1952-59 Ford Let's see pics of your engine compartments!

Ha....I'm quoting me, lol.
Perfect timing............Well, turns out it was not so "safe". I took the '57 into Oklahoma Saturday, and while I was p***ing some big rigs on I40, one of the hood pins decided to let go. Scared the **** out of me expecting the hood to pop open, but it didn't as the other one held and never had to find out if the safety catch would hold at 70mph.
After realizing what happened, it was one of those "what was I thinking??" moments and wondered how it held for 4 years and 39k miles. I had used the oem spot welded-in threaded fasteners, meant for the hood bumpers, for the hood pins. Well those fasteners were never meant to hold against pressure or pulling, as they just have 3 small spot welds on the flange and the fastener sits on top of the cowl sheetmetal. The spotwelds still held, but the sheetmetal at the spotwelds fatigued and broke off.
I drove 15 miles to a hardware store and jury rigged a temporary fix to get me home. I've got some cowl paint touch-up to do, but yesterday I got the fastener tack welded in, below the cowl sheetmetal.

 

Had the hood on my 55 pop open at 70 when I left the upholstery shop, scared the **** out of me for sure. They had shut the hood to the safety catch ( thank goodness) but not fully latched. At least I know the safety catch works.

 

428 in my 58.

 

Pics and Tips you might find useful from this four part series: https://www.racingjunk.com/news/50-engine-compartment-detailing-tips-part-1/ scroll down to the right for the other three.

 

Too many late model engines.

 

i agree

 

Ditto