hey all that about the hood is so true cuz i just looked into one that the guy wanted for 400 but said he wanted an additional 200 just to fix the rust ....thats not including paint or shipppinng.....so i think i will holla at this guy and get a nice quality hood.....question do they damage easily
Carbon fiber is supposedly very strong... almost like steel, but light and flexible. Mine flexes very easily, but I have never felt like it was about to crack or break. Derrick might have to weigh in on this question. There is fiberglass in the framework underneath. It is very smooth, clean, and black gel-coated. One of my hinges got stiff from sitting, and I was more worried about the fiberglass in the framing than about the CF. I had to work it back and forth to get the hinge up enough to lube it. It was just from sitting a long time since opening it and lubing the hinges. Also, I had a pretty fierce fire from a stuck needle valve in my carb flooding the engine bay with gas. The hood was down, and it took me some time to get into my shop and get an extinguisher. The hood stayed down because I thought if I put it up, the fire would get oxygen and flare violently. I shot the extinguisher into the nostrils to put the fire out. Flames burnt my fenders and were shooting out of the cowl/hood seam... All that happened to the hood was some small flakes in the clear over the CF. The intense heat right at the carb heated the clear immediately above and caused the pock marks in the clear. Other than that, the CF held up awesomely. The fiberglass parts of the framework bubbled up pretty badly, and some gel-coat was lost. However as flammable as fiberglass is, I am pretty happy with the relatively little damage I got. So, all in all, I think the CF is definately much more durable than the FG, but Derrick would have to comment on CF vs steel. They do make driveshafts out of CF! Must be fairly strong...
Here's some pics... First is my engine before fire... Next is my engine after fire... Then is the car with the hood AFTER the fire... Then is the little flakes it took out of the clear... I wish I had put down some quarters or something to show the size of the pock marks. They are about the size of a popcorn kernel. They are only in the clear, and not down to the CF. The pic is also before I cleaned the hood. The are barely noticable with the fire extinguisher powder removed. http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=34236
this is why i like steel CF hoods are extremely nice, dont get me wrong, but i just like a steel hood for instances like this. BUT these are nice, reproduced, strong and you will probably have less in a CF hood than a steel hood. i guess there's always two sides to a fence
Yeah, there was a time when Grabber hoods were cheap and I never would have considered spending so much on any hood... Afterall, the cheapness in me went hand in hand with the cheapness of working on a Maverick. That's why I got into these cars. I just couldn't find a cheap Grabber hood anymore, and I knew that I needed one for the direction I eventually want to take my Sprint. So I bit the bullet. When I ever get the car painted "Spabber", no one will ever appreciate the CF hood. It will be white with blue stripes. Coulda done that with any hood.
Nope,can't do it.Been there,done that,disassembled 2 rears for nothing.As far as wheels,you can get Weld draglites in a 4-lug pattern,there's plenty of aftermarket 4 lug wheel styles available,you just gotta dig a little deeper to find 'em.
Tim; if he has an 8" with the 4 lug pattern, and I think there were some early cars that way, will it work? He didn't say whether he had a 7.5" or 8".
axils back to what was posted at the biginning of the page i was wandering How much has to be done to switch out 4 lug to 5 lug axils out of a 7.5 axil and how mutch would cost?
Hi Seth, One approach would be to take your existing axles to a machine shop and have them drill the ends and press new studs in. You would also have to take the brake drums in and have new holes drilled in them. How much that would cost ... I don't know, but machinists don't work cheap. A second approach would be to have custom axles made, but I doubt that any of the axle companies mess with that axle when there are much stronger alternatives out there. You would still need to have the brake drums drilled and custom axles usually start at $100 each and go up in price depending on options. Third choice ... find an entire 8" axle housing that lived under another Maverick and bolt it in. ... about $90 at my local salvage yard complete from brake to brake. You'll end up with an axle strong enough to take on a fairly hot V8, too. Even the later 6 cylinder Mavs got 5 bolt axles from 74-77, so if you see big bumpers, it is an easy bet that has the axles you need. Grab the front disc brakes/spindles and proportioning valve while you are at it... a night and day difference in stopping power.
ok i must have missed this one. ok here is the low down on the CF hoods. there are many different ways to make these hoods. i have used the most affordable way to produce a quality hood. it the strongest? No? can I make one that is killer strong yes! but will people pay for it? NO. well maybe if it was some promod car or something…lol! CF can be stronger then steel it just depends on the process of making it. it also depends on what you mean as stronger. however a hood like that I would have to charge about $1800 for a hood! I mean you could stand or drive over the sucker and nothing would happen! don’t try this with my hoods though there is also another way to achieve a stronger hood that is a bit cheaper. it is by using a vacuum process. but again it would be about double of what i’m charging now. anyhow your fire is a very, very good example of how strong that stuff is. unfortunately the weak points on my hoods are the fiberglass frame and the resin. another main benefit of these hoods is bottom line fit! you are never going to get a fiberglass hood to fit right out of the mold. though there are new processes in doing composite fiberglass work no one at least at this time is going to pay for it. lastly you never going to get something that is ready to bolt on and you don’t really need to paint…. though "chrit"s paint job on his it looks killer! i hope this answers some questions. p.s. i guess those hood scoops worked well
