9 replies to this topic

[strudel]

I have had this CF hood laying around for a couple of years and decided it was finally time to make use of it and fix it to the quality it deserved to be for our little cars. I bought it from a fellow member in the Seattle area. The CF hood flipped up and created some major damage. The fibreglass webbing delaminated along the edges, chipped the corners and also cracked the webbing. At first casual glance it did not look too bad.

 

 

To my chagrin it was worse than the casual view showed. It was very flimsy and appeared that if one would grab the front while opening it up there would be major stress along the old original hood line. Below are the de-laminations along the edges and break in webbing.

 

 

 

The corners along the top of the hood were also damaged and broken off a bit.

 

 

 

 

[strudel]

The fibreglass webbing was then removed from the CF hood. I basically gently pried up as much as I could and then used a grinder to remove the remainder. I left the section in front of the webbing on as a guide for the replacement metal webbing.

 

 

 

 

 

I then took a standard hood and ground the webbing off. Normally the hood is crimped over the webbing. After some serious grinding I was left with just the metal webbing.  It was at this point that I decided to re-inforce the part which replaced the old header panel. I felt that if anyone would open the new hood they would try to lift it from the very front. This would then put strain on the CF that hung over the new webbing. I then bent three pieces of 1/4" steel rod into shape and then proceeded to weld it to the new webbing.

 

 

Rods welded in and etch primed. Then a coat of some left over red paint I had to seal the inside of the webbing.

 

 

 

I decided to repair the hood pin holes that had been drilled into the CF hood. I just cut some small pieces of plastic and shaped them to size and glued them in. They will eventually be re-drilled and just a plastic button pin installed. I did this instead of filling the holes and painting the left/right sides of the hood black as suggested by a friend.

 

[chedda_j]

Interesting

[strudel]

Now comes the fun part laminating the two pieces together. The two part adhesive was the expensive part at jus under $100.00 and a special gun to apply the glue.

 

 

 

 

Seam sealer was also used on the all the original little dimples provided for that purpose. 

 

 

The corners would also be repaired with the special epoxy used to laminate the two parts together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A day later it was installed on the car. 

 

 

Here you can see the button plugs to cover the old hood pin holes.

 

 

I will post another update with the webbing painted flat black, corners repaired and painted. Also a pic of the new hood release mechanism I installed as the old system was no longer accessible from under the front of the new hood.

[cbstdscott]

That is work worth of Edd China from Wheeler Dealers!

[strudel]

That is work worth of Edd China from Wheeler Dealers!

I'm Flattered! Had to google who that was. I'm probably not in that league. Few more pictures tomorrow for the last nuances to the hood.

[strudel]

Last update. Picture of hood open and painted in flat black.

 

 

New hood release orientation. I just used an old lawn mower cable but an old hood release cable will work. Cut to length and drill hole in old release. Add some clamps to hold the cable. Be careful as you can see I tried two different hole locations on the release mechanism.  The one closest to engine didn't work as the bar that clamps into the release hit it. Surprise, surprise. Also the clamp next to the release has to be fairly low or the hood won't lock.

 

 

Then the cable gets threaded through the slam panel and out just over the headlights. You can just see the pull on the very right. Can't see it from the outside but if you just lift the hood enough it's reachable and works perfectly.

 

 

 

Since the hood tips were damaged I had to come up with a solution after the repair. I just chose to make a triangle area and paint it gloss black. Works for me. Other alternative was to paint down the hood lines and have a full two tone hood and I didn't like that idea.

 

 

If anyone is interested the hood is for sale. Perhaps the projector beam lights as a set as well. I will most likely be selling the CRX as I have had a great time with it but have decided to concentrate full time on my Mini project. It will have the same or similar engine and drive train as the CRX. Should prove quite interesting. JS

 

 

 

 

 

[crxmobber]

Thats my old hood! my friend still remembers me screaming noooooooooooooooooooooo from down the road as that happened. good for you man lookin good!

[strudel]

Thats my old hood! my friend still remembers me screaming noooooooooooooooooooooo from down the road as that happened. good for you man lookin good!

I actually bought it off of Alexander in Seattle but I think he is now out of the CRX scene. It had been sitting for a very long time before I finally got my sh*t together to get it repaired. It has some crazing in the CF but overall looks good on the car. Much stiffer than the original version and now less prone to any damage when lifting the hood. It closes with the feel of a complete metal hood but still lighter. JS

[crxmobber]

I actually bought it off of Alexander in Seattle but I think he is now out of the CRX scene. It had been sitting for a very long time before I finally got my sh*t together to get it repaired. It has some crazing in the CF but overall looks good on the car. Much stiffer than the original version and now less prone to any damage when lifting the hood. It closes with the feel of a complete metal hood but still lighter. JS

yeah i haven't talked to him in years, last i heard he was getting into mr2's.   It looks like your hood is stronger than ever now, you did a great repair job on it. i always thought about smoothing it out and just painting the same color as the car but i ended up trading for the zc bump hood. Mine has some miner corner damage as well on top of the cf. I was going to attempt to repair the corners like you did, with a 2 part clear marine epoxy but i have been lazy and its still holding together ok. maybe one of these days i will just paint it black but i do like the look of cf too.