Hey James, How about I trade you my bicycle for your car. I gurantee you, that you won't won't have to wait. (Of course I'll have to buy one first, but then you could pick the color). :-)
No joking though, hopefully you'll get it back before the next meet, so everybody can see it. I'll bet you one thing though, when you take it to Rob for the work there, it'll be outstanding and on time.
Hang tough though, when it's all done, you'll be able to bask in the beauty of it.
Later,

 

Okay, got my car back today. I'm feeling both happy & disappointed though. Although I finally got my car back, I started to notice a bunch of imperfections & fitment issues especially with the hood . Although color wise, the paint matches...the flakes differs from the newly painted parts vs. the OEM parts. Also, I found a few spots here & there that had some flaws. Especially around the edges. Looks like small chips & pinhole dots. The hood had a bunch of flaws. I don't know if it was the hood itself but some parts definitely need more prepping. I just got it back & there's already gouges & chip on the underside of the hood. I'll take pictures tomorrow to show you what I mean but the part where the hood latches already has damage!? The hood also doesn't line up properly. There is a very noticeable gap around the headlights & front bumper. To make matters worse, the inside of the car was dusty from the shop. I had to dust it off when I got home . I still have to go back & have them install the grill on my hood vents so I was thinking of having them redo the paint job. What do you think? Maybe I'm being too nit picky so I asked a few friends to check it out & they agreed at what I pointed out. I know they've been working on the car for quite some time now so I don't understand why so many flaws. Overall I'm not 100% happy with their work . It look pretty good from a distance but once you get up close, you can start point the flaws out .

 

Its actually a tough color to match.

I just got a new OEM bumper, had the Nissan emblem filled, and repainted.

The paint is noticably darker on the bumper ... but not unless I point it out. Of course it shows up darker when I take a picture with the flash on ...

Most people don't notice unless I point it out, or if the car is in direct sunlight. I might try and get it resprayed to see if they can match it better, but I know its always going to be hard when the bumper is black urethane, and the hood/fenders is metal. You would have to match the tint in the paint custom (different from a spot on color code match) via trial and error to get the right color.

Also, where they filled the Nissan emblem, I can notice the area is a little warped, when I really get close and look at it from an angle.

All I am saying is, we are going to notice EVERY little thing about it... and we could probabally have it sprayed 10 times, and not get it perfect. Its really hard with the reflection and metallic of the Silverstone paint, unless we respray the whole car.

I will see if this really starts to bug me, and see if it drives me crazy enough to go to another shop ... and get it worked on.

 

one of the reason i back out from buying that hood because they are the first batch of prototype. I thought the vent is pre-cut. You got "small chips & pinhole dots" on the body kit too? i guess all aftermarket kit has this problem.

i just check back on red6 thread, his hood has the same problem bro.

About the paint, if they are not match as you like, BRING THEM BACK and they will repaint for you.

 

Yeah, I'm probably going to put back my OEM hood. Love the style of the hood but fitment is not so good. Plus, since it is made of fiberglass, it's already chewing up the part near the latch. Although they say that you don't need hood pins, I think it's a definite must for non-aluminum hoods. So the hood is essentially where a lot of my problems are. The fitment of the Vertex kit is good but as far as the paint, it's something you definitley have to look at in person to understand. Perhaps for my color, it definitely needs to be blended but like I mentioned above, the newly colored parts have different flakes from the rest of the car. I'll most likely bring it back tomorrow. You can take a look at it yourself. I'm not downing them at all because Gia is a very cool guy but I was expecting more for the time they had it in the shop. Hopefully he can understand & make it right for me. I'm just tired & frustrated ever since my whole experience waiting for my kit. I just want my car done already .

BTW...already PM'd the Vendor of my hood about my issues. I'll also be posting my experience on their thread also.

 

darn..now i am worry about my Seibon hood. They are CF. Is that mean i will need hood pin too?

 

I don't know bro. This is my first time with an aftermarket hood. Just pay close attention to the area where the latch hooks on the the hood. The metal latch that you push to unhook the hood chipped away part of my hood since it was made of fiberglass. I think this part should've been aluminum IMO. Not sure about the Seibon hoods. My recommendation from this experience, have them fit the hood first before doing anything. I was a bit confused when they painted it first then did the fitment. I always thought it was fitment first then paint.

 

what the heck? the latch made of fiberglass? how crazy is that? any word back from the vendor about the hood?

 

No, not yet. I'll post pics tomorrow so you can see what I'm talking about. It's not the actual latch itself or the hook on the hood. It's the small tab piece next the the hook on the hood that the actual latch hooks on to until you push it to unlatch. This piece kinda domes out. Hope that made sense but like I said, I'll post pictures tomorrow.

