Hood lock install

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
4,765
Reaction score
102
Location
Nashville, Tennessee
My Car
1973 Q code Mach 1
Well I bought them some time back, but the thought of cutting holes in my hood kept me from getting to this project for some time. Well Sunday I decided that it was time to either do it right or mess it up.

First I mounted the brackets. I removed the hood adjusters and the brackets installed in holes that ford equipped the car with. The kit did not include the hardware to mount these brackets, but thankfully I had plenty laying around. Install these brackets loosely as you will need to adjust them later.

The bottom side of the hood has two circular cut outs of about 4 inches. From under the car I looked up with a flashlight and was able to see that the hood cut outs were located appropriately to the brackets.

Using a 3" hole saw from underneath and centered in the opening I drilled the center pilot hole on each side.

I laid newspaper under the hood and closed it and taped over the area to be cut with clear packing tape. Using the hole saw with light pressure and moderate speed I cut both holes with no damage at all to the surrounding paint. I peeled up the tape, used a bit of sandpaper to clean up a few burrs and painted the raw edge of the metal.

Before installing the hood locks, I took a file, chalked the teeth to keep it from loading up and removed some light flashing around the bottom edge to ensure that I would not damage the paint. Actual installation is simple enough with just two screws on a retainer bracket on the back side.

The next parts to install are the "strike plates" these again are held in place with two small screws and should be installed loosely. The provided screws really need larger washers so I headed to the coffee can of hardware and found four likely candidates.

Now comes the tricky part you do have to align everything to get acceptable operation. With everything tightened just snug so it would only move with intentional pressure I crawled under the car and used a flashlight to check alignment.I started with getting it close side to side then tightened the hood adjusters and the upper bolts on the brackets completely. This leaves the striker plates still loose and the lower leg of the bracket still a little loose. Next I repeated the procedure and adjusted the strike plates fore and aft and snugged them down. Now with this adjustment the only remaining adjustment was height. I twisted the locks down, latching them, and measured the amount the locks sat above the "cup" they sit in. I then opened the hood for the umpteenth time, and pushed the bracket down and tightened the final bolt on each side. Again I crawled under the front of the car and inspected alignment of the pins to the strike plates and made some final adjustments.

Some hints

Drilling thru the paint is not a big deal if you r paint is in good condition-juse sensible precautions of taping the paint and using a fresh sharp drill and no more than moderate pressure or speed..

Tape the hood latch in the open position while you are working as you will raise and lower the hood a number of times.

plan for the hardware that does not come with the kits.

The hood pins thread into the lock and lock with 9/16 nuts This does allow you to alter the depth a bit in your install. If a hood pin becomes trapped in the latch somehow and you keep twisting counterclockwise the pin will unscrew. Snug this part down and keep an eye on it, it might require a drop of locktite, but you could end up with a hard to unlock hood if there is ever any misalignment induced by percussive influence.


and I am new here so be nice

IMG_0016.JPG

IMG_0014.JPG

IMG_0013.JPG

 
Last edited by a moderator:
...and I am new here so be nice...
Wow...is Q bugging the newbies again?

That was an outstanding post.

Is that a new hood, or did that come from the factory?

 
The hood pins thread into the lock and lock with 9/16 nuts This does allow you to alter the depth a bit in your install. If a hood pin becomes trapped in the latch somehow and you keep twisting counterclockwise the pin will unscrew. Snug this part down and keep an eye on it, it might require a drop of locktite, but you could end up with a hard to unlock hood if there is ever any misalignment induced by percussive influence.


and I am new here so be nice

Very detailed post, the reason we're all here, very much appreciated. The last portion of your post hit home, I had that happen once and was on the verge of taking a cutting torch to the hood to open it. Since that "incident" I basically super glued the pin to it's correct setting with locktite to insure it didn't twist not allowing me to open it. I know, shade tree mechanic solution but it worked and I can open the hood when I want to open it.

Jim

 
The hood pins thread into the lock and lock with 9/16 nuts This does allow you to alter the depth a bit in your install. If a hood pin becomes trapped in the latch somehow and you keep twisting counterclockwise the pin will unscrew. Snug this part down and keep an eye on it, it might require a drop of locktite, but you could end up with a hard to unlock hood if there is ever any misalignment induced by percussive influence.


and I am new here so be nice
Very detailed post, the reason we're all here, very much appreciated. The last portion of your post hit home, I had that happen once and was on the verge of taking a cutting torch to the hood to open it. Since that "incident" I basically super glued the pin to it's correct setting with locktite to insure it didn't twist not allowing me to open it. I know, shade tree mechanic solution but it worked and I can open the hood when I want to open it.
2 thumbs up on this. Bet you won't find this information in the owner's manual...but it should be.

 
...and I am new here so be nice...
Wow...is Q bugging the newbies again?

That was an outstanding post.

Is that a new hood, or did that come from the factory?
I believe it to be factory, though I really never looked too close. I am fairly sure the fenders are not though.

 
Great info! Your final result looks great!


Great info! Your final result looks great! I'll give this thread a five star rating!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Actually, the secondary latch is built in with the primary latch.

The twist locks are far too unreliable to depend on them for primary latching.

 
Yes, the twist locks are fully functional, but should only be used as trim or appearance...never as primary latching.

It is common for the locks to wiggle around due to vibrations and just pop open while driving.

 
Good to know Guys. I'm still contemplating putting them on my car. I was under the impression they were important to have if you have Ram Air. If my hood kept popping open while driving I'd seriously check the latch and maybe adjust or replace it.

 
Tempted to do it as one of my concerns is the hood popping open when doing 70 mph on the highway. Really sucks that there's no secondard latch.
You need to fix or replace your hood latch

As mentioned the secondary safety catch is built into the hood latch

Twist locks are for looks

 
Tempted to do it as one of my concerns is the hood popping open when doing 70 mph on the highway. Really sucks that there's no secondard latch.
You need to fix or replace your hood latch

As mentioned the secondary safety catch is built into the hood latch

Twist locks are for looks
My hood latch is fine I think, but on newer cars I'm used to the having to pop open the latch and then the secondary latch. On my 73, when I open the latch the hood pops open.

Should I have a secordary latch like I mentioned above?

 
On my car if you hold the hood release open and lift the hood it comes right open. If you engage the release start to lift the hood but let the release go the secondary latch prevents the hood from fully opening. In other words if you hold the release all the way to the left while opening the hood it bypasses the secondary latch. Hopes this makes sense.

 
Back
Top