today, a friend and i decided to go to the mall to do a little shopping. i am **** about my mini so i always park as far as way as possible from other cars...but it was a friday night so the parking lots are usually pretty packed. anyways, after we are done shopping we come out and the first thing i notice is a dent about the size of my fist about 3 inches away from the front right light (when you are facing the car from the outside). most of the paint was chipped the away and will require a new paint job on the bonnet. luckly the person who it me didn't just drive off, they left a note with their phone number and everything. i called her and she said that she will pay for all the repairs that are needed. i was still pretty pissed that someone hit my poor defenseless mini, but i was relieved that she left me a note and was willing to pay for the damage she caused.

now after i chilled out, my friend and i started throwing around the idea of a carbon fiber hood for my mini. since the woman is willing to pay for all the damages i can just get an estimate for how much it would cost to repair the damage then pay the difference towards a carbon fiber hood. the damage looks pretty extensive, will at least cost $600 to repair. what do you guys think? i've been doing a little research and i can't find anyone that has a mc carbon fiber hood yet, but maybe i'm just not looking hard enough. any advice from my fellow motorers?

 

Just curious - what's your motivation for the CF bonnet? Weight? Looks?

 

>>Just curious - what's your motivation for the CF bonnet? Weight? Looks?
>>

a little bit of this. a little bit of that.

i think it would look nice with my black top, also it would lighten the load of the car a little. also, since i will be paying a small chunk of it, this may be my chance to get a good deal on a cool mod.

 

I always have to slam the bonnet for it to latch properly. You might have trouble slamming a CF bonnet!

It should look cool, though. Plus it'll be unique, at least for a week or two...

 

CF bonnet for black MINI? Excellent. No painting needed. Maybe $900 plus labor to install.
Weight savings about 19 pounds. Doesn't dent next time around.

 

What's to prevent the same thing from happening again in the future?

If you think repairing a stock hood is expensive, wait till you see what it would cost to repair a CF hood, in fact you really can't repair it, it would have to be replaced.

Count yourself fortunate to have been invloved with a very honest and forthright person. The chances of that happening again are about as equal as lightening striking in the same place twice.

 

"If it happened again, it wouldn't dent!"

Correct - CF doesn't dent. It shatters.

 

I hope you're planning on painting it.

 

> Either way, OEM or CF, replacement would be needed.

The OEM does not need to be replaced. Pound out the dent, bondo and paint.

The Carbon fiber hood is not poundable, so IT would need to be replaced next time.

 

I got a nice fist sized dent in my hood too (still, after like 6 months). I was quoted around $700 to fix, after my deductable it would be more fun to have CF. Yeah, it won't last like, or be repairable like OEM. But I think CF is a (more) cool route.

BTW, unless the hood is trashed, total replacement isn't going to happen. Don't know about yours, but my dent was quoted to be pouned out, sanded, and repainted. Bondo'd just to fill the curves pounding can't restore, just like body repair on all cars (that aren't plastic). Plus, I'm sure the dealer wouldn't let a OEM hood go for anything less than $1K.

 

i personally think the cf hood is wackos. Well unless you paint it it'll look good and you'll be lighter than everyone else.
might as well get this if your not going to paint it

 

I say do whatever you feel you like. Everyone's tastes are different. I've seen carbon fiber products on cars look both good and bad. Depends on what product it is, the car, and the car's paint color. I had a painted carbon fiber hood on my '99 Cougar. It was pretty lighter than stock. Took a little more umpf to close it tight. And yeah.....you'll be looking at a larger replacement cost of it gets damaged beyond repair. But you can't really live life like that.....worrying all the time. There's risks everywhere in life. Do whatever you feel you like.
In my personal opinion, the MINI has too much hood to switch to a true CF look. Would look a little out of place.....unless you painted it. But hey....again......that's just an outside opinion. To each their own as they say.
Cheers,

 

i have to have it where can i get a CF toilit seat!!!!

 

my advice is if your gonna do it, do it right the first time round.

in other words, i hope your backseats are already out, and i can only assume you plan on replacing all the rest of the heavy shizzza. seats, battery, and so on.

 

If you do get a CF hood, PLEASE paint it. I have no idea why people think it is cool to have a CF hood that doesn't match the rest of the car, esp people driving white or elec blue cars. I say that if you want to improve your mini get a regular hood and drop that extra couple hundred bucks on something like a sway bar, new wheels, or CAI. You probably wont notice a difference with a CF hood, anyway.

