Fiberglass hood and hinges

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gliderider06

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I have a 6 pack fiberglass hood on my 73 Duster. I tried to use the factory hinges with the springs removed. I could not get it to line up at all. Now I just lift it off when I work on the car. What do/how do you mount a bolt on hood and get it to line up. I am thinking of just pinning a 4 corners, but would much rather have it bolted on.
Any suggestions?
 
I have a 6 pack fiberglass hood on my 73 Duster. I tried to use the factory hinges with the springs removed. I could not get it to line up at all. Now I just lift it off when I work on the car. What do/how do you mount a bolt on hood and get it to line up. I am thinking of just pinning a 4 corners, but would much rather have it bolted on.
Any suggestions?

Interesting. I have been thinking about how to put a pin on, finished hood on hinges. Its a pain in the a$$ in the garage . Havent come up w/ anuthing yet. Don't want to repaint anything---------------
 
I have a 6 pack fiberglass hood on my 73 Duster. I tried to use the factory hinges with the springs removed. I could not get it to line up at all. Now I just lift it off when I work on the car. What do/how do you mount a bolt on hood and get it to line up. I am thinking of just pinning a 4 corners, but would much rather have it bolted on.
Any suggestions?
The stock hinges will work but only with some type of spring attached to it, otherwise they are moving all over the place. There are softer/lighter springs out there for your application. Maybe someone can chime in on where to get them.
 
if your hood is like mine, made by some hacks at UP22 / Unlimited the structure is probably off . I had to weld tabs to extend the adjustment on my hinges.
once I did that they work great. the springs do nothing other than hold the hood open. I used a prop rod on mine after removing them.
 
If you do a pin on, use 1/4 turn (zeus) fasteners.

My hood from glasstek fit perfect and was very stable using the hingle.

My AAR hood required hood pins up front in addition ot he factory latch to be secure.

In the pics, note the fenders on the silver car. THe pins on the hood of the purple car and the fitment of both.

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Yeah, I'm not sure who makes the hood, all I know it sucked to try to align. Tore up my fresh paint on the engine compartment. I figured there has to be another way to get it to work. Maybe I can track down some hinge springs for it.
 
Here ya go. Any more questions check with "retroron" as he steered me onto this fix. Its to his credit. Mine was for a 69 Dart so not sure with other models. Actually I did the same thing with my trunk lid as it also is fiberglass.
NEED HOOD SPRINGS
 
Here ya go. Any more questions check with "retroron" as he steered me onto this fix. Its to his credit. Mine was for a 69 Dart so not sure with other models. Actually I did the same thing with my trunk lid as it also is fiberglass.
NEED HOOD SPRINGS
So I am assuming the 150 struts are for fiberglass? I figured it would be a lowed pressure.
 
Not sure which ones I have but they are not the “heavy” ones. I’ll look it up this evening. Whatever retroron suggested was perfect. Used the same on the trunk lid which is also fiberglass.
 
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Got mine done finally! Took about 2 hours to get everything off and back together. I did it with the fenders on. I used 98 Jeep Cherokee struts. It stays at any position. Was a lot easier than trying to put that damn spring back in there. While I was in there noticed my fender bolt was MIA
 
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Now to find this spring for the pop up. With less tension on it. I’m afraid it’s gonna pull the bolts out of the fiberglass.
 
I just drilled out the pin holding the spring bracket and used the existing hole there. I just threw bolted it. I will get you a picture tonight
 
I just got a six-pack hood from AAR/Stinger and it bolted up to the original hinges and hood latch with no trouble at all.

However, the lighter springs I bought turned out to be WAY too light (I told the seller it was a 28 lb bolt-on hood, not a flimsy race-weight type) so now I either have to pull the fenders again, or make a prop rod to replace the piece of 2x4 currently in use ;)
 
You can put the strut on the outside of the hinge I did it on the inside on the driver side first and tried it on the outside of the passenger it works either way
 
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