68 dart fiberglass AAR hood pin location

[gdbuick]

Hello
We picked up a used never been painted 6 -pak hood like new condition but someone had previously drilled hood for pins. Why they drilled hood I’m not sure as where you attach the hinges still had a rivet in it I believe from the factory for shipping to keep metal insert from moving. I don’t think it was actually bolted up to the hood hinges prior to drilling. If I lay the hood onto the car with no hinges it looks like it’s in a very bad area to drill through. Can somebody send me some pictures of where the pins are mounted under the hood so I can figure this out.

 

[gdbuick]

 

[Oldiron440]

You could move the hole back 1/2" and only have four screw holes to fill....

 

[tinman2]

I think, back in the 70s, I saw them put in place of the rubber bumper. The stud was adjusted for correct hood height sometimes with a spring on the underside to hold the hood up against retaining clip. In all these pictures of old pro stock cars, I believe they use a piece of rubber hose cut to proper length to hold hood at correct height.

 

[moparmat2000]

I have a solution for you. The red lines you make a pair of plates that pick up the 2 fender bolts, and you weld nuts to the top sides of the plates in line with hood holes where they are now, then cut down the hood pin studs till everything fits and closes.

The yellow lines you fill the holes in the hood, and re drill to position them over where the bumpers are. Make a set of steel plates that pick up the same 2 fender bolts, drill a through hole and weld a nut on the back if each plate to adjust the pins up or down as needed, and a lock nut on top. Cut hood pin studs as necessary.

This way you dont permanently mess up the fender if you decide later on you dont want a fiberglass pin on hood anymore.

 

[A56]

If you haven't already, I would attach the hood to the hood springs first before I would do any cutting, sawing or welding to see where it actually lays unless you're using four pins and eliminating the hood hinges.

 

[gdbuick]

I have a solution for you. The red lines you make a pair of plates that pick up the 2 fender bolts, and you weld nuts to the top sides of the plates in line with hood holes where they are now, then cut down the hood pin studs till everything fits and closes.

The yellow lines you fill the holes in the hood, and re drill to position them over where the bumpers are. Make a set of steel plates that pick up the same 2 fender bolts, drill a through hole and weld a nut on the back if each plate to adjust the pins up or down as needed, and a lock nut on top. Cut hood pin studs as necessary.

This way you dont permanently mess up the fender if you decide later on you dont want a fiberglass pin on hood anymore.

View attachment 1715822389

Interesting idea...

 

[gdbuick]

If you haven't already, I would attach the hood to the hood springs first before I would do any cutting, sawing or welding to see where it actually lays unless you're using four pins and eliminating the hood hinges.

Yes, that's definitely the plan. Had to order from Stephens performance the push nut washer style that go over the 1/2" studs as we destroyed the old ones removing the hinges so we could remove the factory coil type springs. Ordered lighter duty springs from board member atomicdog. We got lucky and removed splash shields to gain access. From searching the board others had to remove fenders. Hopefully enough room to install push nuts back on. Don't want to disturb fenders to make hood alignment easier. I found no way to easily remove factory coil spring from center stud without using a cut off wheel. The metal that is folded over to hold them in place to the center stud would not pry open so we cut it. I like the washer cotter pin idea in place of push nuts but not really possible with fenders on.

Still would like to see a few more pictures where people mounted the pins on 67-69 darts. Many other models on the forum but few 68 darts it seems. Currently because of previous owner drilling I'm pretty close to the radiator support where it bends at 90 degrees which is not good as that's where the pins would have to go but that's just laying hood over opening for now not actually bolted to hinges so just a best guesstimate at the moment.

pic of passenger side hinge
Thanks
Greg

 

[gdbuick]

Well this was interesting. My son removed the drivers side hinge assembly and the inner spring slot is wide open and the spring held in by washer style stop nut/retainer clip. Very confusing and I don't know if the retainer clips I ordered from Stevens performance are for mounting hinge assembly to car or the clips are for the center coil like my picture shows. This is what I ordered from Stevens 67-76 A-Body 70-74 E-Body Hood / Trunk Hinge Retainer Clip (Sold as Each) 3-A-270230

 

[tinman2]

Just saw this on a For Sale 1973 Dart Sport ad by Standonit1972. The hood pin mounted in place of the rubber hood bumper.

 

[A56]

Just saw this on a For Sale 1973 Dart Sport ad by Standonit1972. The hood pin mounted in place of the rubber hood bumper.View attachment 1715823651

As you know those hood bumpers are there for a reason, whether you use just hood pins or in conjunction with the stock hood latch.

 

[A56]

50 years ago I put these hood pins from a '70 cuda 440 six pack on my cuda. I wanted them centered on the factory hood stripe rather than off to the side. I lined them up with the rad support and it came out perfectly.

 

[tinman2]

As you know those hood bumpers are there for a reason, whether you use just hood pins or in conjunction with the stock hood latch.

Yep. They're there to hold the factory steel hood. OP has a fiberglass hood. In my previous post I showed examples of how they used a piece of rubber hose slipped over the hood pins and cut to proper length to set height of the hood. This was just a suggestion to limit drilling more holes.

 

[tinman2]

 

[gdbuick]

Update. Cancelled loc style washers from Steven’s performance as we found some locally and mounted hinge assembly back on with lighter duty springs from board member atomicdog. His springs came nicely painted and we were told to wrap the coil with one coil turn of tension. We ended up just doing a half turn it was very hard just to do a half turn. Be careful use safety glasses and gloves. Those light duty springs worked absolutely amazing with our hood safely stays up but very easy to close no need for any type of rod to prop up the hood so happy.

We ended up mounting our pins on the radiator support we kept the pins super close to the radiator support no washer underneath the nut is actually pressed against the frame so it cannot spin. We did this to minimize redrilling the hood and exposing the original large hole for pin. We can do a little epoxy patch work on the hood but all in all nobody will ever see it. We just have to fill in two small holes from the previous owners installation of hood plates for the pins. Also we were are able to get access to our hinge assemblies by removing inner fender splash shields.

Thanks for the replies.

View attachment 1715832607

 

[A56]

Looks great

 

[CRUZE 418]

What ever it takes. I had a virgin fiberglass hood, I drilled in the holes just to the back of the hood bumper stop. Your hood hinges will always seem loose unless you peg the hinges on the stud. I pushed the hinges all the way back and then locked them in place with a small worm gear hose clamp. Tight so far.

 

[Jeremiah (jd)]

Instead of drilling holes in my GTS I made two aluminum brackets that used two bolts (as show in pic) where the core support meets the fender.

 

[CRUZE 418]

Also, does your hood have the support structure reinforcement? There can be a lot of pressure and stress to the hood at speed. My friends race weight hood needs 6 hood pins to ty down, but you have hinges, so should have the structure.