Carbon fiber trunk lids for Ion/Red Line?
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That is ricey in my opinion (but everyone has thier own opinion and whatever you want to do with your car is your choice). You need to know that carbon fiber trunks are extremely delicate they are prone to warping and cracking. With ION Quad coupe/Redline trunk problems rubbing agianst the rear bumper I dont think it's a good idea to get one. I think the trunk rubbing problem has to do with the trunk lid moving around way too much and rattling. When you come off the line hard we get mad wheep hop causing everything in the car to rattle like crazy. I think most of us with trunk lid problems, i think thats the problem. This just came to me..
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another thing, it is not practical for street useage. If you close your trunk too hard, there goes your $500 carbon fiber trunk. You get rear ended, dont expect the rear of your car to crumble correctly like the engineers designed it. It will cave in a lot worse. Carbon fiber trunks should only be for strictly race or show car applications not street. Another thing if you dont get a carbon fiber hood as well your throwing off the weight distribution of the car.Thats just my 2 cents.
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I'm considering it for weight reduction. SMS already has a carbon hood but I don't think it would be worth it unless I could get a trunk lid, too. I figure since there's not any performance mods, yet, I'll make it lighter. Also, I consider myself the "anti-rice" so if I do this, I'd paint them to match & would be dumping the large spoiler it came with. dL_RL, do you have personal experience with carbon fiber body parts?
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I would think you would be hard pressed to get a c.f. hood that is lighter than the stocker. I'd be surprised if you did. I might be wrong though.Hyperion said:
I do actually like that c.f. look but the cost for me is another thing. I would much rather spend dough on engine performance mods and keep the out side stock looking. Makes the car a better sleeper.
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The key is getting a good quality one! One that is molded by a machine, not layed in by hand in someone's garage. A properly made carbon-fiber panel is REAL strong and light. That's the reason they use it to make supercars, they can make the cockpit tub weigh around 26 lbs in a Ferrari with carbon fiber. I'm not sure what these commercially available carbon fiber panels are like.
1-2 pounds in weight savings over a stock RL hood, maybe....MAYBE....having bought and installed 3 carbon fiber hoods (my son's cars), it'll never happen again. Even the brand name, high-dollar hoods have problems, and it's just crazy money when you get into that league ($800)...
You'd be better off doing a carbon fiber applique job and spending the $500-800 on something that actually improves performance. Saving 2 lbs is the difference between taking a good dump before getting into your car, or saving it for later...not going to effect your quarter mile time, for sure.
Freakin' ricers, I swear....
You'd be better off doing a carbon fiber applique job and spending the $500-800 on something that actually improves performance. Saving 2 lbs is the difference between taking a good dump before getting into your car, or saving it for later...not going to effect your quarter mile time, for sure.
Freakin' ricers, I swear....
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Yes I do have experience with carbon fiber parts and I do know the trunk will warp. Even the real expensive high quality stuff tends to warp and break. You have to be super careful with carbon fiber body parts on street cars. I've known people w/ carbon fiber hoods, trunks, fenders, rear and front bumpers. It's horrible once anything bad happens. I wouldn't get anything but a carbon fiber hood for a street car. If you open our RL hood, it's fairly light and getting a CF hood would not help that much.Hyperion said:
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OK, reality check time! We have barely begun to scratch the surface of this car's stock potential, let alone aftermarket mods. Its still so new that, we can hardly agree on dyno numbers. So tell me Hyperion, just how much weight saving performance do you think a CF trunk lid is going to get you? Inquiring minds want to know! 
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dL_RL said:
I will have to believe my friend since he works with Carbon Fiber. That if it's very poor quality job with a bad resin job and many imperfections then it might warp. If it is a good quality it should have no problem. But, I would suggest taking them off for winter just to be safe.
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*sigh* I swear...some ppl don't read posts before slinging insults. Again, I'm not a "ricer" so keep your smart-ass comments contained. Just because I used the words "carbon" & "fiber" doesn't mean I'm interested in stupid interior trim pieces made of it or looking like it. I'm expecting approx. 25lbs lost with combo of hood, trunk, & no spolier & Josh Freese of SMS says the weight savings for the hood is about 10+lbs so I'm close. I understand that this will equate to an almost undetecable level of performance but I'm kind of an over-kill kinda guy. Heck, I dumped my spare & jack after my holiday road trips. It pisses me off that we've got ppl pulling vacuum hoses as a performance mod & others worried about clear taillights & neon lights underneath but I want to drop weight & I'm the ricer. If you check my initial post, I wasn't asking for any input, just seeing if anyone else was interested, but to those who gave advice, thank you. To those who felt it necessary to be jackasses, well...'nuf said.
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I would have to agree with you there Hyperion. How is weight reduction considered "ricer"? Stupid wings--like many of you people here have--that serve no performance gain, tacky neon lights and "super charged" emblems, over-sized gauges w/ their purrrrty colored lights, 18"+ wheel sizes, and blah, blah, blah....those things are "ricy". Weight reduction is a performance gain...just help the guy out with his QUESTION, if you're not interested then don't respond.
Go ahead and slam away.
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No slamming from me, I like the idea of a possible carbon fiber trunk and hood combo. I have seen it done to other cars, and along with a slight reduction in weight, I think it looks good.(painted or unpainted to taste of course) Yeah it's a lot of money, but it's not like we have tons of other things to spend money on for our cars right now.
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Last I heard, no one called an F-117 a ricer for it's carbon fiber structure... Do what ya want man, being a ricer is an attitude.. spending thousands for stupid parts and then thinking that your car is faster because it looks better. As far as people here with 'ricey' gear, I don't think there is anything ricey about oversized gauges (maybe you actually want the know what your engine is doing at the time, go figure...), supercharged emblems, (I don't think anyone took off their Ion Redline embelm, ground effects or spoiler for weight reduction so if a little supercharged emblem is rivey, I guess we're all ricey), 18"+ wheel sizes (well the 17's that come on the car aren't much smaller and we all know that you can get some help carving corners with a nice thin sidewall). Go look at what you have to do to a nice GTO in Need For Speed Underground 2 just to have the game's idea of a repectable car. THAT'S RICEY! I don't think cars are ricey, people are ricey, and not ALL visual upgrades are signs of ricers, freakin Camaro's came with racing stripes and a 6" wing in 1990.
i'll just chime in with my .02...
i'd be all for the CF decklid, would offset the weight savings of doing CF hood, which is not "rice"
rice = making your car look faster when it's not
CF parts = lighter car = faster car
i don't care what anyone will say about warping, but in all the years, only crap products warp, look all around and you'll know what i mean, there's a reason that people didn't stop using carbon fiber. we've got a shop close to here that does CF stuff and i've been thinking of having them make a hood for us, but haven't come up with a good look for a hood scoop
i'd be all for the CF decklid, would offset the weight savings of doing CF hood, which is not "rice"
rice = making your car look faster when it's not
CF parts = lighter car = faster car
i don't care what anyone will say about warping, but in all the years, only crap products warp, look all around and you'll know what i mean, there's a reason that people didn't stop using carbon fiber. we've got a shop close to here that does CF stuff and i've been thinking of having them make a hood for us, but haven't come up with a good look for a hood scoop
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