ever have a hood fly open on ya?

While driving my 63 Fairlane 500 the hood flew open, luckily I was not too far from the house. I got out and put the hood down and SLOWLY drove back through the neighborhoods back to the house. Pulled into the garage grabbed tome 2x4's wedged them under the hood and then GENTLY bent the hood back into shape. It is not perfect but It closes again and opens fine. I bought a set of hood pins with lanyards and will be putting them on so this does not happen again.

 

Back in high school I bought a brand-new fiberglass L88 hood for my V8 Vega.

About a week (or less ) it took off during an "acceleration contest" on a local back road. Witnesses said it was still gaining altitude when it went into the trees. You know the pic of the funny car body about 200ft in the air? Like that.

Looked all over the place but never found my hood. Last seen in the vicinity of Lower River Rd, (Douglasville GA) just before the bridge. It's probably still out in those woods somewhere. Happy hunting.

 

I just ran out of gas on the off ramp of the intersate and coasted into a gas station, being at said gas station I check the oil of my 61 Fairlane 500, shut the hood and was on my way. Half way down the on ramp up came the hood for about a second and snap up it went into the wild blue wonder, I stopped the car and got out before the hood hit the ground about 5 ft in front of another car. Some guy going the other way went down to the next exit and came back to tell me what he saw and offered help, he said he had never seen a hood fly that high.

 

Set the hood back on, (I'll put the pins back in later) go in the house for lunch. Leave late for work, just as I hit second gear, I see the hood do a little dance, then whoosh, right up and over the roof. In the rear view I see it land on it's nose. Oh well, I had been meaning to paint it anyway.

 

Volvo 1800
Hood opens forward, normally.
Unless its just been set in place and not bolted to the hinges.
Which is what my dad and I had done, back in 1979.
I guess we just ASS U ME D the firewall latch would hold it.
We hit 50 mph and whoooooosh --- airborne it went. Bad day.
Fortunately no impact or injuries to anybody behind us.
Just a bent hood.

 

One time in a volvo 121 had rebuilt the
engine and put on the hood and was going to
get the bolts to the hinges. When my mother
tell me the dinner was ready. Ate dinner
washed up and changed clothes. And went
to town for some saturdaynigt crusing.
When i shifted to fourtgear WHAAAAM
the hood sailed of could se it cartwheeling in the
rearwiev mirror

One time in a Jensen interceptor was going to
make a new hood for it was so rusty
the owner delivered it to me and i gave him
a ride home with it. And he tell me to
step on it feel how fast it is man (got a 440 sixpack
and fourwheeldrive) got it up to about 120 mph
WHAAAM the whole outherskin on the hood
first hit the windshield and then disapeared
had to sears fore it long time to find it

one time in my Mercedes 500 sec Taking my son to
school. Had charged the battery and not closed
the hood. Att 20 25 mph it flew open and bent
the hood corners and made a 2inch crack
(aluminium hood)

 

was in my 54 chevy and one night went to friends house to party and then got cocky and told my friend that my chevy would woop his studebaker"454" well we line up in the street 1.2.3 go right when i started pulling on him the hood pops up i slam on the brakes and went up the curb forgot to close the hood after i was showing the motor off.

 

Had a '41 Ford coupe in '57 that would fly up often. I was too dumb to tie it down. Sold it to some Navy guys from Key West. I wonder if they were smart enough to tie it down.

 

'66 ford F-150 on the freeway in southern california at rush hour (back in the days when you could still do the speed limit during rush hour...center lane of the freeway (with a camper shell on the back to aid vision)...BTSS (big time scarry shit). Got it to the center divider without incident, but will always remember the experience

 

One night I was doin' about 110 in reverse in my 57 Ford....

 

Buddy of mine bought a Porsche 911 from salvage pool, theft recovery car. We were hauling it home and hood flies off, lands soft as a feather right side up in grass by the road. Thinking he lucked out, we were walking back to it when a 18 wheeler goes by and the wind blows the hood into the road where two other cars run over it. I laughed so hard he almost left me there! Cost him $800 bucks for another hood

Oh yeah,my last rollback, a International 4300. The whole front end is fiberglass and flips forward. I filled washer fluid up and didn't latch rubber hold down straps. About 5omph the damn front end flips forward! No shit! No damage but I still can't believe that one!

 

I had an o/t 72 Nova when I was a kid. I was heading to work and getting on the highway, cranking up to 65 WHAM, I was hoodless. I pulled over and got out. Couldn't see the hood anywhere....the bam, it hit the ground. That thing had to have been a mile high. It didn't do anyting the hood except scratch it a little. I think that was the beginning of me overkilling everything. Scary shit.

 

Not completely off but we use the hood for a speedo, 72 Dodge pu main latch is broke and at 45 mph the hood comes up to the safety latch. I am fixing it now.

