carbon fiber hoods

[Logic]

i been considering a carbon fiber hood for some time and should have gotten one like three years ago when they were 500 and i know by replacing i not only will i be taking off weight and it matchs my sports trim . have any of you had them and if so did you use hood pins? what risks did you deal with?

[Proven Guilty]

the sport trim is fake carbon fiber. it's just a sticker over plastic. the carbon fiber hoods that are produced for the W202 and readily available are made by VIS. there have been a few members on this forum that used the VIS hood, and had bad experience with them.

issues with VIS carbon hoods:
-fitment was described as very poor
-finish wasn't great. you'll probably want to wetsand and re-clearcoat fresh out of the box.
-they tend to crack near the top, where your current hood springs are. you cannot use OEM hood springs as they were designed for the bigger reinforced steel hood that mercedes originally installed.
-you must use pins if you plan on going over 40mph
-that look has been out for about 6 years now

i think i covered 'em all :D

don't do it for the black hood look, do it for the weight reduction and paint that mofo imo. their pattern isn't very clean and consistent either.

[Logic]

well since the car is black it would be fine ...wasn't going to the black hood look....i knew the trim wasn't real and since it was more for weight and looks the things you told me was very informative...thanks i have seen some on the 203 body styles and they looked great ...and i knew that was like a 6 year old thing LOL the price for them are reaching 700 plus so i wanted to know a little more about them....:beard:

[xvvvz]

You might check the classified archives here and at the other popular MB boards because I believe there was a fairly recent post for a CF hood.

[97C28O]

Erebuni had a 2 day sale on CF hoods and our W202 was listed as one of them. They costed 125$ + Shipping compared to the $600+ original price?

[xvvvz]

Here is the link:

http://www.erebunicorp.com/accesscustom/mercew202.htm

Unfortunately, it was a two day sale on 9/5 and 9/6.

[Logic]

go figure...any ways i bet the shipping was high to comp on the price

[C230KSPORT00]

Hey guys. I been wanting a Carbon Fiber hood and tunk for a little while now. ( for the weight reduction, not the look ) Do you guys know where i could find a hood? What about a trunk? Did logic go through with it? How much weight do you guys think i would b taking off? And also how much $$? Thanks :D

[PhilfromPA]

Hoods I have a feeling are going to start being tough to come by, although there are some on ebay but I'm not sure of the quality. Erebuni did offer them, but are no longer on their site.

There has been talk in the past about someone putting together a CF trunk but I don't think anything ever came about it.

Someone weighed their CF hood before and came around 19-20lbs if I remember correctly. I'm not sure of the stock hood weight though.

[C230KSPORT00]

The stock hood has to weigh at least 130lbs... :rolleyes: Any one know for sure? If anyone is interested in carbon fiber search carbon fiber hood and look for the post that HARV started. I talked to him and he says he is starting the Carbon Fiber parts again. Check it out.

[ludachris]

Originally posted by xvvvz
Here is the link:

http://www.erebunicorp.com/accesscustom/mercew202.htm

Unfortunately, it was a two day sale on 9/5 and 9/6.

uhhh...that link took me to carbon fiber eyebrows...?

[nokia8860]

Originally posted by Logic
have any of you had them and if so did you use hood pins? what risks did you deal with?

I use hood pins (front corners) to securely mount the hood to the car. Reason being is when you look at the underside of the hood where you mount the catch you will see its nothing more than fiberglass with some threaded nutserts, not the most inspiring of mountings.

At any speed above 40ish the hood will start to lift on the front corners causing air to lift the hood from underneath and then be pushed down from the air above. So when you are at freeway/highway/motorway speeds you hood not only lifts from the front corner but the entire hood is going up and down. I attribute this to the lightness of the hood and the single hood latch at the front of the car.

Once I installed and adjusted the pins (sparco) it help anchor the front better and now it does not move at all.

For installation you will need at least another person (3 total will help as the stock hood is heavy and having that crack your front windshield isn’t fun at all) The carbon hood can be installed by yourself but helps if you have another set of hands (if you have hero powers then that’s different) as it is really light, just large and awkward to hold.

Additional notes you should consider are that I had to enlarge the hood mounting bolts as they were either too small or placed incorrectly to allow for a nice alignment of the hood. The washer jet holes are too small and required some sanding on my part to have them attach correctly. You should remove the stock hood shocks as this may crack your hood as you try to close it. Be gentle in closing your hood if you are not you will crack it. And by crack meaning the clear coat.

I had my hood for sometime now and its holding up well. No issues really from it after installation and while others may feel that the look is a bit old I think it looks rather smart. I’ve attached a picture I took today so you can see if you are considering one for your car (it’s a VIS hood purchased from TWS, best place in the world for car parts!!)

[C230KSPORT00]

Nice. Looks like a good fit. Can you paint these hoods to match your car?

[Logic]

well as far as looking for them i really haven't since they have sky rocketed ...when i first was looking they were running about 550. now there 700 plus ...as far as the hood pins couldn't you use a bungy cord in each corner to hold it down ..i dont like the hood pin look...also the shocks you speak of are they on the hindges also i heard oyu need to take the sping up front out too since that can crack the hood since its there for the heavy oem hood

[Cru328prod]

Hey guys. I been wanting a Carbon Fiber hood and tunk for a little while now. ( for the weight reduction, not the look ) Do you guys know where i could find a hood? What about a trunk? Did logic go through with it? How much weight do you guys think i would b taking off? And also how much $$? Thanks


MAN DIDN'T I GIVE YOU A LIST OF WHERE YOU COULD GET ALL THE STUFF FOR OUR CARS, AND WHAT YOU COULD DO WITH THEM

[C230KSPORT00]

lol yea u did but he says he can't do any custom CF work anymore. But i found Harv. He said he would take care of it. BTW do you know if i could paint a CF hood to match my white paint? I don't think i like the look of the CF hood, its looks ricy IMO. (is that what ricy means?)

[PhilfromPA]

Any good body shop should be able to match & blend the CF hood to the rest of the car

[C230KSPORT00]

Cool thanks:cool: