Announcing another Blaine Fab carbon creation - LS1 SS hood for any 98-02 Camaro. Real carbon fiber, nomex honeycomb core, vacuum bagged. Very rigid - only 4 pins required. Weight is 10# for the basic pin on hood.

Options include:
carbon airbox for functional ram air
carbon hinge, strut and latch mounts for bolt on use.

Standard finish is grey epoxy surface coat, ready for finish sanding and prime/paint. No pinholes.



Pricing and weights
pin on hood 10# $1375
pin on hood with ram air duct 13# $1575
bolt on hood 16# $1775
bolt on hood with ram air duct 18# $1875

Also available:
LS1 Z28 (non SS) hood, same construction:
pin on hood: 9# $1225

LT1 Z28 (non SS) hood, same construction:
pin on hood: 9# $1150

Wow. Looks superb. Nice job!

Fit and finish looks OEM. That is a fantastic piece. I hereby offer my car and Austin's as test beds for any thirdgen CF stuff in the future!

What's he need two Camaros for? He needs at least one 'bird.

Nice work, Alan. I wish CF wasn't so costly, I can't have the hood cost more then the short block.

It looks great. Fortunately I'm not at the point where I need carbon fiber to go faster. That could get costly in a hurry. lol

Out of curiosity, are there plans for a thirdgen hood?

Nice work Alan!

Thanks, everybody - it has taken a while, but I feel that my carbon products have finally matured, and I can stabilize that process and work on manufacturing efficiency. Everything is hand cut and laid by me and my wife. Unfortunately the nomex honeycomb that works so well in this kind of part is very expensive - about $200 per hood, on top of the carbon fabric, epoxy resin, and bagging materials. So prices had to go up.

If there are some folks that would pay similar prices for a 3rd gen hood, please let me know. The mold construction is a pretty big effort so I would need several orders to make that investment.

I would really like to make some parts for newer platforms - if someone would be willing to loan me a 2010 Camaro in exchange for a really good deal on parts, give me a call.

Looks like someone beat you to it:
http://www.carbonbydesign.com/products.asp?cat=155

Great lookin Hood Alan.

Very nice looking work.

At that price, I guarantee it's not full carbon like Alan's. It probably has 1 layer of carbon with chop strand fiberglass behind it. Most ebay hoods are like this, and weigh as much as a full fiberglass hood.

Also, I'm not sure how Alan sells his so cheap. We're working on releasing CF hoods for BMW's that I was thinking of asking 1800 for. Great work, Alan.

Exactly Jim. If you care about bling buy something like the above. If weight is the enemy..... Alan's hoods are a steal.

That hood is now pinned on Casey Quinn's SM SS. After paint it looks SO factory. Amazing work.

Jason S.

wow very nice allen I jump in on the third gen test bed

Alan, Any chance you can beat these prices on race car shaped louvers? I'm sure you could sell a bunch on c-c if you can offer a significantly better price.

http://www.hrpworld.com/index.cfm?form_pro...;action=product

Stan - Nope. Materials cost isn't much, but the hand work in laying them up, and especially finishing them - trimming the inside holes would take a lot of time. I put a pair of these on Christine Knights AI car - Genesis did a semi crappy job trimming the inside holes, and I cleaned them up a bit but could have spent an hour on each. No way to make any profit on that.

Would making them from fiberglass bring the cost down significantly? The weight savings of the carbon is great, but there is very little material needed to make these type of vents. So how much is saved comparing fiberglass to carbon fiber for these?

This would only make around $20 difference. As Alan said, trimming them takes a crazy amount of time. Unless you have a CNC machine cut the holes, there's no way to make any profit on these. The only way to offer these would be untrimmed, and let the buyer spend hours modifying them.

The things are so small that even the most expensive materials won't contribute much to the mfg cost. CF is overkill given the lack of loading and the inherent rigidity of the shape, so FG would be a fine material. The problem is that low vol mfg of this kind of part is all by hand - prepping the mold, wetting and laying up the cloth and bagging elements, then the post molding trimming and polishing.

If I really wanted make these things, I'd fab a louver die and press them out of a thin, soft alloy of aluminum. Might weigh a few ounces more but would be inexpensive.

I thought about doing that. There is a guy on c-c that has a louver press but it stamps out the generic louvers that you see on microwaves etc and I think it looks dorky. I want race care louvers!

Sorry for hijacking your thread, I'll stop now.

Great job again. That hood is awesome. I hope you sell a bunch of them. Any chance of getting this advertised on some of the big forums such as ls1tech etc? There might be a small market there also.

Here's a few in process pics of the ram air duct:





And here it is epoxied onto the hood, and intake air holes opened up:

Thanks, #2 from this mold is in process. LS1tech may be next, or Corvetteforum. I'm hesitant to dive into another forum too soon - Wherever I advertise, I want to be a contributor, not just a spammer, and I have to be careful not to overextend myself - I'm already not happy about how long it takes me to get some stuff finished and shipped.

