Why it's very important that your hood latch works well

Another person may only open / close the door they will be sitting next to.......Never my hood, trunk.......fuel filler........or spare tire holder.........

4TTRUK

 

Happened on my '51 Ford at 30 mph.....can't imagine at speed! Now on my '50 Ford I have a length of chain bolted to the hood ornament mount that has a hook on the other end. It hooks into a heavy duty eyelet that's boted to the core support. It'll only come up about 2 inches should the latch fail.

 

I like it, I like the dark green with the lighter green wheels too, but thats the color of my pontiac, so I may be biased. The new color contrasts nicely with the new wheel color too, i'd keep it...

 

A couple waterfalls had to hard to come by.......

 

Well, OK, you let someone else close your hood. That's a mistake. But even more of a mystery is why you let someone 'adjust your timing'???

That, in my book, is like telling someone "Hey, I think your wife is going to get pregnant tonight so I'll just make sure she has all the proper ingredients...."

 

He's a guy in my car club so I figured he should know what he was doing...i was doing a bit of a brake torque while set the timing. Timing issue isn't a problem anymore.

 

Hahhahaa... WHAT!?

 

Had it happen to me, lift off fiberglass hood. Installed a new carb, got in a hurry to go make a test run, hood took off sailing, luckily the corn caught it and only had a few cracks, learned how to do fiberglass that weekend

 

Nice Poncho.. I like the grille treatment too with the extra teeth.

I'll second a lot of others on here... I never let anyone touch the hood on my car.

I remember when I was about 13, I was with my uncle in his 70 Mark 3 doing about 65 down the highway and the hood blew up. It about give me a heart attack. It didn't do any damage to the car other than crease the hood... didn't even crack the windshield.

 

Why it's very important that your hood latch works well

Because when driving a 1949 OLDSMOBILE at high speed or when driving a 1949 Ford at approximately the posted 55 MPH speed limit forward visibility is drastically reduced and parts such as hoods, windshields, and roofs don't hold up real well.
I'm only guessing this may occur!

 

No hood latch for me?

 

Thanx....I thought the extra teeth made her look a little meaner....not sure if the color does it justice anymore....and yes, I will be the only one closing the hood on anything I own from now on....

 

This is why I like cars with no hoods. Ken

 

I had the hood come up because whoever built my car back in the 70's or 80's shaved the safety latch.

I am running upside down hood pins, I can post pics if anyone is interested.

 

John,
Please post those pics of the upside down hood latches.
-Pat

 

40 mile an hour hood latch at 100 MPH= disaster sooner or later----same goes for brakes

 

Happened to me in my '53 Ford. No where near the damage you got though. Glad you had good insurance!


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Pat I'll snap some pics when I get home.

 

I'd like to see that too. All I have is the stock latch. I've watched nervously as my hood danced at above highway speeds before.


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Just went through this on my topless 51 Chevy.

It all started when I welded a brace for my radiator, this caused the hood to not shot by way of hitting radiator cap, this led to grinding, torching and banging.

Long story short it shuts but releases under rough road conditions.
This scares the shit out of me because the hood is huge and there is no windshield or hood so if the hood goes, me and or my better half will break our necks and or get knocked out. Then it's a super fun free for all.

I think I will be using a chain and pad lock moving forward. Not sure hopefully I will get some kind of epiphany this evening over a couple of beers.

 

Saw one come off a off topic muscle car back in the day. ripped the hinges apart and went over the top of a second car that he was racing. Normal damage to car and hood, but a very lucky driver of the second car.

 

It happened to me on the 48 on a road trip to Texas. I passed a semi on a two lane road in Wyoming on the way back and the wind from the semi blew my hood open. I had left the fender to cowl braces off thinking it made it cleaner under the hood and that allowed the front end to flex enough that the hood popped open. The 120 louvers in the hood worked though as they allowed enough air through it that it didn't fold over and let me see through them to get stopped.

 

I don't have pics but I took another pic to show what my buddy KOTC (Joe) did.

Drilled two holes as shown, the hood has corresponding pads in the same place. The hood pins are upside down, and secured probably by lock nuts. I freaking love this setup I have had my car up to 90mph since then.

I will take pics when I get home, promise.

 

I don't think I would drive it even one more time like that....pretty scary.

I too had a '71 Datsun 510, and I had the hood unlatch and "float" one time...I was doing about 15mph, so the air force likely wasn't enough to shove it back into the windshield. Datsuns...who knew.

I did allow my buddy to adjust the idle circuit on the carb once, while we were on a test drive. He has over 40 years as a master mechanic, so I wasn't too concerned, but I know my hood latch is tricky and it did make me a bit nervous the whole drive after that. I told him how to check the latch before closing and had him pull up on it after he closed it, but still made me nervous. I'll be installing a safety leash or pin setup of some sort soon.

 

Joe (KOTC on here) had texted me pics, here goes:

 

Years ago I had a neighbor who was cruising on the hiway in his '55 Chev convert with the top down. Hood flew up and bent over the windshield hit him on top of the noggin and damn near killed him!

 

I like the idea of the upside down hood pins. Just wondering how big of a p.i.t.a. It's gonna be to put the clips on with the grill and whatnot in the car.


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I was in an old jeep and people used to unlatch the hood clips on the outside. ----- when I came up I put my hand up to protect my head. three broken fingers and a ruined hood and a folded back windshield. I like the inverted pins. very nice!

 

There will be plenty of room to access the pins. This method is 100% secure.

 

If you have a 52-54 Ford the pins would be a good idea too,I had a hood fly up on a '53 also took out the hood hinge on one side which on these cars really suck anyway and are like gold for good used ones and rebuilts can run $400 plus.