Carbon fiber hood questions

[Bumnah]

I recently purchased a carbon fiber hood.

I still playing with it, to line it up properly, but I"m having problems closing it.

Do you guys slam to get it to click clamp down on the OEM latch? If not, how do you close your your hood with the OEM latch?

The hood just doesn't have enough weight to push down on the oem arm, and clamp shut. I'm going to use hood pins for sure, but I'd like to leave my oem latch on for some safety.

What do you guys do?

[s13_chris]

Uhm well you guide it tell its sitting basically on the latch and then with two hands press firmly down.. This is kinda simple...

[Fr0zEn]

Install Hood pins. With a CF hood IMO its Required to have hood pins. No need for OEM latch. I Put my bros on and we just used the hood pins. a lot safer too. But hope your problem gets fixed.

[Bumnah]

Uhm well you guide it tell its sitting basically on the latch and then with two hands press firmly down.. This is kinda simple...

Obviously I've already tried that.

[amolao]

the latch spring is too heavy for the light construction of the hood. You can cut, pull.etc the one in there now or try different ones. I had mine working to where I had no need for hood pins, but still got them on and I was glad. It helped with the alignment of the hood while closed and the vibrations while driving. You still are going to shut the hood a little forcefully to get it to engage. Is just too light. The added security is worth it, specially if want to keep people away from your engine bay.

[serpentarius]

What brand is it? Are you sure its because of too little weight? I have alignment issue with mine and thought its the weight at first too. Try not to secure the hood to the hinges first and see if you can press it down.

[nando]

my suggestion: remove the latch so its out of the way...

make sure that you have even gaps all the way around i.e. rt fender even gap with hood all the way down and lft fender gap even all the way down... you achieve this by losening the hinge bolts and moving it a little at a time... or snug the bolts closest to the windshield and keep the other bolts loose...

height is also plays a factor move your hood bumpers up or down so that the height in front is even fender to hood

if you need to move the fenders in or out it might be needed...just make sure you keep your fender to door gap open or you will end up wrecking your fender with the door

its a dawnting task...when your happy with the gaps then tighten every thing down and now install the latch...

keep an eye on the striker so it evenly lines up with the latch it might hit the latch either on the left or right move the latch acordingly to keep the striker so it fits the latch and goes in streight.

now your hood still might not shut... i like the hood to shut by lifting it about 2ft or so and just letting it go...

adjust the latch up or down... if it shuts and you can push on it with a little play... adjust the latch a little more... and if you think you have it where you want it and there is still play adjust your hood bumers up a little at a time some... times it might be as little as a 1/16th of a turn

it takes skill...and patience... lining up panes sux...

just keep in mind line up the latch to the hood not the hood to the latch, you dealing with after market parts!

to line up panels start with the most fixed part....

line up the door to the quarter panel fender to door hood to fender latch to hood

hope this helps

[Bumnah]

I played with it some more tonight. The weight of the hood is part of the problem, maybe 10%. Th key is lining it up so the striker hits the latch dead center. I haven't gotten it aligned perfectly, but it's getting better. I'm going to enlarge the holes on the hinges to give me more adjustment. The hood is not lining up evenly side to side. It's going to take some time, but I think I'll get it.

I hope I don't have to adjust the fenders to make it look good.

[SirSilvia]

I think you can also loosen the bolts on the latch and adjust that too.

[Bumnah]

Yeah I'm adjusting that as well.

[livinglegend2100]

ive been dealing with this for the past year or so. once you figure it out, its second nature. and dont slam it. because you'll chip the resin and end up wearing the hood as a hat down the freeway.

first off, alignment was a slight issue for me, i had to bend my hood latch towards the rad support about a 1/2 inch. maybe more or less for you. just eyeball it to figure it out.

after that i just set the hood down and once it clicked down into the "halfway point" i push down on the hood directly over the latch. and it close the rest of the way. and voila.

note: you may need to grease your latch assy for smoother operation. ive been running without hood pins for almost a year and ive had no problems. no signs of cracking or anything around the latch

[Bumnah]

Oh. Hood pins are def. going in as well. I want both.

I have zero trust in latch alone.