ever have a hood fly open on ya?

when I 1st got my 54 running, my friend and I drove it around the block a few times. I was so excited to be able to drive it finally. We were driving pretty slow and my friend and I decided to put the hood on just to see how it looked when we were cruising. Finally, my friend asked if he could drive it and I said yeah since he helped me get it running. As soon as he gets behind the wheel, he punches it and after about 10 seconds, the hood starts shaking then lifts and hangs there for a split second before flying up over the car and landing in the middle of the street. No major damage to it, but my heart just about stopped when it lifted and I was jumping out of the car before my friend even came to a complete stop!

 

About 20 years ago I had it happen to me twice in my 64 Ford truck. I was going do the freeway at 55 mph, and boom, up it came. Scared the shit out of me. I had to drive with my head out the window to get to the side of the freeway.

I spend a few weeks looking for another hood. Finally found a good one. Same thing happened shortly after. I finally figured out what was wrong with the latch

Doug

 

Happened to me in turn three at Antioch Speedway in '92. Got black flagged, but continued to race until the heat was over! Have it on tape here at the shop.

Last year, one of my customers drove his '50 Dodge, banged 2nd, and did severe damage to the visor and broke both front windows.

Another customer was down in LA and decided to pick up a new hood for his GTO at Classic in Long Beach and save the shipping cost to NORCAL. Tied it to the top of his camper. Stopped to put gas 200 miles later and noticed......NO HOOD. Hope nobody got was following to close when I flew off. He ordered another one UPS.

 

Yup.
A couple of times.
It really sucks.
First time was at 65 mph on the highway in my old 62 F100.
(I really shouldn't have been goin' that fast in that p.o.s. anyway)
Second time it was a test drive in a customer's car when I worked at a dealership.I had the manager look at the quality coat hanger the owner of the car thought was a reasonable substitute for a functional hood latch before I test drove it.
He told the customer that should really be fixed first but the guy was too cheap.
And sure as shit, I hit 40 mph and wham!,cracked the windshield.
I was kinda expecting it but it still made me pucker!

 

Thank thats bad, try it on a 56 T-bird.....

 

Many years ago....I was late to work one day. I came to the cloverleaf from one highway to another, I just started getting up with traffic and the hood vibrated, than shot straight up off my 57 chevy. I looked out and up from drivers window and there was my hood a good hundred feet in the air..... I watched it float back to eartn on the other side of the highway, I figured it was going to be junk, I was late for work, so I kept on going.... I looked in my rearview mirror and saw traffic starting to pile up on the other side and I just knew, my hood had something to do with the crowd building, I figured I cross the grass and go back to the cloverleaf just to check and sure enough, my hood had blown out the windshield of a 66 Impala with 2 girls driving. Thanking God, nobody was hurt, just showered with glass, I filled out accident report, the girls were sent to the hospital just for a check out and all was ok. My insurance company was just required to pay for the hospital visit and a new windshield. Today.... there would have been millions in law suits, but I was lucky, nobody was hurt.

 

It was after a 10 hour day at the nuke plant with rain coming down and the traffic not so good. Thats when the deer decided to cross the road.I tagged her with the right corner of my Ram Charger. At first I didn't think there was much damage. But I found the bumper pushed the fender back where I couldn't turn without rubbing on the tire and the fan was hitting the shroud. A friend pulled the bumper and fender away from the tire with a chain he kept in the back of his truck and I removed a few pieces of the shroud. I was half way home the first time the hood flew up. It scared the Hell out of me. I was lucky, not much traffic. I got it pulled over and after I closed the hood it seemed to be latched OK. so I headed home once more wondering what would go wrong now. That's when the hood few up again, breaking the windshield and doing more damage to the hood. So much for not having much damage hitting a deer.

 

Just fixed it so I will not have to worry about this happening again and it only took 15 minutes to install.

 

Came up with this idea of a small hole in the hood latch combined with a pit pin pushed through the hole (through the grille) when the hood is shut.

This way the pin through the hole is below the hood latch receiver and there is NO way the hood can come up.

Gives good peace of mind if nothing else and is simple...

