FMS Hood

[F3BZ]

flush latches

these aerocatch latches are less tacky than pins and can be painted to match the car.

[SimonTuffGuy]

You could try to buy the steel hood that Roger has on his one Festiva... It's the actual GTX hood that uses the stock latch.

Aside from that, I wouldn't think that it would be "safe" to attempt to bond anything to the front to use the stock latch. What if the fiberglass you added cracked and your hood came up at 65+ on the highway? It was scary as crap at 25 mph when it happened to me... I couldn't imagine it any faster!

The pieces that attach to the hinge location are ok because there's no real force on there... But if you've got wind coming at you at 65+ MPH, that's a lot for your front fiberglassed piece to hold.

I will say though...that FMS really stepped up their design in their hoods. The one that I got from him earlier this year seems to be a lot sturdier than the one I had on my original Pimptiva. From looking at the underside, there's some sort of weird looking brace that is glassed in. If I remember tomorrow, I'll try to get some pictures of it. I'd like to install my kit before Ohiostiva... So we'll see how it goes.

[Festiva_tunner]

Re: flush latches

these aerocatch latches are less tacky than pins and can be painted to match the car.

I like this as an alternative to pins . . . do you know of anyone that has them installed on a car? (doesnt have to be tiva/aspire)

I was thinking of taking the stock hood and removing the skin, then bonding the FMS hood to the stock frame so it would latch right. And it would help strenthen it!

I was thinking something similar . . . could even fab a less bulky aluminum frame to go under it.

[Hodag'stiva]

Great ideas, everyone - this is why I like coming here!

B

[Festiva_tunner]

Found some pics of these latches:



Came across this in my search, I know this
ones off topic but I couldnt resist:

[SimonTuffGuy]

Not a fan of those pins... I don't think they would hold that great on the Festiva hood either... The ones that I've seen installed have been on hoods that have a frame underneath; the FMS hood is just a single "layer" of fiberglass.

[Quickslick4444]

Those girls are all butterfaces.

[Gomez]

They eat crackers don't they?

[Festiva_tunner]

They eat crackers don't they?

that was a link off their site . . . I figured it would give you an Idea of their crowd lol

Saltines I belive

[25Horseplay]

You could try to buy the steel hood that Roger has on his one Festiva... It's the actual GTX hood that uses the stock latch.

I have tried No luck!

[SimonTuffGuy]

Top of the hood


The undeside... As you can see, the different colored panels that run along each of the edges - these make the hood really sturdy compared to the older versions that I've seen.

Hope that helps!

[25Horseplay]

^^Those hinge points look like Pimptiva orange!

[SimonTuffGuy]

They're actually a really dull fiberglass brown IRL... I'm not sure what my plans are with them yet though. I may chop them off since I have no plans to use hinges.

[Sleeper]

Ya Fred's car came with an old version of the FMS hood....there is no bracing or support on the underside.....I'm going to give it a little more strenght by adding some fiberglass to the underside......I have red sparco hood pins....so they match the car and don't stand out as much.....also they are the type that slide in place so you don't loose your pins......

Only catch with the sparco pins is that they cost $60..... ouch!!!

Kinda like a gold ring in a pigs snout if you will. 8)

[Festiva_tunner]

I've been going over how our blades are repaired and what gives them the strength to spin so fast and take so much abuse.
They have a thin layer of aluminum wire mesh layered into the glass.

So my thought was what about fabing a mounting bracket for the stock latch and then bonding it to the hood with the mesh reinforcement like in a pattern similar to below, tieing the mesh into the hinge points?

What do you guys think?