This past summer I installed a VIS Carbon Fiber trunk on my CL along with a matching hood. The hood went on and fit pretty nicely. However the trunk did not.

It was an easy and straight forward install. (Or so I thought...) 4 bolts for the hinges, and a few more for the lock and your done. But once I lowered the trunk lid I noticed some major fitment problems.

The first problem was that the lock was not lining up with properly with the latch inside the trunk. It was almost impossible to to get the trunk to lock shut. After adjusting the latch (two bolts that slide up and down) I still needed to bend the latch out for it to catch. Moving on.

Once the Lid was locked shut I noticed the large gaps in the fitment. Most notable the passenger side, and bottom. I also noticed wavy "dimples" or "bumps" almost like dings on the upper portion of the trunk lid.

I knew beforehand that all CF parts are aftermarket reproductions and may not fit properly. I was expecting some minor, fixable problems. But what I got has me thinking this was a waste of time and $$$.

I kept the trunk on because my friends didn't think It was such a big deal. (Not me I am a OCD perfectionist.) Plus I wanted to see my body shop guy who in short is the man. After meeting with him he told me it could be fixed but it would involve some "permanent" adjustments. It got me thinking why should I spend more money on this part after I already bought the damn thing. Not to mention I still am on the fence on whether or not I even like the way this thing looks on my car. The weight savings was nice I guess, but my car is fairly quick regardless. Is the ten or so pounds I saved really doing anything. Doubt it.

Recently fellow member and Captain off-topic Civicdrivr bought a similair trunk and encountered almost the same problems. I knew then I wasn't the only one and it was time to bring this problem to light...

See for yourself:

Doesn't look that bad right? Look closer...


The passenger side gap.








Where it meets the bumper it looks like this...




It's genuine VIS brand.


As you can see the bolts are threaded all the way down

The weird wavy bumps can be seen when looking at the trunk from and angle. When there is some morning frost on the car it makes a perfect outline of where they are and what they look like:



What should I do about this? Any advice?
Anyone else who has this trunk with or without these problems please share your experience. Thanks

 

does ur hood have the save vis badge on it?

my badge is diff. might be an updated make or something. try to mess with the hinges to see what u can do. spacers?

 

I have a nick-name!!

My ViS hood has a different badge as well, but the trunk is exactly the same as his.

Here are my pictures. Mine wouldn't even close because of where it sat on the bumper. I did not have the bump stops installed either, and there is very little adjusting that you can do with the four bolts. My car was never in an accident either, so its not the body that is out of alignment.















I was expecting some minor work as well, but mine flat out just wont fit. Its almost as though when it was curing it got twisted. Its a shame too, I held ViS in high regards from previous experience, but these two issues Ive had with the hood (the first hood I got was of sub-par quality, the second was perfect though) and trunk are rubbing me the wrong way. Im having second thoughts about buying one of their hoods for my Civic.

 

damn. now im starting to pull out and not get a cf hood.

 

You already have a hood?

I know what you mean though. Im going to call them tomorrow and also send them the link to this thread. I hope we can rectify this some way.

If we can get the trunk to fit like it should, then Im keeping the hood. The only reason Im selling it is because I wont have the matching trunk.

 

i havent really looked at the trunk hinges on these cars, but if its like most other cars you should be able to adjust the hinges where they are mounted on the rear deck.

 

This is what my body shop guy was talking about. But there are no adjustment points just bolts? I took a look back there and was wondering...
Block of wood and a hammer maybe? lol. I'll post a pic of the hinges and whole system so maybe we can figure something out.

I need to go check to see how much new hinges cost. In the event I go ahead and try to get it "adjusted", and later I decide to take it off and go back to stock.

 

i meant trunk. my bad. hahaha.

 

what is the weight difference in oem and the carbon fiber one?

 

hood is about 17lbs
read that trunk is about 10lbs or so

 

really not that much. i guess if you like the look of it may be worth it

 

that VIS badge gives you some real confidence, the f***er is not even on striaght :shakehead


the holes look to be striaght though, but the holes in the badge itself are WAY off

 

Hmm, my oem trunk has the same problem just not nearly as bad. It only sticks up a little at the passenger corner at the bottom of the rear windsheild. It is however getting worse with time. Maybe the weight difference is effecting your cf trunk? Have you tried to sit on it to see if it will go down all the way? And before you mess with the hinges I would slap the OEM trunk back on to see if it is still fitting right. Thats all I could come up with. I don't see many people on here with CF trunks, is there even anyone who has a problem free expeirence with this?

 

you might have something


civic and SlickShiftNall6, disconnect the trunk lid springs and see if that helps, might be too much tension for the cf trunk to handle

won't fix the dimples issues, but might help some of the other fitmit issues

 

I put the stock trunk back on within 20 mins of installing the ViS trunk. I was disgusted by the fitment, and refused to keep it on the car. My OEM trunk fits just like that, OEM. Panel gaps are perfect.

