Carbon fiber hood & Hood pins Options

[cheela]

so you guys with carbon fiber hoods or experience with them,
what's your opinion on hood pins?
Are they absolutely necessary? I've heard many horror stories and I've also seen people go without them for years. I don't intend to race/track my celica, just driving around town and the occasional spirited driving. I love the look of a clean hood but don't want to smash my hood and windshield if that's the cost. I also don't want to drill and cut into if not necessary. lemme know what u guys think.
PLEASE VOTE. every vote counts unlike other elections. lol

[block]

If the car is black, yes. It looks mis-matched otherwise.

[PegGTS]

I have been running my hood for a couple years now with no hood pins but I plan on installing some eventually just in case.

[cheela]

^ you're one of the reasons Im ok with not doing hood pins. hahaha.

I haven't taken mine for a good drive yet so I guess that will make a differnece too. it is very light and i hope the latch will hold up.

[Box]

It just depends on the car, but if the latch is properly working and securing the hood you should be fine. There have been plenty of cars with heavy O.E. steel hoods go through the windshield due to owners not caring enough to align and lubricate their hood latches. If you were to use hood pins though I'd go with AeroCatch since they're not glaringly obvious. The old rods sticking out with giant cotter pins only looks good on old muscle cars and even then meh...

[cheela]

Yup. I hear ya box. Definitely not going with the rod style. Aero catch has a nice one where it attached under your hood instead of on top for a more flush/stealth look too. Might try that.

[Box]

I wonder if they offer a carbon fiber look on those as well, then it'd really be hard to see unless right up on the car.

[Tigawoods]

Yup. I hear ya box. Definitely not going with the rod style. Aero catch has a nice one where it attached under your hood instead of on top for a more flush/stealth look too. Might try that.

The flush mount ones are very difficult to mount and require a bit more presice of a cut. They arent much more stealthier than the top mounts. If you dont plan on painting the hood Aerocatch is the way to go. They blend in find with the CF

I wonder if they offer a carbon fiber look on those as well, then it'd really be hard to see unless right up on the car.

You can get them in "carbon fiber look" but it without a doubt would look terrible on real carbon fiber.

[cheela]

ah! true. forgot that u would need precision cuts for that. and I'm not up for that.

yeah cf "look" on carbon might look worse than plain black. thanks for all the feedback guys.

[Tigawoods]

Wow I had no idea that this post was by you lol, I was 5min away from falling asleep and just started writing things hahaha

[cheela]

yeah there was no meme or anything in your post so i was worried. lol

[Box]

My other thought was to take a high resolution picture of the parts of the hood cut out for the latches then scale them to size and print it out on weatherproof vinyl to adhere to the latches so then it'd be a perfect match. Of course you might not be that OCD.

[955SFE]

I have a VIS OEM CF hood. Been 3 years >without< hood pins.

[cheela]

I have a VIS OEM CF hood. Been 3 years >without< hood pins.

nice! good to know.