Earl H

How is quality? Fit and finish? Pics would be great too.

Evil-Twin

THeir site seems to cater to imports... there is no picture... and Ive never heard of anyone here with their hood... supose to be the same as the factory look... its carbon fiber, and its 200 dollars cheaper than the factory hood... at 499 ... I always say, I can not afford to buy anything cheap...
Most C5 carbon fiber goods are 1600 to 2000 dollars...MY Motorcity Hood is top quaility... their website shows pictures and there are countless testimonial of the quality

Goody

I saw their hood on Ebay. Not stock looking though for the one I saw. No experience either.

Racer

Here is a pic. The hump looks like crap. Looks like you could fit a Toyota Echo under that brute. :U

Earl H

I want to thank all of you that have answered. VIS does offer an OEM style cf hood. Since they are mostly into imports, I checked some of their boards. The reviews are mixed...more bad than good. Issues with fit and finish and quality. I would only order one if I could be assured of a hassle-free return if it didn't live up to my expecations.

One of you guys said that they don't accept credit cards. That, to me is, a bad sign. I make every large purchase with a cc, because of the protection that it affords the buyer in the event of a dispute. A company that won't accept credit cards in today's times is either a very small company or one that doesn't want to be exposed to forced refunds due to disputes with its customers over quality, services or other. :( :(

Too bad we can't find someone who has the OEM style VIS CF hood.

cfi_luz

I can't comment on this exactu hood but i had a VIS hood on my supra and rx7 and they both fit nearly perfect. In fact the body guy said my supra hood was one of the best aftermarket ones he had seen. Other cheap hoods don't fit well, the edges of the hood are cut straight off (not beveled like a stock hood or the VIS unit). If the price is right I might order one as well.

pinot

Interesting. I have a VIS that I got from LAPD and it works very well. I agree with Racer44 about the one in the pic, but mine does not look like that.
Mine is totally stock shape, just fabbed from CF instead. The other plus here is it comes clear coated if you want to keep it raw.


[Modified by pinot, 10:33 PM 3/19/2004]

411_monkey

Got any pics?

Earl H

Its 499 for the OEM style CF Hood.

411_monkey

I couldn't find any of the C5 OEM style hood pics on google or anywhere else although i've seen a bunch of their hoods on supras, civics, accords, ect ect while looking online and they looks pretty good the fitment on most of them looks good. And i'm guessing they can sell hoods for 500 bucks because they got tons and tons of people buying their other hoods. Most of their hoods are around 350. So i guess they did apply a little vette tax with the 500 but hey atlease its not as bad as some CF hoods out now that cost north of 1200. I prefer OEM style over most after market hoods. If someone got one of these hoods and it came out good in fit and finish i'd most likely get one since i can't see spending 1200+ for just an appearence mod but that might just be me.

cfi_luz

Hmm, thats very tempting. Earl you are going to get me in trouble with the other half ;).

411_monkey

Luz you said you ordered one of their hoods before do they come clear coated or are they just raw?

Earl H

411, The price quoted includes clear-coated raw cf

Jeff, order the hood and tell us about it.... :D

pinot

Have gotten several IM's on this. So lets recap

F & F is very good on this unit. I have a small spider crack that was probably from shipping, but it is not a deal breaker. It does take some tweaking to get it to latch and line up properly, but any new hood would. My OEM hoodliner/light did work with it just fine. You will have 2 issues due to weight.
1. The stock gas struts are too strong for the CF hood and it must be pushed down rather than just letting it drop as an OEM would.
2. You will get some serious "flutter and flex" from the hood at higher speeds (85+) because of all the air. This is a little freakish, but nothing to worry about.

I did a lot of research before I bought it and stock shaped c5 CF hoods are few and far between. This is the real deal. Mine is just clear coated and looks good on a black Z06. Very few guys have an all clear coat CF hood and it brings comments all the time. Take the plunge and get 'er done.

cfi_luz

That all sounds very tempting except the fluttering part. That has me a bit concerned. I do a lot of high speed, track driving and if it does this at 85 what happens at 160+? Appreciate your knowledge on the subject and if you could get some pictures that would be awesome :yesnod:

411_monkey

You sure it had to do with just weight? I wonder if this happens to any of the guys with Z16 Z06s and their carbon fiber hoods. Everything sounded fine till the flexing part.

Anyone with a Z16 experience this problem with your factory carbon fiber hoods?

pinot

I'll do my best to take some pics as I don't have easy access to dig camera yet. Will be a couple of days and it will have to be in direct sunlight as it is more subtle than you would think.
Back to the flutter issue - You guys have forced me to give more thought on this. Most of the flutter happens all the way at the rear most section by the window cowl. We concentrated our alignment efforts at the front and got near perfectly consistant gap all the way around, even adjusting the headlight assemblies to prevent any rubbing issues while lights are in the up position.My driver's side rear corner is slightly higher than my front qtr panel. If I were to snug the receiving latch down (so the hood would wind up flush with the qtr panel) than you would have to push the hood into the latch once you got it closed, you could no longer "drop it" as you presently do when you close it. The weight of the hood is simply not enough to press against the hood seal enough to grab the latch when the latch is in the lower position. The tighter seal would prolly assist the high speed flutter at the cowl.

Also If think back to it, the flutter is similiar to a sympathetic vibration in that it only occurs at certain speeds. Another theory might be that once very high speeds are seen, there is enough downforce on the hood to null any flow pushing it up from underneath. I would guess that the OEM guys dealt with all these issues when they did the Z16 setup. This all goes back to the lack of structural rigidity in this CF hood. When it is in the up position for service, there is so much flex and twist you would swear it is made of heavy duty cardboard. I also have the "Performance" hood seal. Maybe this is blocking airflow and forcing all the air to the rear of the hood, putting more stress there and magnifying the issue.

kumar75150

Thats why you see many imports with carbon fiber hoods have hood pins. I am pretty sure its because of the light weight.