ever have a hood fly open on ya?

Ive had 2 hoods fly open. one in my Datsun truck after leaving Kragen Auto Parts to get some part I needed to look under the hood to see..

2nd one I was passenger. we were passing a big rig in Niles Canyon, that's a stupid ass thing to do, and the hood flys open on a datsun my friend just put the hood on and forgot to tighten all the bolts. we could have been seriously killed.

 

Kinda grabs yer attention don't it ??

 

yup

 

no.. but this winter i didnt feel like scraping the snow off of my 5th ave. so i'm driving around town and get up to 45 and the snow sheet on the hood comes up at me. since the snow was in the shape of the hood at first I thought oh shit my hood is about to hit the windshield . then it got vertical and broke apart and i realized it was just snow.

 

had to drive home a car my buddy wrecked cause he was to messed up. so i had another friend follow me down the hill, i was coasting cause he put a hole in the oil pan so i was doing about 45 when it came up so i just camly stuck my head out the window and pulled over, the next i hear is my buddy following me just laughing histericly i thought it was funny too.

 

Memo to self: No Datsuns.

 

Years ago, riding in my friend's 50 Chevy Deluxe. Definitely woke us up. He put the ole Chevy on her side later that night.

 

Yea, me and my buddy were in his dads 56 buick one night when we were in our teens, we were coming through ft. worth late one night on the freeway, we had just passed what we called the mixmaster back then. We looked and didn't see any cops he opened it up and gaver all she had, man i think we was doing about 120 all of sudden all hell broke loose, now believe this or not, i dont know how but it tore that damn hood clean off, man we both looked like satan done reached in that car and grabbed us by the ass! Well it landed on the side of the road, i spent the night at his house because he was afraid his pops was going to kill him. Next morning he was kicking our ass because we did what everbody would do, we looked at it with him and said we didn't know what happend! Well we had to go retrieve the hood and that was the last ride in the buick!

 

Decades ago, I pulled what I thought was the vent knob on my Bro's Datsum 510 only to find out it was the hood release, and it didn't have a safety latch.
Hood smacked the roof, on the freeway.
I told him, he just shrugged and asked if it would still close..

Datsuns?

Was riding with a friend in his '55 Desoto back in highschool when the hood blew open.
I told him a piece of frayed hemp rope wouldn't last long as a hood hold down!

 

Yup.

My daily is a 56 Ford Wagon. Just before crossing a river on a six lane highway the hood flies open obliterating my view. Can't see under it and there was no time to drop the window to stick my head out, since the road turns as it enters the bridge. So I drove by watching the road behind me, and the cars beside me. I managed to pull over but it friggin' freaked me out. Now all my cars have one of those secondary spike hood latches.

The wild thing is how fast it opens. You are completely unaware of the upward motion. One moment the hood is closed. then BAM... the view of the road is instantly gone.

 

Yup. My brother didn't close the hood on my Mom's '69 Falcon after giving someone a battery jump, and about 25MPH into a 30MPH gust - up it came. Bent the hood corners a little. She just drove it anyway. (this was in the early 70's)

 

I had the same thing happen when I lived in Ohio, with my '72 Buick Centurion. The hood on that thing is something like 13 feet long. You could land helicopters on it. The snow went straight up in the air in one huge sheet, just like you described--WHITE, then it exploded. Was actually pretty cool.
Another time I came to a stop at an intersection, and the whole sheet of snow slid off and went sailing in one big mass out into the road. The air caught under it, it lifted up to about a 45 degree angle before crashing to the ground. Probably lucky nobody was coming.
After that, I took the time to wipe the snow off my hood.

But it was still neat to see.

-Brad

 

Friend of mine had his hood fly up on his 50 Ford getting on the highway. He ran up on a curb devider and ripped his oil pan off and broke the engine lose.
Bad day...

 

I was driving my 57 chevy home from work once when the hood flew up. After I got it stopped I got out to see what all I messed up, I noticed I had stopped in front of a fire station and all the firemen where sitting in there lawn chairs just watching me.

 

Yea, my old shoebox hood came open on me once, scared the crap out of me

 

I had that happen to me in my '69 Datsun 510. I wonder if Datsuns were known for this type of thing?

 

I'm working on having myself one of these stories. I have the safety latch, but the main catch pin latch is gone. It's hanging on by a the hook. Good thing the speed limit around here is 45 max.

 

hmm. Datsun 110... hood flew open and flew off the car @ about 80mph. Must be something 'bout Datsuns
damnedest thing: 20 minutes of searching, couldn't find the damned hood.

'55 Plymouth... moments after driving from Vegas to LA, pulled up at my girlfriend's house, slammed on the brakes... and the hood flew off, landing in front of the car. no idea WTF happened to the bolts holding the hood to the hinges. she laughed so hard she literally pissed herself. the hood landed on a pigeon. couldn't have done that again if i tried 100 times.

finally, nearly 3 years ago... just bought a car, took the wife who was 9 months pregnant at the time, for a spin... she tells me to get on it... i step on the gas and the hood kisses the windshield.

