Red Witch update
 

Mark sent these pics with a few details. He had a mold made for a carbon fiber hood. It has 2 layers, and inner and an outer. The hinges and latch have steel reinforcement in the stock location so it will be a direct bolt on.

It will be bitchin on the Red Witch. :thumbsup:

Please god.. tell me they will be available for sale to the public.. please.....

There might be 1 or 2 extra available. Give me a call.

that room looks familiar! :yes: Looks great guys. You had them do a 64 Chevelle too, right Mark? :unibrow:

Jody

Drool.

I am planning on using a flat hood on mine, but I might be open to a little change in that regard.

Damn that looks awesome. :thumbsup:

Yes it looks really good..Does it need hood pins for safety at high speeds?

I was wondering if you'd recognize it too. :thumbsup:

Hood Pins
 

The goal was to make it stiff enough and stong enough not to require hood pins. I have ran a couple cars with Harwood fiberglass bolt on hoods with just the stock latch at high speeds and have not had an issue. This hood is stiffer than a fiberglass hood so it should be fine.

Mark

New hood
 

Hey everyone, there was a very aggresive looking CB hood on ebay, it had
two cowl like opennings, not L-88 style, but more rice burnner stlye if you will.

Been trying to find it for a few days now, no luck. I we keep searching and post ASAP.

And Steve....sorry for not getting back to you on the old Penny hood...the students decided the cowl was two large.....very nice quality though.

Thank you Mark for your reply and great to meet you here. Will there be more than few of these to made? I sure would like to have one in future.

We had a mold made so we could make more. I want to see how the first one turns out before we make any more. I just had that one sent to the body shop to get fitted to the Red Witch. If every thing works well I will have a few more made.

Mark

Someone really needs to start producing Carbon Fiber body parts, like hoods, fenders, trunk lids, spoilers, ect. They wouldn't be able to keep them in stock. I hope this really is a start. Just my .02

I'd be really interested in a hood and decklid, but I know what the CF material costs are these days and I know what the tooling costs are. So I recognize that CF is probably not in the offing for my project.

That said, I know Mark is a sharp guy and has a lot of connections. If anyone would be able to find a way to produce such stuff at a reasonable cost he can.

Mark, how much? I would be up for one if you make them.

Mark , I would be up for 2 Right now !!!
where do I send the bengamins?

Looks good Mark! Are they going to paint the hood...most of it?

Copycatter....

yes, top will be red like the rest of the car.

Jody

It would be nice to also make a stinger/yenko style hood and a CF trunk. :unibrow:

The top of the hood will be red and the bottom will be left Carbon to match the carbon valve covers.

Pickle Kisser.

Your phone shall ring today.

The only thing I did to Penny during her "re-do" that added weight was go from the glass hood to the metal hood. I imagine this is quite a bit lighter. Knowing Mark the fitment is going to be good as well. I think these would sell great if the price was right. Heck, the $600 billet hood hinges are selling great and this hood actually has a performance benefit.

I heard this hood weighs 20 lbs.. what does a stock steel hood weigh? 80 lbs? That would be 60 lbs off the high side of the front of the car. :woot:

They should make two versions. One where the CF is nice enough not to have to clear and a cheaper version that would need paint but still have the weight savings. Just an idea :)

I may also be interested in a carbon hood down the road, these look great.

Derek

Let hope Mark will put all hes great ideas to production.I am sure there would be good market for hi quality parts like these fantastic hoods. Can we get rear spoiler ? Trunk lid ? Carbon fiber fender struts ? Door panels? :woot:

Composition
 

That's a really good looking hood. I've considered taking on the same challenge for my second gen in the future, as I'm really starting to get into carbon fiber. You said it had two layers, does that refer to one layer on each side of a honeycomb or two layers per side. I'm assuming that you are using honeycomb. Also, did you use a wet layup or prepreg? Just curious, I'm trying to learn about composites so I can apply them to my project.

Chris

WOW.. Very nice!! :yes:

With regards to what Chris said:

also, any kind of a gel coat used? Vacuum Bagged?

If it's priced right and they are using prepregs, it would be a miricle. I worked and sold these types of materials. They are NOT cheap by any means. and being a prepreg the resin is also premixed, meaning that the material has to be kept cool or it will start it's bonding and crosslinking process, thus ruining itself. In many cases after it sets up at room temp, it will also go into an oven for a stepped heat cure. The final cure gives it really good deminsional stability and hardness.

My guess, wet lay up and vacuum bagged. I'm interested to see if this is correct.

tyoneal

Hot Bonder
 

Don't necessarily need an oven - but you do need a vac and heat source to cause the epoxy to finish cross-linking and final cure. In aviation we have ovens (autoclaves) in our shops - but more and more aircraft primary structures are composite - and those can't be removed from the jet. When it gets delaminated or damaged (damn catering trucks ...) - we repair them right on the aircraft and use portable 'hot-bonders' that have built in vac systems, single, dual or triple heat controllers with silicon heating pads - and all that is computer controlled and the cure cycle is printed on a tape - or dumped to a computer file for the repair record. There are several manufactures of these and most of the military units carry them in the field. Brisk makes one, HeatCon makes another. Aeroform, etc. I have a 2 heat circuit hot bonder at home with about 5 rolls of carbon pre-preg in my freezer..... Maybe I'll copy Mark and do my widened porsche hood with that.

I'll post some pictures of mine if you guys are interested.

Jim

For the DIYers in the group:

http://www.turbomustangs.com/techart...arbonfiber.php

John

The hood is two layers of 3K 2x2 Carbon fiber twill, 5.7 oz per square ft with a clear UV stable vinyl ester gelcoat. It is vacumn formed , has a 2 mil honeycomb inner and is cured at 150* for 8 hours. It is supposed to be able to sit in sunlight up to 333* without distorting. Weight is about 20lbs. I weighed a stock flat Camaro hood at 59 lbs.

What's a steel cowl hood weigh? About 80 lbs is my guess..

Has any one seen or checked out the cf hoods that Year One sells?
I believe Glasstek makes them (2"&4" cowl)for about $800.

I have been contemplating one of the Year One pieces for a couple of months, but now I will just be a big copycat if I get one. :_paranoid

I am sure they are not as pretty as this one!

Jeff, I would say your probably right on that guesstamation

Copycat,who's not a copycat on these sites?It's shared intesterest.;)
I'd still like to know if anybody has used one of these from year one?
Jerry

Simply beautiful. What's the weight diff between CF and fiberglass?

Got a link to that? I can't seem to find it on their site.

You have PM. I decided I am ordering on Monday. Will let you all know how the quality is.

Charlie love the hood! That is going to look killer on the Red Witch. :thumbsup:

They stopped making it. We've had one on order since July and have been promised it since November and still nothing. But we have a potential tracking # that says it will be here Monday.