6G Celicas Forums

Howdy Everyone,

As some of you already know, Im one of the lucky few to own a Celica ST205 here in the States, New York for that matter. Been trying to sell this car for a month now, even began by advertizing it here.

Anyways, you also noticed that I own and daily drive an Evo 5. Recently, over the past month or so, Ive organized a group buy on carbonfibre and carbon/kevlar hoods for the evos 5/6 on the MLR forum:

http://www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?threadid=29806

http://www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?threadid=31722

Now, if you have taken your time to read through or at least look at the pictures on the links above, you can see what type of quality craftmanship Im talking about here. Ive seen carbon hoods frmo companies like Varis and Monster-Sport from Japan, and these will destroy them in terms of quality, craftsmanship, production process, and you cant get them in kevlar or v-shape carbon style with a clear back. Most important, far cheaper then any Japanese hood, and shipping into the US will only cost about 100 to 130 bucks! I dont think anybody can beat that! Also, if I get alot of orders going to NY for example, I can ship it all to one location, and that will save even more on freight charges. Dont be shy if you live outside the US, I can get good competitive shipping rates anywhere in the world.

Here's the deal:

I would be the donor hood, meaning the company will make a mold out of my stock Celica GT4 hood. Im not in this to make a profit, only to get an awesome feakin hood at a decent price, and not have to go through Japan and get killed with shipping costs.

We need a minimum of 10 people down with this buy to make this happen. Basically its not cost effective to go through all that trouble of tooling/manufacturing w/o this amount of hoods being made. Basically the requirements are 50% deposit from 10 people to begin the fabrication, I will then send out my hood to Canada where it will be preped/molded/etc, and in 1.5 to 2 months, all hoods will be sent to everyone's house. These hoods are guaranteed to Leave you with a smile on your face.

Here's a list of prices:

532 USD for a plain carbonfibre with balck inside
552 USD for a plain carbonfibre with clear back (the inside looks like the outside)
625 USD for a carbon/kevlar hood (50% lighter than carbon, you specify color)
645 USD for a carbon/kevlar with clear back
625 USD for a carbon V-Shape style Material (see pic on the thread above)
645 USD for a carbon V-Shape with clear back

Also, spliters are available if you want to add it to your order (see pics):

105 USD for splitters either in Carbon or Carbon/Kevlar (specify color)

Colors are: Red, Blue, Yellow, and Orange

The most popular choice hood seems to be the carbonfibre with clear back, which costs $552 bucks. Divide this in half, and your deposit would be 276 bucks do now, and 276 + shipping due in about 1-2 months.

I think these would be a great addition to your show car for next year, or just for the looks on your 6gen Celicas. For those of you that dont know what a gt4 ST205 hood looks like, check out the picture of the one on my car below.

If you want one of these, just put your name down, and once we have 10 buyers, we can begin paying for them. Payments will be done via paypal directly to the company. The business is a certified paypal member, for those that dont know paypal, this guarantees your money wont get ripped-off basically when you pay. The advantage of using paypal is that you can use credit cards, e-checks, transfer money directly from your checking acct, or if you have a balance there just transfer right over.

Make sure to put your email address, which hood you would like (specify carbon, kevlar, color, v-shape, anything), wether you would like holes cut out for the washer jets, etc. I can talk to the manufacturer and have him incorporate a grille into the hood in case you guys dont want to order one from overseas. Or I can get someone to offer them at a discount for a group buy. Well, two choices on that part of the hood.

I will email everyone with payment information once I get 10 people. I will formulate a list, mail it to him, he will begin accepting payments, once we have about 8 or so I will ship my hood to him via DHL just like I did with my Evo hood. Simple!

Thanks for taking your time and reading through this post. I hope we can get 10 peeps down and get some nice and shiny carbon hoods for our lovely cars!

Now thats fully sik!
I am concerned about the gap between the st 205 hood and the stock st204 bumper. Also the latch problem that most of the people that have the original st205 hood has. Those hoods look madstyles and I wouldnt mind one if we can get around the above problems and probably some other ones that I cant think about at the moment. Also what shape are the splitters going to be designed around.