 

I remember sitting in front of a friend's house one day back in high school and this little crap box 80's compact car comes flying down the street and right in front of my friends house the hood flys open. Guy screeches to a stop, gets out, lets out a loud "f*ck", slams it closed and goes tearing ass outta there. He didn't even check if it was latched, just slammed it down and took off. Mean while we were in dying laughing the whole time.

 

I was in High School in Champaign,Ill,I was driving down the road going about 60 when the hood on my '53 Ford flew up,did not break the windshield luckily but scared the crap out of me! Next day I went to a wrecking yard in Urbana,Ill and found a replacement hood,when I brought it up to the office to pay for it the news came over the radio that JFK had been shot,those days are something you don't forget.

 

Yep a few years after high school I was racing a friend of mine. I was in my 74 el camino,just put the motor in the day before and did not have the thing bolted to the hinges but it was on the latch and safety in place, and about 85 the thing comes off and flew into the air,I pulled over and the thing was still in the air then WHAM it hits the pavement on the left rear corner and rolled it up in a ball 5" in and stuck their!! man talk about lucky glad it was late at night and nobody else on the road that would have been real bad! learned from that one take if off now or make sure it is bolted on!!

 

Yes, and guess what,it was driving a "Datsun 110"! Starting to see a trend here.

 

Yup, had the bonnet pop open in my 38. Racing an Alfa down the Hume hwy at about 200kmh. Damn did it make some noise! Scared the crap out of me, almost tore the hood in two, bent the hinges, two BIG dents in the cowl and ruined the cowl vent. Put several serious dents in the roof two. Something (Still dunno what) flew off and hit the Alfa behind me. Stuck head out of window and pulled to a stop, got out, emptied pants.
Glad it didn't break the glass, but it did bend the windscreen frame. It sheered off the original hold down pin!! Had to drive a few hundred miles with what was left of the hood tied down with a toggle rope. To make things worse the fuel hardline cracked just before the fuel pump just on dark with 100km to go. It would only suck air unless I kept it up over 2000rpm.
Oh, yeah, then I lost a battery cable and learned that my alternator want working either. What a bitch of a drive that one was.
Doc.

 

Wow sadly it wasnt a Datsun for me it was my Galaxie convert another 66 was taking an auto class and just finished sand blasting priminga nd repainting the stock air cleaner on my fe motor even found a 352 stock sticker all ugly orange with checkers andy way had my buddy with me and was just gonna tighten the wing nut when the shop teacher calls me back my buddy finished buttoning her up while i was talkin to the teach. Got in the car burning rubber leavin when BOOOM !!! up comes the hood had to crawl back tail between my legs and barrow the tools to htake it off tacoed the hinges and the bent one hood corner I cruised the rest of the sumer hoodless and topless! was kinda fun watchin that engine rock back and forth. On a good not my old man crawled under a row of black berry bushes and squirled a whole hood and both hinges and even a 500 xl grill he came across on the way home from a trip to oregon. looked like he losta knife fight with all the blood and scratches i walk outside new hood hinges and straight perfect grill .. he never did tell me how much or let me pay him back. I sure miss the old man.....

 

i had it happen in my prerunner truck. i was driving at glamis (for all the socal people) on the highway, not sand highway, the paved one. driving 60mph+ at night, hood flew up, BAM! luckly i was able to slow down and not go into on comming traffic (2 lane highway), not to mention on both sides it slopped down about 20 feet that is very steep, i would have rolled and rolled and rolled, lol.

 

Raymond Lowey designed a fantastic Stude in '53, but the guy assigned to do the hood latch must have been a FNG. Can't tell ya how many fiberglass hoods we sold over the years to customers who wrapped the steel one around the windshield after the latch popped open.

 

had a glass hood on a V8 vega fly off leaving the 4 pinned corners. wasn't until the next morning i realized it wasn't the headers leaking as to the reason it sounded louder. too much ......

 

DATSUN 210 350sbc...twice but at a fairly low speed so no damage, but it was on a surface street with cars and kids around so it was still scary!
Can't blame the Nippon Engineers though...have to blame the dumbass who forgot the hoodpins were out! Twice.

Best I ever saw was a stock Pinto tearing down the highway. Hood popped and ripped completely off! Must have gone 50 feet in the air, tumbling end over end and then landed by the side of the road. He stopped, looked back and then drove away hoodless.

 

I had a hard top blow of a 1954 corvette once. Wasn't pretty.

 

Back when I raced dirt track, I was involved in an altercation early in a race that left the the left side of my hood loose and sticking up in my line of vision. Couldn't see shit going down the straightaway but when sliding through the corners I could see fine due to the angle of the car when sliding. I'd "aim" down the straight as I exited the corners and hope for the best. I finished the race.