ever have a hood fly open on ya?

When I was young and dumb in high school, I had a 68 Camaro (no mullet,btw) with a glass hood held on with a pin in each corner. On it's madien voyage it crapped out at an intersection. My buddy and I jumped out pulled the hood off and fixed the problem, a loose coil wire. Jumped back in before the light turned green and took off. A few seconds later, so did the hood. Forgot to put the hair pin retainers back in-DUH. It took off like a rocket. Looked in my rearview to see it was going to hit somebody else. Luckily for me nobody was back there. It busted a corner off, we put it back on and that was that. Had a pretty good laugh about it.

 

Yeah,a long time ago when I was in HS and a 56 Ford was nine years old.Managed to bend the hood back into place and rope it down.
Later that day it blew a fuel line,an underhood fire,flames coming in theough the rot holes,a lot of fun....

 

I was drivin' my 55 Chevy down I75 in Cincinnati when the hood latch let go...hood flipped up in front of the windshield obstructing my view, for what seemed to be a LONG time, then blew back over the roof. A guy on a motorcycle behind me narrowly missed the hood as he swerved at the last minute. Scary for all...

 

69 F100 on a two lane road late at night. It wakes you up! I just stopped, shut the hood and went home. After that I put hood pins on it.

A buddy of mine had a Datsun pickup. His hood never flew off but one day he opened the door and it fell off.

 

had one come open on my 73 camaro. broke the windshield.bent the corners of the hood up.trashed the hinges.never put a hood back on that car.

 

I had just finished a two year restoration on a 1967 Cougar with a 390 4-speed. It was a no option car that just wanted to go fast. I built the hell out of the engine and it had what I was told by Edelbrock to be the third set of aluminum heads for an FE that they had made. It screamed. The very first drive... I babied it around the neighborhood for about ten minutes and then finally pulled out on the main road. I dumped the clutch and the car kicked sideways and roared to life, I grabbed a big handful of second gear and it hooked and launched straight...but the hood flew open at the same time and suddenly I couldn't see anything at all. It cracked the windshield, dented the front of the roof, ripped the hood hinges right through the inner fender aprons, and cracked my GTE hoodscoop. It was an expensive little trip. I rebuilt the car but added front hood pins.

 

Yep - read my saga from last summer here:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=198653

 

Yep,teenager in a 67 Jeepster Commando. You know,the old external
T-handle latches. External hinges too with a slot and corresponding
flats on the pins. Had just jump started somebody and never latched
it. Neat thing was as quick as it came up it completely detatched and
I watched in the rear view as it landed,spinning in circles on the snow
covered road and two cars behind me trying to avoid it. By the time
I looked back ahead I was shocked to see my mother coming from the
other direction . She drove by doing her best to act like she didn't
even know me. Amazingly very little damage, the hood went right back
on save for the one corner that had about 2" folded under. Caught hell
at home though.

 

same thing happened to me about 20 yrs ago. scared the crap out of me.

 

1965 Chevy pickup, 80 mph on I-430, 6 pm, should have been in the middle of afternoon cluster traffic. Luckily I was by myself in the left lane, nobody close at all. I didn't hang my head out the side window until I was ready to pull over onto the median grass, didn't panic at all. My dumbass fault because the hood latch failed and the safety catch missed. Those were replaced along with the hood.

 

Not when I was driving. When I was 1st-2nd grade my Mom stopped @ a full service station in Perry, Fl. The attendand didn't latch the hood on her brand new '65 Galaxie & it came up shortly after pulling out. I rolled down the window & told her when it was clear of mailboxes to pull over. Don't remember being any damage.

 

I had just finished rebuilding the brakes on my 51 and figured I would take it out for a quick spin to see how it drove and stopped. Well being the brilliant man that I am I forgot before I took off that I did tie the hood down, becuase I did not have a grill in it yet. As I tunred arround to come back home I spedup over the hill by my house and as I came over it the wind blew my hood up and folded it over the roof caving in the windshield. I found out my brakes worked perfectly as I slammed my foot down on the pedal to come to a screeching halt with my head now sticking out the drivers window. I drove it home in shame as my wife looked on from the porch with a questioning look as to what was wrong with my car. It did quite a bit of damage but luckily I was not hurt and no one else was hurt. Just a new windshield, center post, and a couple of dents to be fixed is all.

 

Almost hate to admit to this one, I had just put the windshield in my 50
Chev, and if anyone has done this, and knows what a pain in the ass that is. A friend of mine came over and I thought I would take him for a "ride"!! The hood was on, but I had not put the latch on yet.....I figured, I'm only going down my side street, It will be ok. Yea right. I got about 200 feet down the road and it was like slow motion. We both hollered "holy shit" about the same time it flew up and smashed that nice new windshield. Funny now, but it was not funny then.

P.S. At the Dragway 42 Rock and Race, there was a 70ish Chevelle that must have forgot to put his hood pins in, and it came up about 1/8 mile! And he won the race! The other guy red lighted!!

 

55 pontiac...twice

 

Been paranoid of this since junior high when my buds 47' chevy hood flew up. Made a heck of a mess. My high tech solution now is a piece of lite chain and hooks. Not too pretty but sure gives some piece of mind!!