Knowing that you got a GT4 in the states, it would be fairly safe to say that you are more than competent in completing this group buy if there are enough people that are interested and have the spare cash.

hey,
i might be interested as i have to replace my st205's hood .. it was bought damaged in japan ..

will all the vent trim and such still bolt on and i also need holes drilled for my cowl spolier on wrc hood as well

BTW i highly reccommend posting on http://forum.gt4oc.com as well i am on there more than here and it is full of UK st205 owners ...

derek
WRC in BFE

This post has been edited by 95WRC: Nov 8, 2003 - 8:38 AM

COUNT ME IN DUDE!!! CAN YOU POST PICS FRON THE SPLITERS ON A CELICA

You do know that if the hood is gonna be a mold replica of the factory GT4 hood, it's not gonna line up with the stock bumpers of USDM Celicas. The hood is slightly raised in the center on the GT4's, so there'll be a small 1/2 in gap between the bumper and hood. If you can confirm that this hood will be flush with the stock bumpers (not the gt4 bumper)... then perhaps I might be interested...

thanks Kwanza and SIKBOY for the useful info. I was unaware of this, believing that they shared the same bodystyle thus the hoods would be a direct replacement.

Now, what would be required to make this work? Does anyone have a picture of the "1/2in gap" between bumper and hood? I never had any latch problems, but these hoods would come with some sick patented nickel-plated latches anyway, I guess that solves that problem.

What if the hood is adjusted as to lower its fitting points down about a half inch? Meaning, what if during fabrication, the mounting holes/points on the upper part of the hood would be drilled .5 inches higher so that the hood would eventually go more into the bumper. Wouldnt this solve this issue?

Derek, thanks for the information on the other group. I'd ask if you can please post there for me, and just keep me updated. Actually, if you can post a direct link to this thread, that would be awesome! I will check it out when I have more time.

thnx for everyone that are interested...

Aurelio

Here's a photo of the gap. I'm interested to see where this group buy goes.

I would be in for the hood, but I was wondering on the weight because my GT4 hood is damn light. and if it is possible to go any lighter that would be crazy.

And could we get a group buy or just an order on the splitters?

hey,
from what i see Duane will have to make 2 molds .. a real st250 hood and a
modded one to fit US cars..

i don't think just lowering hood will do ..

jigga- link is set plus i see a lot of guys who bought Evo hood were from UK so if you have shipping worked out i will pass along to UK st205 guys ..

d-

hey guys, i'm in. that is if the small details about fitment are ironed out. i will be dropping in a 3sgte from an st185 RC. all i have right now is an oem. or i would even be interested in buying a front piece from a gt four, then i guess i would need a hood exactly like - jigga's. either way i need that hood. i hope to have swap done by christmas or the new year. i have time to wait for shiping. let me know something. thanks, R...03

Coomer, thanks for the picture. Always very helpful indeed.

Jabberwock, expect the hoods to weigh anywhere between 10 to 15 lbs. My evo hood will weigh about 10 once finished. Lighter than stock, yet not a crappy flimsy hood you see being sold out there. Very sturdy, locks in place with original hood lock, no need for pins.

95wrc, the price for shipping to UK is 1200 USDollars for 15 hoods. Divide that by 15 buyers, it will cost 80 bucks per hood! They will have to hire a broker to handle the container and pay taxes etc. We're calculating on the evo hoods that shipping will run about 120 to 150 bucks per person. If you canlay this information to the brits, Id really appreciate it.

R-03, I will get more info about this soon. I have a white celica also Im selling, maybe I'll swap hoods and take some accurate measurements and pictures. Lets wait until I get a final word on this.

Im very interested. It will have the same openings right? All we would need to do is buy some mesh to cover the opening? I don't much care about the gap really. For 560$ compared to 1200, its a steal

i would be 102% down if they fit the US bumper. I dont want the gap, but dont want the gt-4 front end either

Yeah the weight would be cool. I am really interested, will just see and wait what goes down.

id be interested if the gap problem works out...

I think the gap doesn't look that bad it looks kinda of like a baby vent.

Also, there are other problems. From what I have heard, direct copies of the GT-Four hood is extremely hard due to its mesh area in the center of the hood. I don't know if this would be easilly enough re-created and still be fully functional and/or full quality. No offense in any way, Jigga, just thought I'd bring that to attention. Also, I'm not 100% sure on that, so, it would have to be confirmed. Just trying to give you a heads-up.