 

if the latch is reinforced, you shouldn't need hood pins.

are aftermarket hoods that much lighter than the oem hood? or are you guys doing it more for venting purposes and looks??

 

i think the reason most people getting aftermarket hood is venting purpose and sometime for the look also.

CF hood is much lighter than stock.

 

Actually, there's not much weight difference between a stock and CF hood.

The stock hood is aluminum and already very light. Most of the CF hoods on the market will only be marginally lighter (since they have a fiberglass base). If you get a dry-carbon hood, that may be a different story.

I think most people get it for looks only. I've been thinking about getting a vented hood.. and it'd be pretty much just for looks. The handful of times a year I take my car to the track, the vents would actually be put to good use. But other than that, it's just decoration.

 

Well, took a closer look at my car today under the sun & with a clear head on my shoulder. It's not bad at all. Like I said, from a distance it looks fine but you have to go fairly close to start noticing the flaws. I think all it needs is a good blending of the paint to the other panels. Hopefully this will make the flaking from one panel to the other flow more & also help cover the nicks on the edges where the panels meet. The hood definitely needs some more work & readjusting. I'll see what the shop can do to it & if they can't get it to go, I'll just go back to OEM. The spaces around the headlights definitely need to be fixed since I can see wind get in there & try to push the hood up. Also, it's enough where water can get through as well. To put it in prespective, if you stand in certain angles, you can slightly see parts of the engine bay. I was going to post pics but for some reason my PC is acting up.

BTW...anyone know how to re-enforce the latch part on the hood? Seems like all it needs is a metal bracket of some sort so that it doesn't get chipped from the actual hood latch. Wish I could show you pictures .

 

Well, got back from the shop & I must say they really took care of me. After several attempts to adjust the hood, I made a conclusion that the quality of the actual hood is not that great. I just had them put on the OEM hood & it does look 10x better as far as fitment. It actually has a more stealthier look without the vents. They also took care of all the little nicks I was talking about & a few fitment issues I had. As far as the flakes goes, I think I can live with it. I don't think it's that noticeable unless I point it out. They did offer to give it another touch up in the next few weeks which is good. Overall, I pretty satisfied now. I think most of my issues was in the hood & that's no longer an issue since I swapped back.

 

Excellent....James, as long as you are satisfied, that's the main thing. I want to get a vented hood also, but not for looks as much as for the air itself. Just be sure you are happy with the final results, no matter what they are. Happiness is next to Godliness....i.e. be happy don't worry... (Long as you get what you want). Enough bs, still want to see your car wilth the new vertex body kit on it...... Ii's got to be the bomb from the pictures you posted.

 

James-
Congrats on finally getting everything worked out. Where did you get the screen pieces that you had installed on the Vertex bumper?

Thanks,
Bruce

 

i stop by today and oh boy, the quality of that hood is shi.t.ty. I don't know how the vendor still try to sell something like that. My Seibon fit 100% IF i take out the strut bar OR take out the spacer i have on the plenum.

I'll work with Gia on my OEM food for some "show case" crazy stuff. hehehe. I am happy that you sastified on the painting job. As i said before, these guys will do whatever it take to make the job right. Congrat on your new kit. NOW, picture time.

 

Get Seibon or Velside 3. 100% fitment. I'll post my new hood by this weekend.

 

Same here, i have seibon and it fits great!



James, post the damn pics allready!!!

 

Thanks Warren. Yeah, I'll most likely be going the the BBQ in Aug. & the TI meet in Sept. so you can definitely check it out then.

Thanks Bruce. I got my screen from CustomCarGrills.com. They have very good Customer Service & shipping. No issues at all with them & the quality is very good. I got their Big Sample Pack first so I can play around on which one I wanted. If you order this, they'll give you a $5 dollar discount towards your next purchase. Price for this sample kit is $5 as well. You can pretty much get any style grill powder coated black for an extra fee. I personally got the powdercoated black Hexagon Grill Mesh XXL which I think is perfect.

Yeah, I'm most likely going to get rid of that hood. I love the style but I guess it's not for me. I felt more comfortable with the OEM aluminum hood. If anything, I'll just modify the OEM hood to allow for a vent. I think it'll more durable than any aftermarket hood out there. Yeah, I was there when they were unpacking your hood. Looks awesome bro! Can't believe your going to paint a CF hood. It looks nice just the way it is. Sucks hearing you have to remove your STB or spacer though. Maybe that's how it is with aftermarket hoods. Might want to ask people with aftermarket hoods on this forum if they are having the same issue. Will definitely post pics. I'll start a thread up maybe tomorrow when I can upload pics. I've been having some bad luck with uploading my pictures lately. My PC seems to not like my camera for some reason. Oh well...as you said "picture time"!