I've been getting a few private message on my Aerocatch hood pin install, so I thought I would setup this thread to discuss my experiences and also get other's experiences as well.

I bought the Seibon Carbon Fiber VT Style hood a while ago and ordered the Aerocatch hood pins to install with the hood.(Some people have issues with putting hood pins on a CF hood because it takes away from the look, that is a whole other debate, I got it personally for peace of mind)

My Hood:


My Hood pins:


This is what you get with the Aerocatch (missing are the 12 bolts and nuts that goes around the latch setup):

^^ I don't know why they included those 2 black form things in the picture since they are just thread protectors for the red pins. It also came with instructions and a stencil to trace the hole that you have to cut out of the hood.

The body shop:
I took my car to get the hood pins installed at a bodyshop that I always go to, they are not new to the business or new to the tuner scene, they are called Xtreme Customs and they do work on show cars. They told me that they have never installed this type of hood pin but they believe they could do it, two other shops flatly said no, they wouldn't do it when I asked for quotes(I always ask quotes at other shops to make sure the price is competitive so I am not taken). Anyways, they quoted an hour labour and said a flat $100cdn fee for the work.

I happened to be there right beside them for the whole installation because I took the day off and drove there and had no means of transportation to go anywhere else. They asked me to come to the back for a question and I just never left

1. They installed the two red pins into the two holes in the bar above the radiator.

2. They put toothpaste on the top of the pins and closed the hood down so they could see where the toothpaste left it's mark on the bottom of the fiberglass part of the hood.

3. They cut holes underneath the hood:



4. They put toothpaste on the top of the pins again and closed the hood down so they could see where the toothpaste left it's mark on the bottom of the CF part of the hood. And then drilled a small hole through the CF. Then they drilled a small rectangle shape hole to let the pin go through so the hood can sit flush and latched before they started the next step.

5. Then they took the stencil and measured, centered, moved, adjusted, stepped back and thought about it(they did this over and over again for the longest time to make sure it was perfect, you only get one chance at this).

6. Then the cutting began, this step was easier then I thought and there was no issue. They kept on making the hole bigger at the bottom side of the hood so that they had more room to work with when screwing in the 12 bolts to the two latches, but that wasn't really an issue.

Intermission:
So far, everything was going great, no real big issue, we were about an hour into the process and we all thought it was about done, all that was needed was to adjust the height of the pins and away I go...

7. Then they went to put the hood down onto the pins to see what they had to adjust( they knew there was always a concern with this install and I will show you why):
In a perfect world, your hood is flat and the surface where your pins are installed is flat like so:

And so when you go to close your hood and latch it, everything is hunky-dory:


Not so for my case, the hood is on an angle where the latch is sitting:

^^ I don't think I need to explain to you guys the issue we were facing.

I was panicking, thinking that I just messed up my hood, but the body shop guys were calm and just started to adjust the pins by bending them and grinding down the area that needed to be gridded to fit into the latch on an angle. They also had to lengthen the hole in the pins as well. Here is the result:

^^ they sprayed some type of finish that you spray onto metal after you grid it, makes it look a little better then exposed metal.


Now, the process of adjusting the pins and grinding it down was a pain in the ***(we all were getting frustrated and cranky, it was 6pm on a Friday), it alone took another hour, everything took 2 and a half hours(it actually took 5 hours but I didn't factor in the pauses in the install to deal with other customers and crap). But the body shop guy said "I always keep my word" and he only charged me one hour labour($100cdn). He told me it was the nicest hood pin he has ever seen, but it was the hardest one he has ever installed.

Now, I don't know if my body shop really screwed up and there was another way of doing this, I've seen people post pics of their Aeroctach install here and the pins looked like it wasn't even adjusted. I have no idea how they managed to do that because I was there for the whole process and I couldn't think of another way. Any insight on this will help others who are going to do this install.

Thanks.

 

thanks for the great post! I love the look of those pins. And i know what you mean about peace of mind.

 

Sorry bro, I think your body shop messed up on the install...No way is the pin suppose to be bent up like that. They bolted down the black piece/lock before they factor in the angle of the pin. I'll try to dig up a DIY thread from another forum that I found on how to install these pins.

