ttocs
Post Whore
I think most people just assume its metal since most cars are.
Not bad. I wonder how it would do at high speeds? I'm sure it'll flex like hell. Mine flex's a little with most of the center cut away but at high speeds.
the hood holes are made to cool by using the venture effect. The air isn't fed directly into the how but rather across it which pulls air out of the hole. It could be creating a pressure system to push it up a little but the pressure area at the cowl probably has a bigger effect on it. You could throw a piece of tape across the holes to test it before sealing them off completely if it does help. Personally I would try to figure a way out to add a little more structure to it while keeping it light. It could be as simple as getting some flat-stock aluminum or L-channel from the hardware store and figuring out a way to mount it as I don't think anything you do will keep it from flexing at all. The concern I have is that after a few years of flexing that composite material could start to develop some cracks/problems that one day when you get going a little too fast it snaps and takes your cowl/windshield and maybe your roof out in the damage. There are other on here that have had a hood fly open on them and at that point the cheap/easy/free way of lightening your car could end up being very very expensive.
Well you have to use epoxy resin on SMC anyway don't you? I'm not real up on glass work other than a little bit of patching on regular fiberglass. This thread is the extent of my SMC knowledge.actually I just had a better idea then the aluminum - just use some rope. Yup you heard me right, just some standard old rope, soaked in fiberglass resin. As an installer we used it on the inside of odd shaped fiberglass enclosures to add some mass and stiffen it up. Once the resin cures it doesn't weight that much but depending on thickness it would take some serious pressure to break it. mask off the areas that you do not want the resin and you could probably just do a strip along each edge. Just mix up the resin and then drop the rope in the resin and stir it around to soak it up and then lay it out where you want it. You would need to either clamp it on the ends, or you could use some epoxy resin(fast dry) to first epoxy the ends of the rope down or else as it cures it will shrink and not end up where you want it to be.