The thing with LS1Tech, is there's not a whole lot of "race" stuff going on..well, I guess there is with drag racing. the appearance and detailing guys probably wouldn't be interested, as they'd look at buying the cheap non full CF hoods off ebay. Maybe the drag guys would be interested, some of them have $$ to spend. But not much to speak about for road racing. Everyone (for the most part) who posts in that section posts here as well..

Nice hood btw!

I shameless plug from a member here might be all it takes.

"check out this awesome hood that this guy in Santa Cruz CA makes. Unbelievable, it only weighs 10 lbs!" <insert link>.

I'm overstocked on hoods, so offering this one at a steep discount. I built it 2rs ago for a car that was retired, this one was fitted with hood pin scuff plates, and put it storage. It has never been on a car other than for fitting.

It's real carbon fiber twill, with unidirectional carbon ribbon reinforcement on the edges, and has a Nomex honeycomb core. It weighs 9# 13oz with the scuff plates, and is extremely rigid.

If you need pins in other locations, it would be easy to fill these holes and drill others.

I used an epoxy surface coat, thin enough that the weave pattern of the carbon shows thru - it can be used as is, or primed with a high bulk primer, and painted.

Regular price is $1375, this one only $995 plus shipping (truck freight)

Built as a race car part with the lightest weight possible, the surface finish is not OEM quality, minor surface defects exist that do not impair its functionality.

It looks nice. I have a carbon-fiber hood on my 95 right now. The hood cowl is really wide and stands about 2 1/2 inches high and it kinda makes it hard to see the first 30ft of road in front of you. I would have preferred to have had a stock style CF 93-97 hood instead.

This one cost me me over $700, so I aint getting rid of it anytime soon.

PM sent on a TA Hood

I still have this hood - good deal for someone.

If this was a flat hood at this price, I would be making my credit card scream right now. Good deal.

I've got molds for the non SS hoods, both LS1 and LT1
CF cloth keeps getting more expensive, but I'm holding my pricing from 2009:

Pricing and weights LS1 SS
pin on hood 10# $1375
pin on hood with ram air duct 13# $1575
bolt on hood 16# $1775
bolt on hood with ram air duct 18# $1875

Also available:
LS1 Z28 (non SS) hood, same construction:
pin on hood: 9# $1225

LT1 Z28 (non SS) hood, same construction:
pin on hood: 9# $1150

Alan, I'm getting ready to install Aerocatches in my Blaine Fab carbon hood. They require a decent size hole so I'm curious if cutting into the honeycomb area requires any special consideration? I have the top mount because I wanted to avoid having to overlay carbon reinforcing per the AeroCatch instructions. Is it ok to cut the necessary hole and simply bolt these on? Or is it necessary to touch-up/reinforce the exposed honeycomb in some way?

The top mounts have a flange oround the topside that should be adequate to spread the load enough. Be careful to make the holes only large enough to fit the body of the aerocatch, to maximize support. Also just snug the fasteners - if overtightened the honeycomb could be crushed.

As I recall you have an LS1 hood - there is no flat surface on the hood so you'll need to pick spots that have as large a radius curve as possible.

With fiberglass I use a hole saw on the round ends, and a cutoff disc to connect, then a drum sander and a flat file to open the hole so the Aerocatch will press in. On the honeycomb structure I would be concerned with tearing the top and bottom layers, and the honeycomb will not support a hole saw pilot. I would consider cutting the hole with a razor knife (X-acto, for ex) instead - sharp blade, steady hand.

Mount the bodies first, then mark thru the body to drill for the pins - the Aerocatch are unforgiving of misalignment, get it spot on and they work nice.

I did these last month on a VFN piece:

Still available, still $995 plus shipping.

Can you make LS1 F-body CF hoods (Camaro in my case), with the Aerocatch locking fasteners already installed and matching hardware to connect it to the underhood securing mechanisms? Looking for the absolute easiest design for us to install locally without F'ing something up. Can you do both the Plus Flush version (which attaches above the hood) or the Flush version (which attaches under the hood)? Just researching for now, I'm not on a schedule to buy yet.

http://www.aerocatch.com/plus-flush-v-flush

Jim - The PlusFlush will work, flush will not. Install is pretty simple, but placement accuracy is critical. I typically weld a threaded collar to the core support for the pin, but I could fab a nut plate that bolts on to eliminate the need for welding.

I still have that pin-on LS1 SS hood, and could lay up the backside and bond so it would be bolt on but you would lose a good chunk of potential weight savings.

This hood is SOLD! Yay!

Would either the threaded collar or the nut plate allow temporary use of the CF hood, then easy re-installation of the stock hood on non-race days?