Anyone ever suicide a 55/56 ford car hood?

I once saw a car (post 1940) that had a hood that opened from the sides. I think it was a factory installation. Depending on which side of the engine you wanted to see, it could be opened there. That is the only change I would make to any engine cover.

 

Changing a (factory) rear hinged hood, to a front hinged hood, is a 90's smoothie, car show, judge pleasing, sort of modification. Hell ,You might get a spot in the Gazzette.

. .

 

Exactly!

"A front hinged hood has never been correctly referenced as a suicide hood."

Maybe not 'correctly' in your opinion, but jeez everybody knows what he means. Why even bother to nit-pic it to death? And below shows there are all kinds of non-literal uses for the term.

A suicide front end is not reversed opening.
A suicide clutch ( MC term) is not reversed opening.
A suicide knob is not reversed opening.
A suicide jockey is not a reversed opening. He's a truck driver with a dangerous load
A suicide bomber is not a reversed ooening
A suicide door is reversed opening

I think a "suicide" hood looks slick on a lot of cars. Enable it to open fully vertical, and providing your car is low enough and you're tall enough, you should be able to reach anything in the engine compartment.

Go for it!

 

The Studebaker Avanti had a front hinged hood, and I found engine compartment access to be very good. Of course, you could tilt the complete nose like a Jaguar E-Type, and have great access.
What were the Buick hoods called that opened form the side?

 

Atleast someone gets it.

Things that people seem to be concerned with, just to get it out of the way so we can move on to a productive conversation:

1) I don't care if the term isn't correct. You know what it means, regardless if you like the term or not. Move on.
2) I don't care if you like the look. Don't look at it.
3) I don't care if you think it looks like a 90's billet hot rod. Don't look at it.
4) I don't care if it makes some things harder to work on. So does lowering a car. I like the look. As with any modification, you may compromise something to gain something else
5) Yes, it functionally serves no purpose. Neither does laying frame or hiking the front end of a car up. (and if you want to argue that, make a thread.)


I was just looking for anyone with useful information (E.G. Experience doing it on the same or simmilar car, or pictures of it done.)

About half of the people have actually been helpful, the rest just are hindering the spirit of the thread. Don't be the latter.

 

I've also though of adapting a BMW hood hinge. The guy two units down from my shop had a whole bunch of beamers, and the hinge on one of the cars(have to find out year and model) looks to be about the same width and the space between the fenders on my 56. I plan to use a stock 57 for hood release and latch because I have them already sitting around.

I was toying with the idea of doing that as well, but I'm not sure whether to include the bumper in that or not, and whether to try and make the whole fender go with it, or cut it about 10" up and make flat ends that will meet. I've seen that on gassers before.

My other concern with that would be the inner fenders, because I will drive the car on the street all the time, so I'd like some to keep the crap off the engine. Do you think it would be better for the "clip" if you would to come down onto the inner fenders, or for them to hinge up with the clip?

 

i am in the process of redoing a 54 Ford crestline victoria into a custom rod and i have fabricated a reverse opening hood on a electric lift actuator, took some engineering to clear the grill suround while lifting but worked it out and it works great

 

Wow. That got out of hand quickly.

Good luck on your hood project.

 

If suiciding means to open the hood forward then I suicided the entre front end on my '55 Vic way back when.

If I wanted to make a forward opening hood for a '55/56 I would look at setups on first gen F-100s. The hood on a fairlane type of a '55/56 Ford is going to closely resemble the truck.

 

Reference same year Thunderbirds for ideas on how to go about it.

 

Do you have any larger pics? Or any of the hinge/ latch parts?

How did you go about it back in the day?

Yeah I was thinking that they should be similar. I accept that modification will have to be done in any case, as there is not a whole ton of bolt on stuff for 56 fords, never mind ones with Fe's and top loaders like mine. I don't expect to buy a kit and bolt it on, I'm just looking at different ways of going about it.

 

Did you end up changing your hood ?

 

Reverse the way it opens and call it a "safety hood".

Then do suicide doors.

Just for kicks.

 

tilt would be the proper term for this. just buy a bmw!

 

That was funny!


Instead of doing just the hood why not make the whole front end tilt. Ive seen a few of this year cars with front ends that tilted. All were race car/gasser type vehicles. Im thinking it may be eaiser to do also. You sure wont like a front tilting hood when you have to work on the front of the engine. Ask me, I have a 57 Ford. A real pain doing a cam switch on a Yblock lining up those "one of kind" timing marks.

 

Ehh, won't be that big a deal. Beats the pants out of taking a 6.0 out of an E350. I had two 57's, so I am famillar with the pitfalls.


Haven't done anything yet, this is a decade long project for me. Just a few hours here and there when I can.

 

boom

 

im going to suicide my gas filler door