54 chevy hood spring hook-up

whats the trick?

 

Take a peice of tail pipe and cut it about 4 inches. Then slice it in half long ways. Weld a washer the size of the tubing uncut in each end of the sliced piece. Take the spring hook to the floor jack and stretch the spring. Place the piece you made into the stretched spring. Hold in place with two hose clamps. Place on the hood hinge and pull down till the spring tries to stretch and release the hose clamps. I used this and it works. I found the info in a Rod mag. Not my idea.

 

Or take pennies or washers and put then in between the coils of the springs, thereby stretching it out to where you can hook it on.

 

i uses a big pry bar.... it worked great

 

Do a search here, I swear somebody had pictures of a home made tool just for this.

 

Do the search, I made one out of round rod with V notch in each end to catch the springs when extended and then drop the hood and it will have enough slack to come out and then back in when needed.
Don

 

All I know is watch those fricken teeth. I about chopped the tip of my finger off on my `55`s...Well got it caught in them anyways...

 

I remember READING about a way that involved stretching the spring, putting it in a tube with water & freezing it in a freezer, then installing it and waiting for the spring to thaw.

 

Basically like what belair said...You can usually pry the old spring off the hook with a screwdriver. You may want to tie it on a short leash so it doesn't hit something when it comes off.
Put one end of the new spring in a vise and bend it just enough to insert enough washers in between the loops to lengthen it so it will slip on the hooks. When you close the hood and stretch the spring, all the washers fall out, so you need to tie them together to keep from looking all over for them. The spring in the picture is almost a 1/2 inch longer than normal.

 

thanks for the info guys, what a pain in the ass. they have to stretch a long way. i'll try that washer trick.