Ok guys.. so I am finally able to share the big adventure I have taken, which I was going to do if it turned out good or bad..
And from everything I can tell, its turned out GOOD!
About three months ago I found a carbon fiber manufacturer in China making (what appeared to be) really high quality CF CS/GTS replica hoods.
This will fit F30, F31, F32, F33, F35 and F36!
I spent about a month bombarding the guy with questions, getting pictures, even videos as it all sounded FAR too good to be true. The price was good, comparable to standard CF hoods but was a CS/GTS design.
I rolled the dice, with my heart in my throat and ordered one and had it shipped by boat. The BOAT part was a mistake.. the time wasnt a big deal, but I did it to save money on air freight. I was willing to trade time (6 weeks instead of 2 days) for what I thought was a ton of cost. Turns out not only did I not SAVE anything, I spent significantly more on fees, custom fees, warehouse fees, tariffs, handling fees.. hell I had to pay $12 in "fuel fees" just to get it from one warehouse to another just in TACOMA!! *tears hair out* This also after having to hire an "importer" to do the paperwork I couldn't do myself. All in all I spent a couple of hundred more than I would have to just ship it by air and (almost) zero paperwork.
It arrived today.. and looks REALLY good! I am going to do an install video to help show it off as well. I have posted the pics here, but the CF looks *really* good. I had tons of fear about quality of the weave, getting smashed in shipping, scratches, who knows what.. and it looks great! I am actually really really happy!
But.. I also wanted to share how to get these as I have talked with the manufacturer that *IF* (and holy crap I mean *IF*) it turned out good, quality and looks great that I would coordinate a group buy for LOCAL FOLKS here.
What I don't have yet is what the full individual cost would be each, if we did a group buy of 5 minimum, or 10 maximum plus the adjusted costs for air freight. (no more !#$!#!#$@#$ boats)
Check out the pics, and once I have the install video up I will share here as well. It has the black center vent included as well, just not in these pics as it wasn't secured in place yet. This looks identical to the CS and GTS hoods I have seen on OEM M4s and M2C's.
If there is enough interest, then I will post and coordinate a group buy for these hoods.
Rough costs to help you budget if you can do this, and I MEAN ROUGH, so once I get the final numbers from the manufacturer and my importer, I can give firm numbers. I would coordinate the group buy, pick them up from air cargo then coordinate on whatever pick up day would be from my place.
Rough estimated GB cost: $1800-2000 each. I paid significantly more than that with the boat and importer fees. *bangs head on desk* I am confirming real numbers now.
There you go guys.. the big mystery is finally revealed! Feel free to reply here, give me a shout, or a PM.
20190530_190431 by
handaar, on Flickr
20190530_190420 by
handaar, on Flickr
20190530_190416 by
handaar, on Flickr
20190530_190410 by
handaar, on Flickr