Hood pins on CF hood

[Lakersfan24]

Are hood pins necessary on a carbon fiber hood, I've seen many member with them on, and I noticed the other day that my hood shakes a lot while driving on the freeway. I was looking at my hood and I.also do not have the ruber around the front of the hood so that maybe a reason why air goes in and makes my hood shake, I just wanted to get some input on installing hoods pins for safety reasons and not for looks. Thanks

[JoshM]

It's definitely needed for safety. When I had a CF hood, my hood shook like crazy starting around 35mph. Interstate driving... scary as hell. Hood pins fixed the issue.

CF flexes, unlike OEM metal hoods. The metal hood is fine only being "bolted" down in the middle. With the CF hood and the OEM latch, that allows it to rock back and forth when air gets under there. When you add a pin to each side of the hood, it bolts it down completely.

[pninja82]

I wouldnt risk being without them for your and your cars safety.You gotta think,most CF hoods skeletons are fiberglass.With all the bouncing from wind they can crack at the latch point and you know what will happen then.I used a slide style pin on mine.If you don't want them protruding you can get Aerolatch flush style ones for a bit more.The install on those is a bit more tedious due to the triangular/oval shape you have to cut.On mine, I found DIY vids on youtube and it took less than 30 minutes as a first timer.Its just a bit nerve wracking!

[wherm]

you definately should install them. The striker on the hood is metal. That's the part that goes into the latch. The big issue on carbon fiber hoods is that carbon fiber and fiberglass (which the understructure is made of) does not adhere to metal. Over time the metal can work it's way loose from the resins and after a while the fiberglass will develop stress fractures from vibration and the impact when closing the hood. I'm not saying that every carbon fiber hood will fail over time, but they have a much better chance of failing than a steel oem hood. By installing hood pins you can rest assured that it will never fly open at high speeds.

[Lakersfan24]

Sounds good I will take the advise and start looking for some hood pins, now my second question is how and where would the best place to install them. I don't want to mess up my hood drilling in the wrong spot.

[darkfusion42]

Sounds good I will take the advise and start looking for some hood pins, now my second question is how and where would the best place to install them. I don't want to mess up my hood drilling in the wrong spot.

Yeah, I had to get some myself after one day of driving. It was obvious. Many people usually do two common spots: near the fenders or closer to the ridges in the center. Just take a look then measure. There is a hole on the radiator support right between the upper bolts for the headlights on both sides....near this is a good spot.