Carbon Fiber Hood Vanes

[Lou B]

Hello,
Does any one know of a Supplier of Roadster Carbon Fiber Hood Vanes ?
I am installing the Exterior Carbon Fiber options one at a time On #0619.
Does any one know how to swap out the painted hood vanes for the carbon fiber pieces.
There is no accessible hardware to make it easy to swap. Thank you for the
help.

 

[da2ny]

medlockandsons.com is making cf hood vanes already mounted.

 

[Sonics2020]

They can do it either way. Do the full hood and paint the bottom piece in your color or the veins itself. But that’s hard to mount up correctly.

 

[ML Auto]

They are bonded on. You need to cut the adhesive between the vane and the support. Carefully heating the joint helps.

 

[Lou B]

They are bonded on. You need to cut the adhesive between the vane and the support. Carefully heating the joint helps.

What Would you use to cut the bond ? Reciprocating saw ? what is used as the adhesive ?

 

[Tex EV]

What Would you use to cut the bond ? Reciprocating saw ? what is used as the adhesive ?

Heat, plastic shims, and brute force. A thin metal string (guitar string?) might help in some spots. It's a huge pain in the rear. Not sure what the adhesive is, but guessing it's just a regular automotive panel bonding adhesive. Really tough stuff.

Also very important - before removing anything, make some sort of alignment jig to help with getting the new pieces on right. Once removed from the hood frame, there is nothing except visuals to help with alignment during reinstallation.

 

[ML Auto]

I use an Oscillating Multi Tool with a knife edge blade.
A two part urethane adhesive like 3M Scotch Weld or SEM Dual Mix works best.

 

[jfischer]

Hello,
Does any one know of a Supplier of Roadster Carbon Fiber Hood Vanes ?
I am installing the Exterior Carbon Fiber options one at a time On #0619.
Does any one know how to swap out the painted hood vanes for the carbon fiber pieces.
There is no accessible hardware to make it easy to swap. Thank you for the
help.

Carl medlock did mine and it looks awesome! medlockandsons.com

thanks again Carl for the AWESOME restoration work on my car!

Before and after!

 

[ML Auto]

What Would you use to cut the bond ? Reciprocating saw ? what is used as the adhesive ?

Do them one at a time and you can align them easily.

 

[eHorses]

Hello all! My clear CF vanes are oem but “cloudy“being in FL since new. I’m looking to ”rehab” it by doing it myself or with a local paint shop before replacing it with aftermarket CF.

What’s the best strategy for sanding it down and applying new clear coats? Grade on sandpaper and clear coat type? It was suggested that Not all of it can be sanded away and to add a color to “tint” the clear coat so the residual cloudy areas will not standout.

I appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.

 

[Medlock&Sons]

Wet sand a section with 800 and pour water on it to see if it clears up. If its clear with water it will be nice with a fresh clear coat. We have had limited success repairing carbon from Florida and Texas. I hope this helps, if not we have a new set available.

 

[Lou B]

Wet sand a section with 800 and pour water on it to see if it clears up. If its clear with water it will be nice with a fresh clear coat. We have had limited success repairing carbon from Florida and Texas. I hope this helps, if not we have a new set available.

Hi Carl, Are the hood vanes available by special order only , They are not shown on your web site. Do we need to send you the hood to install the Carbon fiber Hood Vanes ?
thank you for your help

 

[Tex EV]

What’s the best strategy for sanding it down and applying new clear coats? Grade on sandpaper and clear coat type? It was suggested that Not all of it can be sanded away and to add a color to “tint” the clear coat so the residual cloudy areas will not standout.

I did this last year on 744's large hood panel with results pictured below. It's a definite improvement, but far from perfect. The clear gelcoat is cloudy all the way down to the carbon fiber weave, so you have to sand it all off and take care to not break through the fibers when you get to them. It's challenging to get even sanding coverage across the panel, so some areas end up looking cloudier than others. Very easy to blow through the weave on creases and edges. After doing this piece, I didn't bother with the others. Getting brand new replacements from Carl .

 

[Medlock&Sons]

Hi Carl, Are the hood vanes available by special order only , They are not shown on your web site. Do we need to send you the hood to install the Carbon fiber Hood Vanes ?
thank you for your help

They were incredibly difficult to make and took months to get perfect. You can email me and I will get you a set. Once I have a supply I will add them to the site, so far they have sold before I get them. I do have 2 sets in stock. [email protected] A body shop can do them for you. Or if you pay for shipping both ways we will install them at no charge

 

[eHorses]

Thank you for the inputs. I want to keep the oem so I’ll try to rehab it first.

Carl, the 2.5 rear CF defuser that I got from you looks great. I’m currently trying to source a 2.5 front(bumper and grills) for a 2.25 conversion. It already has the 2.5 rims and rear. I would love to send you this baby once I have the parts to do that conversion.

 

[eHorses]

follow up to my above post…
I took the advices of @CM_007 and @Tex EV and did not attempt this myself. I found a local CF guy that does high end CF parts for exotics but he’s since concentrating on fixing and making CF frames for mountain bikes(“easier money”). I bagged and plead and he took this job to try to restore my OEM clear CF. I‘m just getting it back and need to install the hood but wanted to post an update. I think it looks great!
Now, I’ll have to good back and bag again to see if he’s up to doing a roadster in Clear CF overlay. Fingers crossed

Tested larger area

different stages of completion

finished product

 

[Lou B]

Looks great