Hood latch

[RICH MUISE]

Thinking of ways to clean up my firewall area... has any one done a hood latch change using the Stud in a pocket type of latch similar to the 57 t-birds, only with the pocket mounted in the cowl rather than on the cowl? I was even thinking of the posibility of no latch, only two locking hood pins.

An interesting footnote: I was told by a friend that the reason Ford stopped using the front hinge setup on the hoods was because in severe front impacts there were cases of the hood latch breaking and the hood being driven up thru the windshield....ouch!! I guess another good reason for the hood pins.

[Ford Blue blood]

Rich I too have looked at ways to "clean" it up.  An idea I came up with is to use a "bear claw" latch like pickups use in the tail gate.  Threre would only be the slot for the current post to go through.  The other thing is to move the wiper motor to the kick panel under the fender using a Sprite, Midget or MGB wiper system.  It looks like the little transmission they use for each wiper head will fit in the space left after the pulley/cable assembly are pulled out. 

[shopratwoody]

I ran hood pins all the yrs I raced my car. I had them where the hood stops would be. They worked
fine.