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

This is awesome. I really thought they went out of business. Can't wait to see pictures. :lurk:

I ordered mine directly from MCM, last summer. Like said, contact Phil: phil@motorcitymold.com.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/33556873/IMG_1395.JPG

That's Reflect-A-Gold under the hood.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/33556873/IMG_1390.JPG

Did you get the supercharger hood or the standard?

BJK

Couple additional pics as requested.

http://webpages.charter.net/c6pete/mcm2.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/c6pete/mcm3.jpg

Thanks.:thumbs:

BJK

update: I just got off the phone with the paint shop that painted my friends C5 so now all I need is the hood which should be here the first of next week.

Hood arrived today as promised after inspection I see why my granny used to say you get what you pay for, the hood is outstanding. I have an appointment for tomorrow at the paint shop. More to come.

but wait there's more.

Exactly as mine was packaged! And your grandma is perfectly right! :thumbs:

Sweet! Looking forward to seeing finished product!

I have had mine on mu C 6 for 6 1/2 years in summer & winters in Chicagoland. A great product & cool looking .

Hood looks so good. Very tempted. Will the "427" logos still fit on it?

will be interested to see how you like it on the car. looks good from here! :cheers:

Can you tell me what the dimensions are on the shipping box. That would help me to decide whether to have it shipped to me or straight to the body shop when the time comes.

Thanks,

BJK

What was the price?

:lurk:

Very cool looking hood.

The box is 67" x 67" x 10" it weights very little just bulky.

C6 High Rise Carbon Fiber Hood $1749.00 + $45.00 boxed + $131.00 shipping from 48144 to 60538

Normally Phil will only ship nonresidential because he said there are issues with people not being home to receive it and the freight companies sometimes want more for residential deliveries. We had to do a lot of checking to get mine delivered to my home. The funny part is the body shop doing the painting asked me if I wanted them to order it not knowing I already had it on order. If I did this again I would ship it to the place that is doing the work. Tell them to save the box to store your old hood.

Good info. Looks like I will go with the direct ship to the body shop and thanks for the idea about using the box to store the stock hood.:thumbs:

From the photo it looks like the shop will have to do a little clean up around the vent opening.

BJK

From the underside it looks like the grill is removable and yes like anything it will need a little minor touch-up here and there.
I've looked at several aftermarket hoods on Corvettes and this is far and away the highest quality hood I've seen.

I didn't mean it as a negative. As you said, they all need a little.

BJK

I didn't take as such. :thumbs:


Loaded the hood into a friends p/u truck and drove the car to the painters today. Removed the stock hood at the paint shop and brought it back home since I had a truck right there and he was going my way. Stored the stock hood in the original box to prevent it getting damaged and if I ever sell the MCM hood I have something to ship it in. Going to make some brackets and hang it horizontal from the ceiling out of the way.
More to come.

Very nice hood:thumbs:
I wanted to purchased this hood about two years ago and could not find anyone selling it. I wound up buying a lingefelter hood which looked similar. Good luck with the hood it will make you JSB look like a different car.
http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/z...6/DSC_0137.jpg

update: I talked with the paint shop Wednesday to see how things were going. Originally the plan was clean-up the hood were needed block it and get it ready for paint and then blend the hood to the fenders.
The underside is now painted JSB and the carbon fiber which shows was clear coated. They tried a few test panels on the hood and the color wasn't were they thought it should be so they called in the paint supplier for ideas. The supplier said they needed to use water based paint to get the results needed something about oil based vs water based. The new plan is to get the proper paint on Monday and paint another test panel. After that is completed they will call me to come and look at it and we'll all judge were to go from there.
I'm not a big fan of blending paint on a car for one it's more work and two if I ever want to replace the stock hood I'm back to square one.
I have to give kudos to the body shop doing the work for taking the time to get this right other shops I've dealt with in the past would have just painted it and told me that's the best they can do.
I am very happy to hear that my car shouldn't need the hood/fenders blended.
When this is completed I will post the name of the shop, prices, pics and anything else needed to help other members with similar projects. :thumbs:

Sharp!!

Will the Edelbrock E Force fit under that hood?

I don't know.

Nice looking hood!!

The shop called and I drove over there this afternoon to look at paint patches that they had prepared. We decided on which test patch looked the best and are going with it. Hopefully it will be painted tomorrow and the car will be home soon.