On a side note...they do look really nice. I have these as well but I haven't got a chance to install them yet.

Found it...http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread?id=206359

 

I looked at that thread you pointed out. The guy's hood is kinda flat(at least more flat then my Seibon hood), so maybe that explains how it was easy for him. The Seibon VT style hood is raised more in the middle to accommodate for the side vents having angled slits, for that reason, the slope of the front of the hood is more angled then the normal OEM 350Z hood(if you have seen the VT hood in person, you would understand).

It would be nice to read an experience from someone with a hood that is very angled like I illustrated below and see how they approached it:



^^ I personally don't see how you can modify anything else other then the pins drastically with the above picture.

And remember, below is the highlighted area of the size of the hole in the latch that you have to play with:


But let's say for some reason, the laws of physics were not applied here and you somehow got the hood pins to go into the latch without modifying the pins, you also have to factor in the little bar that you need to push through the hole of the pin:
bar = light grey
hole in the pin = black
In a perfect flat world:


Not so perfect world:

^^ You would still have to lengthen the hole to get the bar through.
Even after we modified the hood pins, we had to lengthen the holes a bit to make the bar smoothly go through.


As for you mentioning that they didn't factor in the angle (which I mentioned they did in the post: "they knew there was always a concern with this install and I will show you why"), so let's just say they did factor in the angle ahead of time, what would they have done different? They can't change the angle of my hood. Moving the latch a little forward, backward, or to the side wouldn't solve the above mentioned issues. So the only thing left is to modify the pin.


Sorry if I misunderstood anything.

And thanks for the compliment, what type of hood are you going to be installing them on? Please update us on your install.

 

I was playing around with the lock and pin this morning and it appears to have more play than pictured. Aerocatch calls for a +/- 5 degrees tolerance for the pin to lock smoothly. I think its has more than +/- 5degress.....more like 30 degrees. But it looks as if you play around with the height. You can possibly get it to lock smoothly without bending the pin. Maybe your shop installed the lock to further up? So in order to compensate for the error they had to bend the pin back?

As far as having to lengthen the hole...I don't think that is necessary as well. The opening on the pin is about 3/8" which is more than enough for it to lock smoothly.

I'll try to get a pic to show what I mean...

 

dont worry man, i did the same thing with my set. granted it took me 4 hrs to do it myself, it was a top secret hood, it was done in the end.

there's no way around to not bending the threaded pin. unless you bend it like 90 degrees, it's ok.

 

Really? IF this is the case...I don't think i want to install it anymore. I might as well go with Sparco pins. Had them on my last hood and they were easy to install.

 

during the 4 hrs for me, it was mostly should i or should i not cut into my $1600 hood. plus i was doing it without reading the instructions and toothpaste method.

 

Ah, good, at least I have one person to back me up on this install. It's good to know I can go back to this body shop without any doubts next time.

 

Great info

 

Wow awesome instructions! Hmm maybe I should ditch my Sparco pins for AeroCatch.

 

those little black spacers that were a mystery can be cut at an angle, then you put one half on the top and one half on the bottom. it makes it so you can tighten it very tightly and have the angle to the pin, just like i did on mine, lol. i made my angle spacers out of aluminum though. bending pin ftl! still looks good when it is closed though

 

These are the pins from Top Secret correct?

 

Huh? I don't get what you are trying to describe. What black spacer was a mystery? Can you provide pics or draw out what you did?

Thanks.

 

Top secret has a version also. I don't know which came first.

 

It's the same thing, they're (Top Secret) just a reseller.....

http://www.topsecretjpn.com/ac.shtml

 

Aerocatch has the patent or w/e, Top Secret buys them from Aerocatch and resells them or more money.

 

http://www.rgcmotorsports.com/hoodpininstall.html

 

this is where mine are mounted on the hood. my pins are not shaved or bent at all and the black rubber piece goes in between the hood and the pin mount around the pin to put some tension on the latch so you hood's not flapping all over the place

 

sweet.....looks nice.
-j