Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

You wouldn't be the first person to start a business from a small project like this. I always like to see people having a go. Good on you. Let us know the end weight and photos of vent cutout then all painted up.

  • Replies 47
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

hey buddy. im looking to replace my bonnet too. i cant decide between a carbon vented, or a fg vented item.

how stable is the fg item at highway speed?

have u had any problems? easily cracked etc?

Both items are fine, they are just as good as factory items if made properly. Never seem any problems with them cracking or anything, only problem i've seen is with carbon fibre bonnets when the clearcoat/gelcoat fades and turns a whitey colour and sometimes flakes off, usually caused by old age spending too many hours under the sun or just lack of care and it is purely cosmetic.

if you do add any more glass in, do it from underneath, for 2 reasons. 1: saves you having to smooth it out again, and 2: the more you add to the top, the further it is going to sit out from the lights and be higher than the 1/4 panels

post-26632-1247477258_thumb.jpg

there is no carbon fibre bonnet on the market that is as strong as the original metal.

you will find they are quite flexible and thats why you need bonnet pins to stop them lifting on the edges in the wind. They crack when they bend too much, often around the top of the radiator area. If it is pinned down properly it wont flex and will last forever.

fibreglass and carbon will crack or tear in a crash too, unlike a metal bonnet which will fold and bend.

don't go thinking they are stronger is all im saying lol.

here are some pics of what track speeds do to bonnets

post-26632-1247477014_thumb.jpg

post-26632-1247477026_thumb.jpg

i think it isn't so much because it is lighter, but because it is more flexible. steel is rigid so it can just have a single latch in the centre, but fibreglass is more flexible and at speed once a corner started to lift it would just keep on lifting, because the higher it lifts the more force it gets lifting it. if you have ever paid attention on the v8 supercars when they lift the bonnet, it flexes all over the place because it has no frame underneath it.

there are photos of mine and other cars with only two bonnet pins going down the straight at oran park at the sau day with the leading edge of the bonnets a good 10cm above the headlights in the middle. we now use more pins lol.

yes it is because they are flexible, not because they are light. take the frame off a metal bonnet and it will do the same thing. fg or cf will always be more flexible for the same amount of material

how do the r34 v-spec2 gtr's go with their carbon bonnets?

another way to help with flexing and lifting at speed would be to make it with piece of aluminium running along the front where you are going to pin it. bit late to put it it now, but if you were doing it again you could make the front thin, put the aluminium in then make it thicker so that the aluminium is closer to the top. if you had it closer to the bottom layers then there is more chance of the glass just tearing around it, but having it in the upper layers means the force is pushing the glass into it, rather than lifting it away from it if it's lower in the layers.

another thing that would help is spray bog, its perfect for what your doin because theres no highs or lows that an applicator can leave.. just block block block then prime

how much in glass and matting has it set you back? conpared to buying one ?

I dont think there are many diy carbon bonnets in oz.

the flexibility comes from it not being as strong as thick or strong as steel. Most glass or carbon bonnets will flex if you let them. put pins in and it cant flex

awesome thread. so is this going to be a street or race only bonnet. would like to know costs.

legally in vic im quite sure you have to have a metal bonnet, don't think fibreglass is allowed however unlikely they would notice.

Yeah will be for a road car, laws arent too harsh over here. Costs were about $50 for 5L of resin, $5 per square metre of matt, so about $15 - $20 worth, and $30 for body filler so it's been pretty cheap so far.

  • 2 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Here is the mess that I made. That filler there was successful in filling dents in that area. But in the middle area. I can feel dents. And I've gone ocer it multiple times with filler. And the filler is no longer there because i accidently sanded it away. I've chased my tail on this job but this is something else lol. So I'm gonna attempt filler one more time and if it doesn't work I'll just high fill primer the door and see where the issues are because guidecoat is of no use atm.
    • Ok, so I think I sort of figured out where I went wrong. So I definitely overthinked it, and I over sanded, which is probably a large part of the problem. to fix it, I ended up tapping some spots that were likely to be high, made them low, filled them in, and I tackled small sections at a time, and it feels a lot better.    I think what confused me as well is you have the bare metal, and some spots darker and some are lighter, and when I run my finger across it, it' would feel like it's a low spot, but I think it's just a transition in different texture from metal to body filler.    When your finger's sliding on the body filler, and crosses over to the bare metal, going back and forth, it feels like it's a low spot. So I kept putting filler there and sanding, but I think it was just a transition in texture, nothing to do with the low or high spot. But the panel's feels a lot better, and I'm just going to end up priming it, and then I'll block it after with guide coat.   Ended up wasting just about all of my filler on this damn door lol  
    • -10 is plenty for running to an oil cooler. When you look at oil feeds, like power steering feeds, they're much smaller, and then just a larger hose size to move volume in less pressure. No need for -12. Even on the race cars, like Duncans, and endurance cars, most of them are all running -10 and everything works perfectly fine, temps are under control, and there's no restrictions.
    • Update: O2 sensor in my downpipe turned out to be faulty when I plugged in to the Haltech software. Was getting a "open circuit" warning. Tons of carbon buildup on it, probably from when I was running rich for a while before getting it corrected. Replaced with new unit and test drove again. The shuffle still happens, albeit far less now. I am not able to replicate it as reliably and it no longer happens at the same RPM levels as before. The only time I was able to hear it was in 5th going uphill and another time in 5th where there was no noticeable incline but applying more throttle first sped it up and then cleared it. Then once in 4th when I slightly lifted the throttle going over a bump but cleared right after. My understanding is that with the O2 sensor out, the ECU relies entirely on the MAP tune and isn't able to make its small adjustments based on the sensors reading. All in all, a big improvement, though not the silver bullet. Will try validating the actuators are set up correctly, and potentially setting up shop time to tune the boost controller on closed loop rather than the open loop it is set to now. Think if it's set up on closed loop to take the O2 reading, that should deal with these last bits. Will try to update again as I go. 
    • More so GReddy oil relocation kits, sandwich plates, etc. all use 10AN fittings. And same, I've only used 10AN and my car sees track work (circuit, doing laps, not 10 sec squirt business).
×
×
  • Create New...