Bonnets

[scott_drake]

go carbon fiber if you got the cash, and dont care if it brakes in a accident, if you do care go fibre glass.

[lukeaday]

If the texture of the weave is showing through paint the Carbon fibre hasn't been correctly laid up.

The weave should be hidden under a level coat of epoxy, to show its weave like this there is a major resin failure and the part's integrity would have been compromised as there isn't enough material to completely bond with the material.

Alternatively it could have been a bonnet they have Dinoc'd then cleared and painted

You can not clear coat Di-Noc vinyl and still have the same light changing effect.
I have tried it on a sample peice and all you end up with is a gloss black surface because the Di-Noc is just a textured black vinyl. Once the texture is filled with clear 2pac paint the effect is gone.

In regards to the CF showing through the painted finish, Perhaps proper preparation and priming was not done before the top coat was applied. Eg, Sanding the CF with 800 grit paper, then priming it with a high fill primer and spraying a giude coat over it then blocking it back with 800grit wet & dry then spot priming any areas that rubbed through during sanding, then top coating.
A hell of a lot of work to get a "satisfactory" result. Perhaps the Mazda owner did not want to pay for it to get done "properly" because it was going to cost too much????

[tjoz]

CF is outright illegal on public roads. Dont matter what form it is (Kevlar, plain, twill etc) they are all illegal. They are illegal for crash reasons, they will break into shards. Same as fiberglass hoods, they are also illegal. That being said, even though they are illegal most authorities will only go for the CF gt spoilers as they are not for street use. They tend to turn a blind eye towards CF bonnets, boots and roof.

As for Di Noc, a few companies have been known to put down a layer of this over their CF bonnets to give a perfect weave. With the whole CF process the chances of getting a perfect weave are rarer than hens teeth especially on parts that large.

Benefits. You dont need lots and lots of power to warrant the use of a CF bonnet and nor is it exclusively for Evo's only. The CF bonnet is considerably lighter than both bonnets. Your saving around 15-25kg swapping to a CF bonnet. Making your car lighter does have benefits but for people it just dont register as they cant measure it on a dyno ... Lighter car does make your car a little bit quicker and improves your fuel economy. vented ones also reduce heat within the engine bay making your parts last that little bit longer. On the public roads we dont go any faster than 100 so we wont be dropping a full second off at the traffic lights but in the racing world the weight benefits are crucial especially when it improves your lap times. But once again people cant measure weight loss on a dyno so they think the whole idea is a crock of poop

You need bonnet pins on both CF and FG bonnets as they lift at speed. Aerocatch are the only legal bonnet pins and are used throughout all motorsport series.

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As for the Mazda owner; poor or lack of prep work on the bonnet to get the weave texture from coming through the paintwork. As lukeday has said, it all comes down to prep work. If you dont put the effort in to your prep work then the end result will be crap. Painting CF is not hard you just need to spend the extra time in the prep work.

[lukeaday]

From the trains of thought on here in regards to weight loss, air vents, a carbon fibre finish and a OEM legal standard perhaps the best option would be to purchase an OEM aluminium ralliart bonet with all the parts to go with it and have myself wrap the raw ally in Di-Noc carbon fibre vinyl.

Just a thought.......

P.S. Still waiting for the time when a cop tries to ping me for a carbon fibre bonet!!!!

[driftnut((]

yes cf is illegal but the mu secret ones are light wieght steel with cf layer 100% legal

[AUSSIECJ]

Someone might have to do some research

[vshufflers]

is there a link or pictures fo thease bonnets?

[SAM-24A]

Try this Link: Mu Secret - Lancer Carbon Hood

Sam.

[Mitch]

Try this Link: Mu Secret - Lancer Carbon Hood

Sam.

is this one legal sam mate

[tjoz]

May have some news regarding the legality of bonnets sometime over the next few days and also something else. Was told something very interesting yesterday about legal bonnets

[vshufflers]

thanks bro,

[driftnut((]

i already called MU SECRET yes there hoods r LEGAL

[Mitch]

thankyou ben for checking up on that for us mate thats good to hear and here is a link of what the bonnet looks like colour coded thanks to Mattigins photoshopping it http://clubcj.net/viewtopic.php?t=7014

[driftnut((]

all good i get mine next month-begining of march

[tjoz]

Got some info back on what is legal and what is not. First up, anything that is not made by the original manufacturer (OEM) must be ADR approved regardless of what material it is in. Metal, CF, potatoes whatever; without the certification your non OEM part is what people call out 'illegal'.

Now something that was interesting is carbon fiber has never been illegal. If CF was illegal then many Australian companies that manufacture CF products would not be allowed to trade. The confusion has come from not being able to register a car with CF without any certification (engineers certificates) for general use. Not being able to register and illegal are two completely different things yet somewhere along in the decades in which CF has been used in this country someone has decided that not being able to register= illegal, death and all that. Somewhere along the line someone has gone to register a car that has had a CF component and has been refused registration over it. Instead of going off and getting an engineers certificate for it the person has ran around saying CF illegal!! If I cant have it then no one else can... Being a little naysayer/hellmonger. The ones that run around saying 'its the end of the world'

More CF stuff too; CF does not shatter on impact. It will crack instead (in most cases, a clean break). CF has a very high impact resistance rating; obviously its not bullet proof but its certainly not 'fragile' as people make it out to be.

Now who wants to do a little test on how CF breaks to see if it does shatter as what seems to be the norm??