Did ViS by chance use your trunk for the measurements?

 

i guess i'll never be getting that CF trunk i always wanted. :-(

i was gonna put the oem spoiler on that; i think the silver on black would be a wicked contrast. on the rear

 

Id be worried about bolting the stock spoiler on the CF. The added drag may cause stress cracks in the CF.

 

hey CIVIC

 

I saw that, but I dont see how that would address the issues of it being crooked/twisted/tweaked as well as fixing the bottom lip near the bumper.

 

slick. the trunk can be fixed. i dont know if any of u guys noticed but the trunk on the tl-p's pokes up higher in the corner than anywhere else.

its on the drivers side by the rear window. this drives me nuts so i couldnt imagine having my trunk any worse.

i would fix the trunk. it looks great and it really completes the look.

 

It does look great, and Im sure it can be fixed, but for how much $$$? Thats the biggest question for me (and Im assuming slick as well). We spent over a grand on both parts and thought of sinking another couple hundred into it is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

 

yea, when u buy the best of the best and it STILL needs some jimmyrigging, you can't be that happy

 

because the springs could be causeing the cf to flex/bowing the top just enough (and it almost looks to be fiberglass on the inside [which is even more flexible then cf], due to the coating they put on) tweaking the trunk enough to not fit right





i know a shitty diagram, but it works


basically the springs are trying to rotate the blue arms, which are stiffer then the trunk itself, causeing the trunk to flex at the green arrow, which in the mean time is also pulling the "Bumper" edge (purple arrow inwards/foward) (remember you are also trying to close it at the courner of the two planes)

also the uneveness from side to side may also be due to the fact that the springs are not perfectly even in their spring rates, or the trunk lid itself may not have the exact same torsional rigiditty (sp?) from side to side


for my , i don't think it will fix ALL of the fitmit issues, but it should fix quite a few of them if indeed the trunk is flexing as said above

 

^u sir might have a point. one of you to please try it out.

 

 

also for you civic, of having a spoiler on the stock trunk, which would mean you also proably also have the heavier duty springs needed to lift the spoiler also, will only cause the CF trunk to flex more, and appear to have worse fitmit issues

 

Ive already got the regular weak springs.

Im going to actually remove the hinges entirely and place the hood on the trunk opening just to see if the thing even lines up then.

 

I'm going to try the same thing this weekend when I have some free time. This seems like a good idea to try and pinpoint whether the problem is with the trunk springs/hinge or the trunk itself.

After looking at all the pics again it seems like my trunk should fit flush everywhere if it can just go down a half inch somehow...

 

great advice in here, I have a VIS CF hood and I'm not able to use the hood shocks due to it flexing my hood and actually snapping one of the mounts off, so I was going to suggest trying without the springs just to see if it lines up ok on the mounts

 

Yea, I had the hood on with the struts as well and when it was closed it would push the hood up slightly. I was going to look into lower pressure struts for it, but Im still on the fence about keeping it.

 

I think the carbon fiber looks sick, I hope the trunk issue can be fixed, either with this idea or by vis

 

No problem with my cf hood and oem struts. But I do have hood pins. But that's just bc at 120+mph the corners of the hood wobble a bit. More of a piece of mind thing

 

complete hinges, no , but the springs yes, even just removing the springs and letting them rest at the down position should work too

also remember the pivot point itself for the hinges is still a couple of inches foward of the trunk edge, so if the preload from the springs is takin away, the front edge should come down some to fit even, with the body and such

 

just shows you that the CF does flex some even for the hood

also remember when the hood is in the closed position, that those struts don't have a whole lot of mechanical advantage (the stock hood basically has enough weight there to close itself), so that is why you do not see the hood flexing a whole lot like the trunk is

 

update please, i'm waiting to buy mine lol

 

Its going to snow here tonight and tomorrow, but hopefully Sunday I can remove the trunk springs and trunk and lay it on the opening. I want to rule out everything before I contact ViS.

 

Your WELCOME

 

Update:
The weather has been so bad lately and my free time has been non existent as well. But last night I came out to the car in a parking garage and the light was reflecting off the car and the trunk was sparkling and I feel in love with it again. It was one of those "wow that's my car?" moments. I think I'm going to put the extra effort into making it fit right. It just might not happen until spring.
The next chance I get I'm going to unbolt the trunk and lay it down without the springs attached like mentioned above. We'll see how that goes and I will post pics for discussion.

 

Yea, Im in the same boat. Its been raining alot lately and when it isnt raining Im at work. If I have the time this weekend and an extra set of hands Ill lay the trunk on top of the opening.

 

oh shit i just remember something. CL's with spoilers have THICKER trunk springs than CL's that came with them.

Get the non spoiler springs off acuraoemparts. There $20 total.