Motor City Mold carbon fiber hood
 

I have wanted one of these hoods since the first time I saw one on a friends C5 years ago. The fit/finish on his hood was OEM quality and the design was clean and functional looked like the factory did it.
There is much misinformation on the forum about these hoods I'm here to set the record straight. I did some homework and found out that MCM is in fact still making these hoods for the C5/C6 Corvettes using the original molds and process which uses a vacuum bag to assure the resins are completely drawn into the mat.
I ordered one today from Phil at MCM for my C6, a regular high rise non-supercharger, he said it would be appox. ten days plus shipping time. I will provide a detailed update when I receive the hood.
If anyone wants all the info feel free to pm me.

Please post up some pics when you get it on/

I will post up pics from beginning to the end and before and after. Next week I will talk with the painter who did my friends C5 and include costs and procedures for that as well. Stay tuned.

They make very high quality hoods. :thumbs:

I'm in for the pics!!!

I have talked with Phil about his hood. Super Vettes also has one that is very similar, but is in fiber glass. They are both about the same price last time I checked.

BJK

in for pictures

:lurk:

What's the weight diff between carbon fiber and fiberglass? Seems like FG would be the cheapest way if you're painting it anyway.

From what I found the MCM CF hood is appox. 10# lighter than a stock hood. You get what you pay for and you can't compare a $800 hand laid fiberglass hood to a high-end vacuum molded carbon fiber hood. Every fiberglass hood I've seen is thicker than stock and most are wavy requiring much work to make them even acceptable.

This is off of MCM's website which btw needs to be updated as they only list the C5 hoods.

Hood Make-Up:
The hoods are vacuum bagged. This is a form of compression molding which utilized atmospheric pressure to compress the resin into the fibers of the carbon weave. This allows for full saturation of the carbon fiber by the resin and also provides a relatively smooth, underside finish. In the same process the underside resin, which is not compressed into the carbon fiber is removed, allowing just the resin that is necessary to remain. This achieves a very desirable high fiber-to-resin ratio, not achievable under conventional hand laminating methods, which can almost double the relative lamination strength.

Why Vacuum Bag Molding?
Vacuum bag molding is considerably more expensive than hand laid fiberglass, but the physical properties that are achieved are much higher; the high performance cars are more demanding. We are bringing a modern molding technology to the Corvette market that was formerly unavailable. We are offering a part that is worthy of the car. Molding methods of this type are used in both Indy Car Racing and the Aerospace industry.

What Makes Our Hoods Functional?
Our hoods are vacuum bag molded carbon fiber. We construct them with vinyl-ester resin that will withstand 450 degrees before it will distort (commonly referred to as HDT or heat distortion temperature).

Vacuum bag molding uses atmospheric pressure as a press (similar to shrink wrapping). All excess resin is removed leaving only the resin necessary to penetrate the carbon fiber thus providing the perfect fiber to resin ratio. This in return lessens the weight and increased the strength. Bad things such as brittleness and shrinkage, which are caused by resin rich areas (uncontrollable in methods such as hand lamination which is done at atmospheric pressure), are virtually eliminated providing our customers with and ultra modern part truly worthy of the C5. It also proves a nice underside surface of carbon fiber.

The hood was designed on a racetrack where aerodynamics is everything. The vent is placed precisely behind the radiator and in front of the engine to eliminate the air that you would normally drive over (the air that would remain under your front spoiler). Normally this air would continue underneath your car after it pressurized the engine compartment. The air around your engine remains trapped and superheats as the air your driving over continues under your car and begins to tumble and create drag. Since air takes the path of least resistance, it now travels out the hood vent, creating a venturi effect, which relieves the pressure in the engine compartment and produces airflow around the engine and components. Most people don’t realize that the hood vents seen in most racecars are to relieve the air turbulence from under the car, not just to vent heat.

I had a MCM hood on my C5 Z06. A stunning piece - fit and finish was equal to OEM.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...I/DSC00103.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...I/DSC00078.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...I/DSC00068.jpg

very interesting writeup esp. adding the visual of hiro's pics above. I went to their site. boy, they really do need to update it. I mean, after all the last C5 model was 2004, a full 8 years ago. I guess it's not a business priority to them.

:iagree:

I did the same thing earlier today and all I found was C5 information and hoods. :crazy:

Go to "Your Corvette dot com". (Don't want to get in trouble for posting an active link.)

BJK

wow, really sharp looking hood, Bruce. Thanks!

Not the best pic but love my MCM hood!:thumbs:

http://webpages.charter.net/c6pete/mcm.jpg

I too had the MCM hood for my C5Z. Amazing quality. Talk to your painter they love these hoods, cause they require very little prep. I was not aware that they were still in business. Good info. Keep us posted.

DO you have any more pics? Looks amazing on Cyber Grey!

:cheers:

Here is the same thing in fiberglass.

BJK

Here is a video to help understand why vacuum molding carbon fiber is superior to hand laid fiberglass. see post #10 for text.





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoQCZo_YfGY