts right out especially @ high speeds- ITS NOT METAL !!!
Good Luck !!!
redevil...EVERY j comes with a SECONDARY latch...ITS CALLED THE SAFETY LATCH.
and this "everything" im referring to is my "awesome crafted" (aka NORMAL AVERAGE BACK YARD MECHANIC) ability to do it right the first time, sorry if you guys with the misfortune had ur hoods fly up... but did u ever TORQUE the bolts down? ever give it a good check every once in a while? thats what i thought. you guys are quick to judge, but have you even seen my car? NOPE.
so u are saying that the stock latch (THAT I MIGHT ADD WORKS FINE FOR A STOCK CAR) isnt strong enough to hold an even LIGHTER hood? and dont sit there and tell me "ohhh its flymsy its carbon fiber" THATS BS... my hood IS JUST as strong as my stock hood...it DOES have bracing underneath it for strength ya'kno.
and why do you assume that the whole hood is carbon fiber? its not. its actually fiberglass.
idk what the bolts bolt into...but whatever it is, its nice and sturdy, maybe not as sturdy and metal-your right, but my car has done just fine and i wont be adding any guady pins, flush or otherwise.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Wednesday, December 27, 2006 10:31 AM
^^^no ones preaching to you to go buy pins. but bont sit and argue that pins serve no purpose other than on "race cars". gaudy or not, they save cars and possibly lives.
and secondly, the reason this happens is because wether u wanna believe it or not, the hoods are fiberglass. and thin fiberglass at that, which is pretty easily breakable. torque on the bolts to the latch have nothing to do with it holding on. its the fiberglass underneath that the bolts are relying on, and that breaks away from the bolts while the latch is still attached. thats when they fly up. ive seen it happen and ive heard plenty of stories about it. and yes, many have hoods, and never have a problem. like i said, i rode mine with no pins for a while, but dont say they have no tru use other than looking bad. thats like the people who argue that seatbelts and airbags dont save lives either.
/rant
it doesnt matter if its as strong or not, its the fact that its a way ligther material and the wind can get up under it. it doesnt matter who it is or what company you get the hood from. you can have a 800 cf hood and still have it fly up. like i said in my first post. you dont need them but they are there for safety for when the stock latch fails. yes it does fail and ive seen first hand a cowl hood fly up, smash thru the windshield and get stuck in the dash. because of that i will always use pins on a fg or cf hood. like eazy said, no one is saying that every fg or cf hood needs them but its a very good idea from a safety stand point to do so. you dont have to have a race car to need pins.
where exactly is this secondary latch? as far as i know there is 1 latch for the hood.
^^^i think he means when you hit the hood release, its still attached and u have to flip up the release under the hood to let it go.
at least thats how i read it.
So am I the only one who has a sheet metal skeleton under the cf on my hood? I'm not currently using pins with mine, but I have a set I might install over the summer.
my glassclass hood that i just recently sold had brass threads in the hood that you could tighten the bolts into
02 redbadged wrote:thanks guys for the tips! i'm definately leaning alot towards using pins. anybody have a exact site that has flush hood pins. i'd look myself, but that can take some time, and why not ask?
thanks Joey Baggs (Eazy716) 4 the advice and the pics!
I used my cf invader hood on my 98 fire sedan for 6 months, no pins, never had a problem, moves around alot on the highway where its in the open and its windy; you can see the sides of the hood flopping up; it does scare me a bit; but i stop once in a while and check to make sure the latch is tight and all bolts for the hinges, i love the cleaner look with out hood pins, i will take my chances.
Good luck in your decision.
98 j-body sedan
I was curious, I just went out to measure how thick the part is where the bolts screw in for the hood latch.. On my CF VIS Invader hood, its 1/2" thick. Just incase anybody wanted to know
~2014 New Z under the knife, same heart different body~
______________________
WHITECAVY no more
2012 numbers - 4SPD
AUTOMATIC!!
328 HP
306 TQ