 

Maybe he just likes the way it looks. I really doubt stripes and roof decals make the car go faster, but you guys spend hundreds of bucks on them. No offense, but some of the decals I see on this site are pretty silly. So let the guy do what he wants, just like every single other person on this site does.

::end rant::

:smile:

 

"If you do get a CF hood, PLEASE paint it."

If you do that, nobody will know you've got a cool CF bonnet!

Another approach is to leave it bare, with the weave showing, until the next mishap. Assuming it's minor, you can have the CF repaired and then have it painted. At least this way you'll be able to get some more life out of it.

But hopefully your luck is better than that and you won't have to repair it a second time.

 

I guess different things work for different people. If you do like the look of the hood then go for it. In my experience making the exterior of the car more flashy attracts trouble, esp in the form of police officers. I used to have big flashy lifted suv with really loud exhaust, lights on roof rack etc. I got pulled over doing 10 above the limit on the day before thanksgiving. I used to get tickets all the time, never let off the hook. Since I have had my Mini (Dec. 2002), zero tickets. Pulled over once and let go. I am sure I drive a bit faster in the Mini than suv, but the Mini has no exterior mods, just green. I kept all the mods under the hood or in the suspension and nobody knows the wiser. Then again this is my personal philosophy, I am not sure if anyone has had a similar experience.

 

"In my experience making the exterior of the car more flashy attracts trouble, esp in the form of police officers."

I agree. I never have understood why people love to get bright yellow and red cars -- they attract way too much attention, both from the police and ne'er-do-wells.

I prefer something more low keyed - like black!

 

>>Another approach is to leave it bare, with the weave showing, until the next mishap.

Once the sunlight hits the cf for extended periods of time it will start to turn yellow and eventually crack, that's why it's a smart idea to paint it (well, other than the fact that your car will look lame with it unpainted).

_________________



'04 BRG/B S, stockified


Someone in So Cal please buy my S-lites, first reasonable offer and they're yours!

 

I was thinking of getting a CF hood, then my friend asked me if it would affect the handling. I said I wasn't sure, because I never thought of it. Since it is lighter, wouldn't that make the car push in the corners? Less weight on the front, less traction. I'm assuming you could get a swaybar and set it on it's stiffest setting and be done with it, but I'm not sure. The weight difference is pretty good, and I would think that theory would make sense to some degree. What do you guys think?


Craig

 

>>I was thinking of getting a CF hood, then my friend asked me if it would affect the handling. I said I wasn't sure, because I never thought of it. Since it is lighter, wouldn't that make the car push in the corners? Less weight on the front, less traction. I'm assuming you could get a swaybar and set it on it's stiffest setting and be done with it, but I'm not sure. The weight difference is pretty good, and I would think that theory would make sense to some degree. What do you guys think?

Craig,
The weight savings is only 19 pounds and hardly enough to make any real difference in handling and certainly no difference in traction since that is your tires/wheels and suspension that affects that. Don't need the front sway bar-that's not needed either. Still, 19 pounds is enough to help as far as weight is concerned and CF is stiff material.

 

Since it hasn't been raise yet, there is also the issue of crash safety.

Your hood/bonnet is meant to deform in a crash. It's what helps to make a crumple zone a crumple zone. The failure you get with carbon fiber results in cracking, splintering, and rupture, not yielding like you get with a metallic part.

 

>>Since it hasn't been raise yet, there is also the issue of crash safety.
>>
>>Your hood/bonnet is meant to deform in a crash. It's what helps to make a crumple zone a crumple zone. The failure you get with carbon fiber results in cracking, splintering, and rupture, not yielding like you get with a metallic part.
>>
>>carbon fiber could have crumple built into the body part ,but is this not F1 costs

 

>>"In my experience making the exterior of the car more flashy attracts trouble, esp in the form of police officers."<<

...and also in the form of vandals.

"Say, my fellow beady-eyed disrespectful hooligan, the driver of that wussy-*** Mini seems to think he's pretty cool with that carbon fiber hood. I wonder if we could dent it with a big chunk of asphalt?"

"Yeah, we probably could, but why not use that big metal newspaper dispenser on the corner?"

"Better yet, how about a shopping cart?!"