Carbon Fiber Hood for my WRX

[unclebilly]

I posted this on the Subaru forum with no reply... what do you guys think?

My car got shellacked in a hail storm on Tuesday. They can do PDR on the roof and trunk lid but it needs a new hood. It looks like a Carbon Fiber hood will cost about the same as a new Subaru hood and paint.

What CF hood is the best? I plan to put 3M on the entire hood to protect it from stone chips, etc. Do I need to be worried about sun damage or anything else?

Will a CF good hurt the value of the car? It is otherwise stock.

My car is dark charcoal so this would be really subtle.

https://seiboncarbon.com/products/oem-style-carbon-fiber-hood-for-2015-2019-subaru-wrx-sti.html

[harvardma]

I had a Seibon one on mine. It was well made and the fit was good.

[javadog]

Very few aftermarket carbon fiber pieces are worth anything. Most of them are probably normal wet layups, as opposed to the kind made with pre-preg and cured in an autoclave. Proper fit is often a problem. And the UV in sunlight is a concern, which is why you will see many of them clear coated with a UV resistant clearcoat.

As for value, it would devalue the car to a person like me. 20-something millennials would love it. It would be a step down the road they would pursue to effectively ruin what is a good car.

[fastfredracing]

It would also devalue a car to some one like me. I feel like that ship has sailed maybe ? I don't seem to see nearly as many as I used to, not even on the tuner kids cars .
I was in a similar situation a few years back and decided against it .

[911boost]

Which Subaru forum?

NASIOC?

[RedBaron]

I’m a 20 something millennial and it would devalue the car to me too. I don’t see the point of it. That being said its your car, do what you want.

[pwd72s]

Any time you modify your car, you are shrinking the number of potential buyers. But in this case, does it really matter? The WRX is hardly a megabux collector car...

[DanielDudley]

On your car it might look very attractive. If and when you sell the car, it doesn't have to attract everyone, just the buyer.

[Racerbvd]

I have a Crawford carbon fiber hood on my 924S, but it is painted to match the car.

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

Do I need to be worried about sun damage or anything else?

Uhhhm, yes, eventually. Even factory pre-preg pieces with UV-resistant gel coat will go dull given long enough. Cheesy aftermarket pieces without protection just do it faster.

Go look at any 20 year old Ducati non-base model; these usually came with some factory-fitted carbon pieces from the DP catalog in addition to the uprated suspension. It's easy to date relative age(s) of the carbon bits unless they've been flatted back and re-finished.

NOS parts are deep black and glossy - but my original hugger/mudguard are roughly as dull & matte as the ABS plastic parts that would otherwise have been fitted back in the day. They didn't look like that new...

[porsche4life]

I sold lots of carbon hoods, a few for WRXs even. I wouldn’t buy any of them that are cheaper than the Seibon. Carbon creations is absolute garbage when it comes to fit and finish.


Seibon turns out decent stuff, and has good customer service and will make it right if it gets damaged in transit(very common) it for some reason has a molding issue.

And yes, UV is a concern, coat it with a good clear coat and wax it religiously.

[otto_kretschmer]

I wouldn't buy a graphite hood. I would build one. It's not hard.

[slow&rusty]

I have a Carbon fiber hood on my Datsun Z, and had it color matched to the rest of the car. It was expensive (custom made using my steel hood as a mold) and well made and I did it to save weight 15 years ago when it was the rage, it weighs 8lbs as opposed the stock 37lb steel hood. It has held up well in 15 years.

[unclebilly]

Thanks for the thoughts on this. The Siebon hood is the one I was considering.

This will be part of an insurance claim so it wouldn’t make sense to build one myself.

[Jims5543]

Year ago I was getting my FC RX7 painted, my hood was an older hood off of a convertable RX7 (Aluminum) and beat up.

I did not want to stock hood with the hood scoop due to the FMIC being removed and a FMIC being installed.

I ended up guying a CF hood online from a tuner. Since the car was black I figured it would look OK, I tried to like it, I didn't I dropped the hood off at a paint shop and had them spray it to match the car.

My car was very far from a stock example (engine swap coil over suspension etc..) so keeping all stock parts was not an issue for me.

The CF hood was lighter than the Aluminium hood. I was all about shaving weight off that car. So I was happy with the hood.

[bleucamaro]

Composite body parts have 2 big down-sides.
1st: Fit. A lot are just terrible. Either in the overall sizing, or in the way they're bonded to the sub-structure. Seibon has a good reputation, so they may be great fitting.

2nd: UV protection. Your hood will look great out of the box, but any time in the sun will cause it to yellow and dull. Before you put it on, get it clear coated with a UV protecting clear.

Google Search for GM UV resistant clear coat for carbon fiber