Install locking hood pins in four corners w/ pictures
02-11-2009 | 06:41 PM
#1
Install locking hood pins in four corners w/ pictures
Most composite hoods should have hood pins in them. Having had a hood fly up and smash my windshield I am a firm believer in hood pins in general. Having had a poorly made hood split apart and pull free of the front hood pins and smash into my windshield I because a firm believer in putting hood pins in all four corners. Besides being more resilient to coming off at all, if it does come off it tends to fly clear of the car. Prolly not so cool for the guy behind you but then neither is a blind driver on the road so you choose.
That being said. Here's how I do it.
Get a hood. No really you need one.
Remove old hood by removing (2) 12mm bolts from each side holding it onto the hood hinges.
Tear down all the rear engine compartment trim panels and windshield wiper motor covers and fenders (not really necessary but I did to keep from damaging them) and hood hinges.
Remove battery and fluid covers and the plastic frames they snap in to.
Use a standard screw driver on the little plastic button fasteners.
Remove rubber seals from their groves.
Remove windshield wipers.
Pop off the little plastic cap on the very end with your fingers if you can to keep from damaging it.
Underneath there is (1) 14mm nut holding the wiper on.
Fold up the wipers like you're cleaning your windshield to remove the stress on the pivot and wiggle it off.
The you'll need to remove more plastic button fasteners and you'll need to remove (3) 10mm bolts. Two are under little plastic covers near the windshield in the driver's side windshield wiper motor cover and one is about center line almost touching the intake.
(1) 12mm bolt needs to come out of each hood hinge that holds the fenders on.
Then remove the (2) 12mm bolts from each hood hinge and remove hinge.
You may want to keep the hinge to help hold the fender on. I cut the hinge part off and made fender braces out of them at first and then just took them off cause they made no real difference.
Take measurements and fabricate hood pin mounting plates. The further in you go on the rear ones (ie towards centerline) the better for later but it will also will require more tearing into your windshield wiper motor covers on the bottom of them. Not too bad really if you keep in mind they wil be reinforced with metal plates instead of the little plastic tabs. If you don't go far enough in your pins will be too close to the edge of the hood which you will see later how close the pins are with the plates the size they are below.
Mount hood pin mounting plates. You can use the old green bolts but shiny is better right? Well maybe. Do what you want.
Drill hood. Now... you have SOME fudge room here cause you have a big metal plate to cover up your boo boo's but try to measure as exactly as possible because you WILL need to do some fine adjustment cutting to get all four pins to line up and the less you screw up in the first place the smaller the final holes will be. Take your time. Measure like 40 times. And then once more.
Use stepping. Start with a smaller bit and work your way up. Use as high a speed as your drill has, or just use a Dremel type tool which you'll need to use later anyway. A drill is just a little quicker I think.
Open up the hole big enough for the pin to fit.
Get yourself a nice clean hole.
Widen the hole in the backside to accommodate tools and fingers and working room.
Slide the backer plate into place. Use wire to "fish" the plate over where it needs to be. Find some hole to put the plate in.
Assemble hood pin in hood.
Now the fun... ohh wait... the really really not fun part. Attach the hood pins with mounting plates to the car. Now fit the hood. Figure out where you need to go back and realign something, bend something further, refab your mounting plates, whatever.
A couple notes: When lining up the rear pins they will be tilted towards center line. either fab your mounting plates to mirror the angle or you'll need to fiddle with fitting the hood a lot. One thing i noticed is to turn the pin receiver end so that the roll pin will be parallel with the car (front to back) when in the locked position. Like the picture below.
This is the only way to have the pins lock without making the mounting plate to mirror the curvature of the hood. The front ones are easy to bend to match the curve of the hood. The rear ones are not as easy. You'd have to hack the hell out of you windshield wiper motor covers and that's not very clean looking.
The final fitting WILL take you a while. I've done this three times now on the same car and it still takes me about 2-3 hours to make all the little final adjustments.
That being said. Here's how I do it.
Get a hood. No really you need one.
Remove old hood by removing (2) 12mm bolts from each side holding it onto the hood hinges.
Tear down all the rear engine compartment trim panels and windshield wiper motor covers and fenders (not really necessary but I did to keep from damaging them) and hood hinges.
Remove battery and fluid covers and the plastic frames they snap in to.
Use a standard screw driver on the little plastic button fasteners.
Remove rubber seals from their groves.
Remove windshield wipers.
Pop off the little plastic cap on the very end with your fingers if you can to keep from damaging it.
Underneath there is (1) 14mm nut holding the wiper on.
Fold up the wipers like you're cleaning your windshield to remove the stress on the pivot and wiggle it off.
