the Seibon is wet and authentic is dry. Thats why the authentic costs 2x as much as the seibon.

 

Is there more than one authentic Top Secret hood? I'm assuming the Seibon TS hood is supposed to be a replica of Top Secret, right (hense the TS)? However, the Seibon TS hood does not look anything like the Authentic Top Secret hood I've seen... I'm confused...

Also, what are the actual weights of the dry carbon Top Secret hood and the Seibon TS hood?

 

the TS hood from Seibon is not a replica of anything from Top Secret - it's actually modellled after (though its not exact) the Hassemi hood. Seibon is a fiberglass hood with a wet carbon overlay.

Seibon TS is heavier than stock by a few lbs, TS I would imagine sure puts the weights on their site, or you can email them for weights. In dry carbon it will be lighter than stock

 

I'm assuming that if I wanted to paint the CF hood to match the car (CS), that I should be looking at getting authentic dry carbon? If not, what should I be looking for?

 

not at all - you can easily paint a wet carbon product too

here is a pic of my car when I had the Seibon TS hood on:

 

those works are HOT !

 

Nothing beats the real stuff.

 

The cost of making an autoclave hood compared to a wet layup is about 5 times the higher cost on the manufacturing side. Dry have pinholes which is a bit more work to get painted, but it is very strong and durable. Will not warp, distort, shrink, flex, etc. Autoclaves can only process epoxy because of the operating temp goes up to 300F + Most polyesters can only withstand 180F before they breakdown. If there is no pinholes then the part is vacuum bagged which is still very light, but not as strong as autoclave hoods. Vacuum bagging is about twice the cost to produce compared to a wet layup.

 

Well said.