 

Here's the 3rd one for a '56 Ford, my old black beauty Victoria in high school. Going down the road too fast, and instant blackout with a loud bang. It is scary, I was able to pull over by looking out the driver's window that was already down. Ruined the hood and hinges. After that I had a blue hood on my black car for a while, then the brakes went out and I had a red hood and right fender. I went off to school and Dad sold it to the scrap yard for $15. Ran good with some mods to the engine, etc. He couldn't understand why I refused the $15 he handed me. "Son, it was junk, fender and hood not matching the car and no front bumper!" He left it on the counter, and about two weeks later I figured it was better than nothing, but by then one of my brothers had "borrowed" it, so I got nothing at all. Ahhh, the good old days....

 

Just graduated high school in '68 and had a date with a gal a bit above my social strata. I should have known there was going to be trouble that night. When I showed in my '50 Ford club coupe to pick her up, her mother met me at the door. After she let me in, she stood there looking out front. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "You know it's Saturday nite and I could have sworn I heard a garbage truck." I said, "No ma'am, that's was my car."

My date showed up all dressed up with her hair piled on top of her head in one of those '60's styles. This becomes significant later.

After the movie, I was taking her downtown in San Antonio to Earl Abel's Restaurant. Hauling down I-35 a 'vette soon passed me like I was standing still then he backed down to taunt me. I wound the flathead up the tightest I had ever had it and got scared as the speedo was passing through 90 and everything started shaking. As I am easing up slowing through 80, the lights go out as the hood blew up, stayed on the hinges and curtained the windshield. I stuck my head out the window to stay in my lane but from that perspective, I tended to close up on the center stripe. My date stuck her head out her window and the hair piled on top the head immediately flew into the air stream. From her perspective, she thought I was too far left so she was screaming at me to come right. I screamed back that we were OK. I coasted off the next off ramp and found a place to un-curl my hood off the windshield.

I've always wondered how the guy in the 'vette stayed on the road behind me. He must have been laughing his ass off.

 

Between Carson City and Reno on a divided 4 lane in a 72 F100 4X4. It didn't come off, it wrapped around the roof but didn't break the windshield. It was bent about 45 degrees and those hoods aren't flat, they're dished.

I went on in to Reno, went to the Ford dealer to order a new hood and they had one in stock. I went over to my folks place and my dad helped me put the new one on.

 

Yup! I was in my buddys '51 Chevy Truck. That thing came outta nowhere!!!

 

No. But one time I did walk around in da hood with my fly open...

 

I work in a shop and my customer asked me to drive there car to listen to a noise.I was doin about 50 mph when the hood fliped up smashed the windsheild and bent the hood .

 

More information than we need to know

 

My bride was driving the '64 Galaxie while I was riding shotgun and reading the newspaper. We were doing about 70 mph on the DC Beltway with typical traffic. Suddenly she says, " I think we have a problem!" I look up to see nothing but hood. She did a good job of mainting speed and bringing the car to the shoulder.
The sheet metal around the hinges had nearly torn out. I barehandedly ripped the bent hood off from the remaining remants and tossed it over the guardrail. We said a prayer of thanks, safely merged back into traffic, and were back on our way.

 

Saw one a couple week-ends ago out at the Dragway 42 Nostalgic Drags out on the strip. Can't remember what kind of car it was but my guess the guy had to change his shorts when he hit the pits.

 

Lol, I have a car with 2 twenty year old dings in the cowl. The last place the original hood touched before lauching into the air. The safety catch is not a primary latch folks!

 

Why were you in a Datsun?

 

I had almost the same thing happen. My first car was a '77 Olds Cutlass Supreme and it had a pretty large and long hood. Where I grew up, our winter temperatures varied a lot. We'd had a bit of a melt the night before, but it had cooled off in the morning. I managed to scrape the ice off the windshield, but noticed that the entire hood was covered in an ice sheet about one inch thick. I didn't want to damage the paint, and figured the heat of the engine would melt it off.

A few minutes later, going down a big hill on a freeway, the entire chunk of ice swings up and blinds me as I'm doing about 60 miles an hour. I just pointed the car straight and took my foot off the gas. The sheet fluttered a bit and flew away. I saw it come down behind me in my rear view mirror a few seconds later, but a bus was barreling along in that lane and it hit the front of the bus. It must have been several feet in length and a little less in width. The bus slowed down as the ice shattered all over the windshield. When I saw the wipers come on the bus and they started picking up speed, I got the hell out of there.

I've had it happen with old farm trucks when I was a kid - cruising down a secondary highway on a hot afternoon and bang! Instant blindness. Buddy and I stick our heads out the window to see and eat a few bugs, slow down, pull over, grab some tools and baler twine from the back, get it secured and home, and act twice as surprised as everyone else when it's "discovered". We were usually getting in trouble for siphoning gas from all the vehicles in the yard for minibikes, or playing tag on the barn roof or some other foolishness, so getting in trouble for something we couldn't help was a welcome change.

 

last year i was drivin my 58 ford to work, going down the main road, and the hood opens the other way, not from the front, but from the windshield. guess i didnt shut it all the way and halfway to work up it goes. scared the crap out of me!

 

Yah, been there...1983 Pontiac Gran Prix, just finished as a Grand national, on the maiden voyage. Hood flew open on the freeway and not only f*&cked up the hood but slapped a nice dent in my freshly painted roof too. What a dip-shit...

 

really LOW '54 Chev- 90+ mph- Dark street w/no street lights- German Shephard runs out on the street- Dog hits car grill- Dog goes UNDER car (somehow!?!?!)- Hood flies open and smashes windshield, hood, fenders, etc....

That got my blood going! When I pulled the front clip off the car to start the work, there was about half a dog ear stuck to my radiator. This was years ago and I still find hairy chunks of German Shephard here and there...