I am looking for a lightweight replacement hood for my 951. There is some minor hail damage on my car, but only on the hood. The dings will drive me nuts if I stare at them every day. Should I just have the dings pulled out, or could I find a carbon fiber hood that I can paint to match the car? Or a fiberglass hood? What kind of money am I looking at for a CF or fiberglass hood? Thanks everyone!

 

www.gt-racing.com

They have lots of CF / Fiberglass stuff..... but just about anything you find is going to be race oriented needing lots of finishing to make it look a factory part.....

 

Andy has a CF hood on his flat black beast (944N/A with a 951 motor swap). It came from The Racers Group, it was around $800 including shipping. Very nicely made. You might want to visit their site and take a look. They are Rennlist Sponsors.

 

I agree with Tifo. (That wasnt so bad, was it??) Andy's CF hood is amazing- the weave is a beautiful - not "ricer" at all. It's a gret offset to the Satin black of the car.

 

The fitment of the GT racing hood that I saw was AWFUL, it took about 400 bucks in work to make it look good. That said when it was done it looked GOOD. One thing to keep in mind is that you should not use the hood shocks with either hood, they have far to much force and in an ideal world you should be using hood pins.
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You may want to try one of those paintless dent removal places. Perry 951 had a hood fixed at one of those places and they did a nice job.

 

Repairing the dents and repainting isn't too expensive and you can even to most of the work yourself. About any CF or fiberglass hood will require lots of work to make it look factory original, so expect the total cost to be higher than fixing your existing hood. The main advantage of the composite hood is weight reduction. Less weight=better acceleration. Your $$, your choice.

 

andys hood is from racers group and it bolted right on perfect but needs to be sanded and cleared. No hood shocks though.

 

Yeah, and DON"T make the mistake of believing the old coots who sell them either. Hank is off by about 30 pounds in his catalogue. A 944 hood weighs 45 pounds, not 79 pounds. A FIBERGLASS hood weighs 25 pounds (with back reinforcement such that you would need without using hood pins front AND rear) So you will have saved 20 pounds on a street car for about 7,000 hours work.

 

I was considering just removing and storing the original hood and have the dings removed at another time. However, I would love a CF hood for the weight savings. I just spoke with Ryan with Racer group, he is a super cool guy and relieved my worries about improper fitment of the hood. And I can have it painted black at my shop. I know it would look cool in raw CF, but I want it to match the car and appear stock.

 

is there a way to color CF or FG.....so it would be red but still have the weave?

 

Do you have any tips on paintless dent repair?

 

Did Ryan say what their hoods weigh? I would pay 800+ for one if it saved at least 30 lbs.

 

SM- nope, did it myself the old fashioned way- body filler, primer, elbow grease and paint.

 

Ryan said the CF hoods weigh 5 pounds less than the fiberglass hoods. I think it would weigh about 25 pounds.