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AJ Hartman Carbon Fiber E46 M3 Hood Install

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  • AJ Hartman Carbon Fiber E46 M3 Hood Install

    Vorshlag has installed a number of these Motorsports grade carbon E46 M3 hoods. This post will act as our installation instructions. This is a race car part, not a street car / show car part, and that means there are some compromises. We will try to explain that below.



    Step one is opening the crate and unboxing the hood. This should be done when the freight truck arrives to make sure there is no damage. These are crated well and should not be a problem.



    Next you need to remove your OEM hood. This E46 non-M Coupe had a steel hood that weighed 44.5 pounds, so get a friend to help you get this hood unbolted. Save the mounting bolts (or replace them with simi9lar size/thread pitch).



    The Hood should be a direct replacement with respect to the hood hinge mounting. Again, with a second pair of hands bolt the hood in place using the factory hinge mounts that are threaded into the carbon fiber hood.



    Carefully try to close the hood and look for interference at the body lines... Now you will need to adjust the hinge mounting holes/bolts and tweak the fender gaps to get a good fit for the hood to the body. This AJ Hartman hood was molded off a new factory E46 M3 hood and they have exceptionally good fit and finish for a Motorsports part.



    This carbon fiber hood needs to be painted, wrapped, or clear coated before it sees extended use in sun or ran. If not the carbon WILL get water spots that are nearly impossible to remove. Even if you wax the panel this can happen in a matter of hours. This is common with Motorsports grade dry carbon parts. The glossy faux carbon crap you see on eBay has a heavy clear coat on top, but even that stuff spots and eventually flakes off over time. Just know this before you use this in the sun with the carbon left "raw".



    The factory hood clasp parts will not work with this hood - there are no provisions for their mounting whatsoever. You will need to use some sort of hood pins like these AeroLatch kits to hold the front of the hood down. Vorshlag stocks and sells the AeroLatch kit shown.
    Last edited by Fair!; 06-07-2017, 06:03 PM.
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev
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