personally i think if the cf hood is properly installed and has a nice gloss on it they look kewl..it took me a little bit to get used to them, but they have grown on me....

To paint them(cf hoods), dont they have to have some kinda of special special coating to get the paint to stick to them?

And one more question on strength. I thought carbon fiber was this ultra light weight man-made material that was also known for being very high strengh, but I have no personal experience with the stuff. Is it pretty strong or the is the stuff on the market made differently then the space shuttle shiat?