The you'll need to remove more plastic button fasteners and you'll need to remove (3) 10mm bolts. Two are under little plastic covers near the windshield in the driver's side windshield wiper motor cover and one is about center line almost touching the intake.
(1) 12mm bolt needs to come out of each hood hinge that holds the fenders on.
Then remove the (2) 12mm bolts from each hood hinge and remove hinge.
You may want to keep the hinge to help hold the fender on. I cut the hinge part off and made fender braces out of them at first and then just took them off cause they made no real difference.
Take measurements and fabricate hood pin mounting plates. The further in you go on the rear ones (ie towards centerline) the better for later but it will also will require more tearing into your windshield wiper motor covers on the bottom of them. Not too bad really if you keep in mind they wil be reinforced with metal plates instead of the little plastic tabs. If you don't go far enough in your pins will be too close to the edge of the hood which you will see later how close the pins are with the plates the size they are below.
Mount hood pin mounting plates. You can use the old green bolts but shiny is better right? Well maybe. Do what you want.
Drill hood. Now... you have SOME fudge room here cause you have a big metal plate to cover up your boo boo's but try to measure as exactly as possible because you WILL need to do some fine adjustment cutting to get all four pins to line up and the less you screw up in the first place the smaller the final holes will be. Take your time. Measure like 40 times. And then once more.
Use stepping. Start with a smaller bit and work your way up. Use as high a speed as your drill has, or just use a Dremel type tool which you'll need to use later anyway. A drill is just a little quicker I think.
Open up the hole big enough for the pin to fit.
Get yourself a nice clean hole.
Widen the hole in the backside to accommodate tools and fingers and working room.
Slide the backer plate into place. Use wire to "fish" the plate over where it needs to be. Find some hole to put the plate in.
Assemble hood pin in hood.
Now the fun... ohh wait... the really really not fun part. Attach the hood pins with mounting plates to the car. Now fit the hood. Figure out where you need to go back and realign something, bend something further, refab your mounting plates, whatever.
A couple notes: When lining up the rear pins they will be tilted towards center line. either fab your mounting plates to mirror the angle or you'll need to fiddle with fitting the hood a lot. One thing i noticed is to turn the pin receiver end so that the roll pin will be parallel with the car (front to back) when in the locked position. Like the picture below.
This is the only way to have the pins lock without making the mounting plate to mirror the curvature of the hood. The front ones are easy to bend to match the curve of the hood. The rear ones are not as easy. You'd have to hack the hell out of you windshield wiper motor covers and that's not very clean looking.
The final fitting WILL take you a while. I've done this three times now on the same car and it still takes me about 2-3 hours to make all the little final adjustments.
Last edited by Archaismic; 02-12-2009 at 07:28 PM.
02-15-2010 | 12:41 PM
#2
after using both types of hood pins i recommend the through pin type... not the barrel and pin type shown here... the ones shown here can, if you have a bad cross wind, be kicked out to the side of their mounting positions and come loose.
fortunately the hood's fall was broken by some tree limbs and landed in grass and had only minor scratches to one of the corners...
when using through pin types you can go with "old school" like you see on a lot of old muscle cars or newer ones where the pin is attached to a level and whatnot. you can still get a nice flushed look and locks with aerocatch style pins as well
also... if using pins that screw into your hood you will want to replace the screws with nuts and bolts. if you're savvy you can modify the holes in the plates to squares and go with a carriage bolt type and have the heads of the bolts look nice and flush(no tooling on top). either way, if you use the screws that come with the plates they will rip right out of a composite hood and generally are low quality and will rust very quickly. if the set you get doesn't come with both a top and bottom plate you should make your own bottom plate and use lock-washers with your nuts and bolts and get the whole area primed and painted to the maximum extent possible asap. (don't paint the moving parts just the plates and nuts and bolts)
fortunately the hood's fall was broken by some tree limbs and landed in grass and had only minor scratches to one of the corners...
when using through pin types you can go with "old school" like you see on a lot of old muscle cars or newer ones where the pin is attached to a level and whatnot. you can still get a nice flushed look and locks with aerocatch style pins as well
also... if using pins that screw into your hood you will want to replace the screws with nuts and bolts. if you're savvy you can modify the holes in the plates to squares and go with a carriage bolt type and have the heads of the bolts look nice and flush(no tooling on top). either way, if you use the screws that come with the plates they will rip right out of a composite hood and generally are low quality and will rust very quickly. if the set you get doesn't come with both a top and bottom plate you should make your own bottom plate and use lock-washers with your nuts and bolts and get the whole area primed and painted to the maximum extent possible asap. (don't paint the moving parts just the plates and nuts and bolts)
Last edited by Archaismic; 02-15-2010 at 12:51 PM.
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