Great these are avail again, tho if you have a ram air hood that tries to knock you down every time you try to reach your air filter, even if your springs are tired, they are not the main reason why this occurs. My 71 hood was on the limit, meaning it would stay up but I had to park the car against the wind...
When I've nickel plated my springs and the hinges about 3 years ago, I've found out the real bad guys were actually not the springs but the rivets.
Waaaaaay too loose. Once the springs were removed, it was obvious how easy the "scissors" movement was. There was also lateral play.
So as I couldn't find any rivets to replace them, I did squeeze each and every one of them in between my vice. My vice is unfortunately not a press and not the strongest either
but the little extra tightness added to each one was enough to not only remove the lateral play, it also made the opening/folding movement straight and more ferm thanks to the added friction. The springs are actually using their forces once the hinge geometry has past the "elbow" kinda negative threshold, before that point, no matter how strong they are, they will actually help the closing movement.
So to get back on topic, I'd say, if your hood don't stay up past 50% open and is not secure when fully open, try squeeze these rivets before hit piggy for new springs.
On my 73, which had the flat hood and regular tension springs in the prehistorical times, it's now with a full ram-air setup, still have the "lesser" original springs and it stays open once 50% of the travel has been made. Zero play on the rivets.
If someone has an address for the rivets or worthy alternative, please come forward as I would really like to change them on my 71 hinges.