 

Bob: I was thinking of your picture when I saw this thread. I've showed your picture to friends with 55's around here. Great idea.

 

1963...Hemi powered '46 Ford Coupe..hauling ass down US 11 in South Mississippi. Not only did it fly open, it took off and soared to its new perch in a cypress tree in a roadside swamp. For the next year, I had to see it every day on my way to college in my now hoodless car. Nope, I was not going in that swamp.

 

c57heaven, Glad you like the idea. It used to make me very nervous banging through the gears before doing this. Don't even think of it anymore! I always keep a few extra pins in the glove box.

 

Hummm... why'd this thread go stale in 2010? Did hooks stop flying open back then? (wish it was true huh?)

Yeah, My 1974 Datsun 620 pickup last week. (What's with those Datsuns? I will say the hood latches look about 30% too small, but then the hood is like tin foil.)

As far as breaking the windshield - this would be impossible since a Datsun hood hitting a windshield would have all the destructive force of a wet blanket!!

And just to rub my face in it, this truck was butchered pretty badly by previous owners and they put hood pins in it. Naturally I removed them and soldered up the holes....

Rrrrr....

 

One good thing about a 49 Buick hood is it opens from the side so I never have to worry about it popping open. I worry a lot about that on my other cars. My buddy was following a car on the freeway that lost its hood. He said it was like slow motion watching that thing frisbee toward him. It only clipped a little of his car, but he had to change his pants after that one.

 

Oh man did these stories bring back memories. In 1974 I was headed home from work in my '70 SS Chevelle. For some reason, at about 55 mpg, the hood all of a sudden lifts and rips out the passenger hinge and flops over on the drivers side of the car. Its a good thing it did that because I could see to pull off the highway and stop. Major "Skidmarks in the Skivvies" moment. I unbolted the hood and hooked it over the guard rail, the left rear bent corner forming the "hook". Drove on home and tried to find someone with a pickup to go back and get the hood but no luck. That night it snowed and the next morning there was about an inch of snow in the engine compartment. The 402 fired right up though, and I drove to work. That afternoon I stopped by the road, rolled down both passenger side windows and stuck the hood part way in to get it home. Sure wish I had pictures.

 

In 1986, I was driving my 41' Ford pickup down a winding country road...doing about 55 mph, and suddenly the hood literally flew up and slammed against the top of the cab above the windshield ....I was taking my mother into town for shopping, and I think I screamed louder than she did! Luckily no traffic was coming the other direction at the moment, as I swerved in both directions with a strangle hold on the steering wheel....fortunately, the hood itself was high enough on the hinges that I could look 'underneath' it as I skidded in the flying gravel and embankment ....damn scary! To this day, I don't know how it unlatched itself, but it did...may have been my dumb oversight, but....I learned my lesson big time from there on out!!!...to double-check that hood latch good!!!

 

Can't say I've personally experienced the hood (just) flying open on my own car, but I sure witnessed it from the pass. seat of very hot 57 Chevy in the late 60's, just as memorable though. I can say that I had something happen that was actually more memorable.
Late 70's, very first pass in my second drag car at Woodburn, I learned the value of using (I had not) backup washers on Dzus button mounts on a fiberglass hood.
About half track, trapped underhood air caused hood to rip loose, was kinda cool watching it sail over the Armco though.

 

I restored a Nash Metropolitan for my kids many years ago and when I got it there was a crease in the sheet metal across the cowl under the windshield. Joined the Metro club and stories from other Metro owners soon made it clear that this happened to virtually all Metros eventually. The hood latch was poorly designed sheet metal and eventually fatigued and broke allowing the hood to fly up and dent the cowl. Sure enough the latch on my hood was cracked and about ready to let go again.

It wasn't my hood but the bubble top on my Mysterion clone blew off right after I took the photo in my avatar picture at a county park. Was driving it back home and got lazy and didn't put the car cover back on. Wind went into the cowl vent and smooth as glass lifted the top at about 30mph and the wind caught it and pulled it clear off the car. It bounced along the highway for quite a distance. Had to get another bubble blown and rework the top rim. I need an enclosed trailer to haul this thing around.