zeenon53

What is the best way to get things lined up to install hood pins? I just ordered a new CF hood yesterday for the tib and I don't want to fuck things up...lol

Brycerb

Just install the pins and slam your hood shut. Perfect every time. (I had to edit this after I saw your avatar, this is a joke.)

Brock Obama

Say no to hood pins.

zeenon53

these pins are are necessary with the vented CF hood I got. I think I am going to pick up a set of the CF locking pins.

Fabrik8

Be safe, use hood pins, unless you're fully confident that it's strong enough to not break and fold back over your windshield. I would not feel safe using only the stock hood latch with many/most of the hoods on the market. Sure, they may look ugly, but like I said, it's all down to confidence. They're getting better though, so do what you're comfortable with.
The easiest way to line the pins up is to drill the radiator support (or wherever you're putting them) and then put some masking tape on the bottom of the hood in the area where the pins will line up. Set the height of the pins so they are touching the bottom of the hood, and it's still a little bit raised (almost closed). Then dab some paint or whatever you have laying around (white out, heavy grease, whatever) on the hood pins, and gently close the hood until it touches the top of the pins. Drill there. Setting the pin height is easy after that. Another thing that works well is stick a small piece of clay on the bottom of the hood, nad make an impression.

zeenon53

Thanks for the advise, someone else told me the same thing except with double sided tape.

Jarrod

Whats the best way to drill the CF?

sk8rmike

A sawzall.

lol, I drove around with a vented CF hood for like a year and a half and never had that bish fly up on me though.

Fabrik8

Drill the carbon with a dremel tool and high speed cutter or a carbide burr on a die grinder. Drill bits will splinter carbon unless it's pretty thick, unless the lip angle on the bit is ground specifically for plastics. Put some masking tape on the carbon, it will help a little with splintering, gives a light surface to mark on, and can save your hood (cosmetically) if you slip with the bit.
Never use a toothed blade for anything unless it's a really fine pitch blade (very fine metal cutting) and the carbon isn't thin. Abrasives are really the only thing you should be using unless you really know what you're doing and have something to practice on first.

As a side note, vented hoods are less likely to fly up because they don't trap as much air underneath as solid hoods. At the same time, vented hoods are also generally weaker because there is less material there. The understructure of most carbon hoods are just copies of steel hood designs, which is stupid. Sheet metal stampings don't translate well to being made in carbon, but don't get me started on that.