Sounds great :party:

BJK

The paint shop called today my car is done will make arraignments to pick it up tomorrow. :woohoo:

Details and pics soon.

I'm ready to see it

Me too! :thumbs:

http://webpages.charter.net/c6pete/mcm2.jpg

this should have been the zr1 hood.

sweet, did they sand down the exposed carbon before they cleared it? I bet it looks great.

Looks awesome!

Beautiful C5 Z06;What happened to that?

This thread's gonna cost me a lot of money.

I like the price of the lingenfelter hood. but damn this MCM hood is amazing looking.

:lurk:

:iagree:
This hood was my second choice because at the time no one had the MCM hood. Bosco 08's JSB is going to look awesome:cool:

I picked up the car today and I am extremely happy with the results. All totaled it was $800.05 $200 less than my original quote because blending of the fenders was not required. An honest way to do business.
Boyce Body Werks in Batavia, Il. did the work and they have bosco's seal of approval. Thank you.

I will take some pics outdoors when I have time.

more

I'm done. :thumbs:

Very nice:cool:

Nice!

:iagree:

Awesome congrats!!!!

Here are some before pics.

The finished product is very nice looks factory in person. My photo skills are lacking will try to take some better pics soon.

Thanks! Sold it to a great guy here in Cali, after I bought my 09 Z06. Was an amazing car bought it new and put just a hair under 80K miles on it.

I still have my original 2001 Z06 in red,but it never looked as good as yours!Also have a 2008 JSBZ06 and that looks pretty good!

Welcome to the MCM club...congrats, never tire of the view, inside or out! :cheers:

The MCM club ... that's a good one! :thumbs:

Took the car out today for a drive and the hood looks even better from the drivers seat similar to a friends '67 427 stinger hood looking from the back.

Took a few more pics trying to show some different angles so others can get a feel for it.


All in all I'm very happy with the results. The hood is nicely done fits very well looks factory and the paint shop did a remarkable job. Boyce Body Werks in Batavia, Il. ask for Ken.

that's all folks.

:lurk:

group buy! group buy! group buy!

That looks great, the paint shop did a nice job! :cheers:


Can I have it? :D

:thumbs:
Very nice!

Dave

Looks just like it came from GM that way. Nice choice , and the paint shop looks like they did a good job on the color match. :thumbs::thumbs:

Thanks, I'm very happy with the results.

I know they (Boyce Body Werks) painted several test patches and consulted with the paint supplier before they got it the way they wanted.
I hope I never need body/paint work again but if I do I know who to call. :thumbs:

Any data to support the heat extraction effectiveness of this hood? Love the stock hood and will only change if there is an appreciable gain in heat extraction over the stock hood (06 C6 Vert with Edelbrock SC).

I suggest that you contact Phil Toyne to answer your question.

Phil Toyne
Motor City Mold, LLC
(1)-419-843-1719
phil@motorcitymold.com

Note that there is another benefit from these (and similar) hoods: they reduce drag and lift, because air that enters the engine bay can escape more easily.

This is for a C5 but I would guess similar results with a C6.


Looks like MCM has updated their website.

http://www.motorcitymold.com/index.html

http://www.motorcitymold.com/Clients.html

I'm with you. Heat/temp differences would be a simple enough number, particularly since the central point of this type of hood is generally for heat extraction.

Manufacturer, how about posting up some numbers for all of us? The TTD two posts above is something pretty different.

Thanks.

New MCM hood that fits the Magnuson 2300 TVS.

BJK

Best looking Magnuson hood by far!

They're new website needs to include pictures!

There ARE pictures: http://www.motorcitymold.com/Products.html :yesnod:

What's the source for your Euro tailights?

Mid America Motorworks.
These are not Euro tail lights, however. In Europe, amber is legally required for the turn signals.
Not too long ago I have ordered new ones, via http://www.radioflyerinnovations.com/. I have not installed those yet, but that will happen soon.
Although they appear visually exactly the same, they have amber LEDs for the turn signals.
See also http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...novations.html.

:seeya

Looking good :thumbs:

thnks :seeya

I'm seriously considering the MCM hood, but wonder if the extra frontal downforce (if any) created will be offset enough by the downforce from the small factory GS/Z06 rear spoiler? I don't want to install a full width rear spoiler either.

And on a silver '12 GS...would you guys recommend the clear carbon fibre center panel (soo tempting), or keep it all silver?

Hood looks amazing!