are carbon fiber hoods street legal?

[slider85]

sorta dumb question but wasn't sure. If they are, who makes them for the 1g's? And, do they usually fit well or is there modification to do?

just looking at visracing.com and it says "For Off Road Use Only", why is that? will the hood fly off on the highway or something?

 

[Jay123]

Two Words

Hood Pins

 

[slider85]

hood pins make it street legal or they just hold it down?

 

[Sean485]

I know my friends OEM VIS CF 1gb hood says "for off road use only"

 

[slider85]

^thanks but I'm looking for REAL answers.

and, how do they hold up in cold, wet, snow, all kinds of weather? because this is a daily driver car and I live in an area that rains and snows.

 

[c5chris]

I dont see a reason why they will be illegal at all.

 

[Nanan]

Depends on state for legality. Some states have laws against aftermarket body parts including bumpers, hoods, and side skirts.

If the hood says "for offroad use only" then my bet is the hood is Not DoT approved for street use. ViS claims that their hoods do not need additional hood pins but I wouldnt tempt fate.

 

[MackZ24]

I just thought I'd throw this question in, since it kind of follows the original poster's; I'm considering buying a Carbon Fiber hood for my 1Ga, and I know that they basically only use some type of epoxy to hold the hood latch onto the bottom. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what should be used to get the strongest, longest lasting hold? (Hood pins would also obviously be used, but just as a thought).

 

[moliver]

I have had my carbon fiber hood on for roughly 9 months. I have been pulled over about 3 times, and they have never said anything about my hood.

 

[JDM0T0]

reason why is because not that its light.. cops will give you the "distraction to other drivers, warning" since the carbon fiber makes a nice wave flow when the light hits it.. oncoming drives can get distracted... but again.. this my buddies car with a loud exhaust so im sure the cop just piled on the warnings.. i have never really seen or heard someone get a ticket from a cop saying the you need to pay this much because your hood is made of a fiber composite material..

 

[JST2FST]

If you get a CF hood make sure you put hoodpins in it, 2 of my friends hd their CF hood flip up on them when they were driving (one had it happen twice)

 

[DSMcrazy3]

I have a ? how much do carbon fiber hoods actually help our FWD cars? I see people all the time talking about how they have no traction through gears(not that they have carbon fiber hoods) but if they did, the lighter weight definitely wouldn't help the traction issue

 

[FFeArXVI]

I could be wrong, but I think a lot of people get it for looks

 

[destruckeclipse]

I could be wrong, but I think a lot of people get it for looks

Unless you are the person who thinks every pound counts. I would say people just want it mainly for looks, but they can say it is helping their times, even if little to none.

I have also seen many people who have riveted their latches on because the hood pins make the look not so clean. I was tempted to get a cf hood and rivet the latch myself. I like it better with out the pins.

 

[MackZ24]

Never really thought about riveting before, does that not show through to the top of the hood?

 

[HighPsi92GST]

the way i see it, if you buy a cf hood and dont paint it to match your car, you bought it for looks.

just my opinion


the chance of getting pulled over JUST because you have a cf hood is very unlikely. sure you may come across a cop that will give you a hard time about it after pulling you over for another violation (speeding or the like). But in that case, you are most likly somewhere that you are not allowd to modify ANYTHING on your car like bumpers and other parts.

as for the FWD question, there was actually someone (wont mention a user name or message board name) that was going to trade his cf hood for an oem hood (he was a fwd car) because he had traction issues and thought this would solve some of his problem. needless to say he was "flamed" to the point the thread was closed. If you are fwd and want a cf hood, get one. If you manage to lose enough traction to cry about because of a lighter hood, buy (or find) 3 or 4 bricks, strap them together using any means possible, and strap them inside the engine bay somewhere. problem solved. you may even gained a few pounds.

 

[Corbic]

Easy fix for the Carbon Fiber hood legality. PAINT IT! I hate seeing unpainted carbon fiber. If you paint no one will ever know.

As for legality, I would think the argument would be safety. I've seen several wrecks with carbon fiber hoods and the hoods almost sustain no damage. The fear would be in a frontal collision the hood would not crumpel correclty and simply slide into the drivers faces taking his head off. Seeing some pics and it looks totally possible, however I have yet to see/read of such and event.

Best solution, if you want to save weight, just paint the hood and the cops and DMV won't know.

 

[brcewane]

I just thought I'd throw this question in, since it kind of follows the original poster's; I'm considering buying a Carbon Fiber hood for my 1Ga, and I know that they basically only use some type of epoxy to hold the hood latch onto the bottom. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what should be used to get the strongest, longest lasting hold? (Hood pins would also obviously be used, but just as a thought).

Depends on which manufacturer's hood you get. I just picked up a Seibon hood for my WRX. Seibon (at least for the WRX) utilizes your stock hood latch. They layer nuts attached to a metal plate into the FRP frame of the hood so that you can bolt your stock hood latch right up to it. That way you don't have to worry about your latch ripping free.

They still have the disclaimer for all their hoods that you need to use hood pins to cover their asses, but all of the shops around me (Toronto) said that they have never heard of a seibon hood that uses that mechanism to ever let go.