 

My brother in law and I were driving his fathers international suburban back
in the early 70's. We were on the parkway, all we heard was a big bang then darkness, then light like 1 2 3 hood pin was rotted ripped out actually tore
the hood off the truck had to have gone 20 ft in the air we were going westbound
hood hovered in air for a while and landed in the eastbound lanes had a tough time explaining to his father

 

oh man. Years ago me and my ex were heading home from Vegas in her 58 olds. We were doing about 90 in the fast lane on the 58 highway, i was driving. A gust of wind hit us pretty hard and it popped the hood up. I couldnt get over right away car there was a semi in the slow lane! Eventually got it to the shoulder, got out & couldn't believe the damage. It didn't break the windshield, but it looked like someone danced on the roof, from one end to another. the hood also rolled up all crazy & twisted. took the hood off and left it on the side of the road. it was wasted. When i got back in the car, i had to pop the roof back up, the hood pushed the roof in so far it knocked me in the head and i didnt realize it. lol if you guys see a slammed blue 58 running around cal with no hood now you know why!

 

No biggie as I recall (TC Cortina). This bonnet travelled right back, you could rest it on the windscreen. Opened up on a on straight stretch of my most travelled road, round midday & pretty quiet. Lucky. Looked between bonnet & engine.
This was when I was a kid. It was my mum's car. When she wasn't looking we put a hotter cam in it. "Whats wrong with my car"..
I also spun it 360 on a greasy go through a legendary stretch of local hills main road ( Chain of Ponds). Trying out the new cam! Stopped 6 inches from a tree. Same road as the bonnet fly-over, similair time of day & quiet.
Could'nt do it now- urban sprawl- too many citizens..

 

Twice it happened, and both not good, at all.

 

Oh yeah, and as I remember, can't see a dang thing at all what is in front of you!

 

It hasn't happened to me personally yet. It did happen to my brother, though. He took dad's '74 Mercury Capri road-race car out for a spin and didn't put the pins in the hood.

He pulled out gave it a little gas and the hood bent straight up. He wasn't going fast enough for it to fly off or break the windshield or anything. Bent the hood hood corners and stuff, but it didn't turn out to be such a bad thing- because that hood was always a pain to work under, now it raises up higher and getting under there is a breeze.

 

Not a hood but funny too:

A guy I used to work with had an old Jeep with a hard top. He's flying down the freeway and all of a sudden the whole hard top lifts off, flips several times going over top of a semi and lands upside down on the pavement completely flattening itself. He hadn't clipped the front of it down to the windshield. The bikini top on the Jeep got pretty cold around November!!

Bill

 

The fiberglass hood on my off topic V8 Pinto came off at 130 mph. We never did find all the parts from the hood scoop. The pucker factor was impressive.

 

yep. In my old bosses 68' bronco. Had a fiberglass hood with pins and my boss neglected to put the pins in it. I was only going about 20 though. cracked the windshield and part of the hood. That was a fun truck. Had a pretty built 302 and would do wheelies with very little effort. The look on a girls face is priceless when you pull away from a light on two wheels

 

Had the hood fly up in the lights at Irwindale in a 57 Chevy. Mike Stell was driving got out and tore the hood of and made another pass.Next week we cut the roof off an d got rid of the fenders. Worlds first 57 Chevy roadster

 

Just finished preping my 51 Caddy and was headed for the paint shop, only doing 50mph and a huge noise, windshield went blank (was a white Caddy). Stuck my head out the window and slammed on the brakes. Continued to the paint shop and told him to fix the hood before he painted the car.

 

the hood on my 70 cutlass flew up on me on the 110 fwy. this was about 10 years ago, it was around 3 am and i was taking a female friend home. it flew open and bent over the roof. I remember that i was taking the hood off and the chp showed up. They asked what i was gonna do with the hood and i told them leave it on the fwy. they told me to come back in the morning to pick it up. Needless to say my female friend didnt want to ride in the cutlass w/o a hood, so i found one that would

 

Back in the early 80's,late one night I was on my way home from La Mirada,Ca to Whittier,CA in my 55 Chevy Nomad and I made a turn onto Stage Road. There were no other cars (a lot less traffic back then in SoCal) so I punch the gas and the next thing I see is my hood going up and in a wink of an eye, flew right over my Nomad and landed upside down on the street. I stopped, threw the trans into reverse,pickup the hood, placed in the back of the Nomad and drove home nice and easy the rest of the way.

 

...

 

Hell yes! My 68 F-100 on the free way. I stuck my head out the window and kept on trucking till the next exit. No dammage to the truck but I think my pant leg was wet.
When I built the VW. bug I kept that in mind and fabricated another hood latch.

 

It was about 30 years ago, in my first old car: a 1955 Cadillac Series 62 sedan, purchased for $800 at the Atlantic City Car Auction. Had been working on it for a few months, then took it to a young guy for a spare-time paint job, which took another month or so.

Finally picked it up and it looked splendid: gleaming white paint job, rolling on a new set of wide whites. I was riding home on Rt 30, just east of Exton, PA when the hood flew up.

'55 Cads have a small external "visor" (roof extension) over the curved glass windshield. It was just long enough to to prevent the hood from smacking the glass, luckily. I couldn't see anything, of course. Hit the brakes and pulled to the side.

When I got out and looked at the car, the hood was crunched. But what really gave me pause was when I realized I had stopped just two feet in front of a telephone pole.

Then I started to cry...

 

not quite the same but I had a 67 pontiac and the opening lever on hood latch broke off when it was shut. Ever tried to open the hood from underneath?? Can't see, can't reach...