i couldn't get my ralliart grille in my hood... this specific hood is thicker than the stock hood and the little threaded pieces that you screw the nuts on to on the ralliart grille do not come far enough through the front of the hood for you to even get a single thread on.

 

^thats wierd. i will see what mine is like when i get it

 

if thats the case. mabey all you have to do is buy longer bolts? although it may be tough to get longer ones in the holes.

 

the only modding i was aware of for getting a new grill on was "maybe" making the holes bigger.

 

you gotta remember to.. Every fiberglass hood wrapped in CF will be a little different.

 

here ya go, i knew i'd seen it done before. This looks pretty good

 

yeh. it does.

 

how was the quality on it? my seibon vent is molded in... My friend just got a VIS CF "drift" style hood for his FC and its quality is garbage.. it literally flopa back and forth. I can bend it with my hands. lmao. The vent on the hood was molded but the FG shell was just cut out with a saw......

 

seeing those pictures makes me feel a little better about my fitment issue. the previous owner must have really done a number on the car. i think that the impact was on the driver's side for sure and it's definitely got a new fender... the fender isn't quite installed properly and this was in part causing the fitment issue.

i have been outside freezing my nuts off for 30-ish minutes now and i think that i got it about as good as it's going to get. i fixed it so that the gap isn't so much on the driver's side but spread out to both sides. this involved a little bending of the hood arms.

the thing closes, latches, and stays shut now. i could only get one bolt each in the arms with the way they have been bent. the other hole on the hood no longer matches up with the arm, you can see about half the hood in the hole through the arm. i think i am going to have to invest in some hood pins, too. the front of the hood bulges up just a little bit, and that's with the rubber stoppers removed, too!

installing the pins will definitely have to wait until it's not so freakin' cold outside. i am also nervous when it comes to drilling CF, i've heard it likes to break. speaking of breaking stuff... the wind here caught hold of the hood and jammed it into the fender and chipped the corner... BRAND NEW HOOD AND IT GOT CHIPPED. i ****ing hate new england, and i ****ing hate winter. it's not too noticable. it's probably the least screwed up thing on the car.

here's some pictures, sorry about the quality, i used my phone.


how's it look now, guys?

 

Looks good except for the bulging. Im curious as to why its doing that..... Hood pins should solve it but I dont think it should be doing that to begin with. lol

The side to side looks good from the pics. If you look at the grill it doesnt look level with the bumper.. Like its tipped a little bit. From these two cars with the same hood and looking to have the same fitment problems. Ive come to the conclusion Seibon > VIS.......

 

well, everything looks a bit skewed because my parking space it... makes it hard for good straight-on pictures, hehe. also i was standing on the side of a sloped snow bank. i think it fit fine, it's just how i took that shot.

i'm almost %100 that the bulging is due to how i've had to put the hood in place, it's not stuck on there like any other lancer, and then the hood itself is that much different from the stock one, so i had to go that extra mile to get it to fit. what i did was essentially make it so that the passenger side arm was pushed in towards the driver's side, and then driver's side arm was pushed out towards the fender.

since the hood isn't sitting right i can see why it would do something funny--like bulge. but even then it doesn't look AWFUL now. i definitely want to get some hood pins though, i think that will fix the problem right up. when i press down on the hood with my hand it goes right into the shape it should be in.

 

dont get me wrong. Im not saying it looks awful. I think it looks great. Just piointing out things I saw.

 

i THINK i explained 'em away, hehe. i did run out there and check again and everything looks pretty solid.

did you use pins on your CF hood? i never noticed any... i've heard too many horror stories of peoples' hoods flying up so i want them for that alone.

 

nope. no pins. I think a hood looks much cleaner w/o. My hood does move up or down in the latch when Im on the highway going 70+. It moves mabey 1/4". As long as its latched it shouldnt go anywhere. Now if the hook on the actuall hood breaks, then im outa luck. lol

Those horror storys are mainly from people who forget to latch the hood. Also there was a batch of accolade conversion hoods that had a defect with the latch I do believe, which was fixed. I personally dont think you would have a issue with the hood flying up but pins are a good thing for peace of mind.

 

Adjust the bumpers for the hood and or the latch. 15 minutes max. Call me and I will give you a pep talk.

ROAD/RACE