High fiber diet = lower weight

[66mgb]

Ok Wes - this is part of "what can a Q do". - carbon fiber hood and trunklid.

I'd be suprised if 15 would be interested, but maybe 10???

Count me as 1/15

zerothread/182093

[elwesso]

The thing is that the hood on the Q is pretty light.. It probably only weighs 50lbs, its jsut so massive you cant pick it up by yourself..... The trunklid is kinda heavy but its not bad...

SOMETIMES the CF and ESPECIALLY fiberglass hoods are even heavier than the metal, because they have to make them thicker so they dont bust.

[ceningolmo]

How much of a difference in weight do you think that will make? I am curious how much you can drop the weight of such a big car.

Seems like a hood swap would be just s drop in the bucket... when you are talking about a 4K lbs. starting point, dropping 40lbs of dead weight is only a 1% improvement. Seems like you'd really have to get stingy about putting things in your car to justify the weight cutting.

Of course, every little bit helps. Interesting.

[louiegz]

One thing I allways wondered about carbon fiber, is it paintable? I understand the benefits of weight savings, but I don't like the look of the unpainted hood with the rest of the car painted. I guess it doesn't look bad if you do it with a black car. So does it hold a finish?

[elwesso]

Yeah... One of the guys that has a turbo sentra has a CF hood.. hes got a silver car.. its pretty cool what he did.. he painted all the hood except like this strip in the middle... Looks like a stripe from afar, but you get up close and see the carbon fiber... Sounds kinda stupid, but it looks good.

[66mgb]

As far as weight goes - I'm sure every little bit helps - especially up front.

Yes you can paint over CF - in fact that's what I have planned if we can get enough people to respond.

I'm not trying to get my vehicle to the extreme point of "what if", but a CF hood and trunklid would certainly increase the "gee wiz" factor considerably!

[ceningolmo]

Agreed on the "gee wiz" factor. And, a little lighter up front would certainly help the balance. I like this idea a little more now... keep talking, maybe I will be 2/15 soon.

[irax]

i think the hood is more like 60~ pounds....

so which hood have you personaly seen that were heavyer then metal?

I have a 96 240sx with a carbon fiber hood that weighs in at 20 pounds and stock is likes 45~ish. was thinking of getting a fiberglass hood that weighed like 15lbs.

even though overal it may be 1% but it lowers the center of gravity.

example

Mitsubishi lancer evo vsMitsubishi Lancer EVO MR

they replaced the roof with a single layer of aluminum and it only reduces weight by 10 pounds but makes the car handle drasticly different.

if you reduce the weight on the hood, trunk, and roof (replace glass sun roof with plastic/fiberglass/plexy/ or carbonfiber or even remove the whole mechonism) can change how the car handles

[Jesda]

Irax:

Thats seven tenths of one percent. It will do nothing for handling on a 4000lb sedan. You're better off spending the money on better tires.

There's more to the Evo and Evo MR's differences than just a hood.

[irax]

the roof not the hood.... whatever *edit* ill just keep to my self about actual performance upgreads untill im done with the stupid car lol*/edit*

how bout when my car is finaly running befor i swap transmission, ill goto the local scca track and do 2 laps with the hood on, and 2 laps with the hood off... i'm telling you even though the weight is negligable that if the weight is lost in the correct spots will change how the car will handle.

[66mgb]

Irax:

Thats seven tenths of one percent. It will do nothing for handling on a 4000lb sedan. You're better off spending the money on better tires.

There's more to the Evo and Evo MR's differences than just a hood.

I agree w/ your statement - to a point. You're assuming that one is starting from scratch. For some of us - we've upgraded the tire/wheel package and now are looking for the next step.

In fact - you can think of this as an addition to the total package.

[bullittandy]

Yeah... One of the guys that has a turbo sentra has a CF hood.. hes got a silver car.. its pretty cool what he did.. he painted all the hood except like this strip in the middle... Looks like a stripe from afar, but you get up close and see the carbon fiber... Sounds kinda stupid, but it looks good.

I saw this recently in a BMW tuner magazine and I agree that it looks very good. I couldn't tell in the magazine but It looked like the finish on the painted carbon fiber (C/F) was rougher. Kinda like cheap boat fiberglass- the less the finish work on the C/F the more the weave would show through lessening the gloss of the top coat of paint.

[louiegz]

If the trunk lids are done in CF, the decorative piece should be eliminated. I noticed when I replaced mine, the trunk lid sprung up real quick leading me to believe that the thing weighs a lot. Just have to fine a way to put just backup lights on the trunk lid without that piece.