Projects 36 ford 1 piece hood hinge

Hi all, been lurking for a sometime while working on my 36 5 window. Has anyone welded up the hood and used a firewall hinge to open the hood toward the cab? A problem I see is the "vee" shaped hood wanting to hit the cowl, would probably need to swing up and pivot back. the original 4 piece hood and sides needed extensive work to fit and I have collected various pieces to put the car back together. Will post pictures when in figure out how! Thanks Hotrod

 

You could probably make up some hinges similar to 40 Ford ones after welding the hood tops together.
The side panels would be held by the original latches/handle at the bottom and perhaps Dzus fasteners front and rear top/

 

Is a 37 Ford hood anywhere close to making work?

 

The 37 Ford hood is different and I have mocked up 37 hinges to the side of the cowl. Looks like there is not enough clearance for the 37 pivot arms and pins and the hood edge. There are no holes in the cowl to determine where to mount to but will keep on experimenting. In the process of welding up the hood and making inner hood supports. Keep the ideas coming , thanks.

 

You could always go this way. http://www.tinmanfabrication.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=48/prd48.htm

 

Make it hinge to the side, easy and no grief with the cowl.

 

Are you only opening the top of the hood, like a 37 does? In other words, the lower sides won't be welded to the top hood, correct?

Yes I can see how hinges on the sides of the firewall/cowl would not fit. The only thing I can think of is twin slots at the top of the firewall/cowl. I sure don't care for that, though.

You can mock up pieces of metal s****s to make a hinge prototype. I think that when the hood barely starts to open, the linkage pivots needs to make the hood move forward to get the back of the hood away from hitting the windshield areas. That is possible with a hinge that has stationary pivot locations, but also will have other pivots that move, as the hood starts to open. You can see moving pivots on many hood hinges in many decades.

It can be done, but right up front, you need to decide how much time in trial/error to do this. Or s**** this idea, and spend the time on the rest of the build.

I had to learn about pivots that move, when building a folding top for this convertible sedan. All of the top bows needed to land in a 4" wide gap between the trunk box, and the top of the back seat, when the top went down. I got stumped one day and my then teenage son looked at the problem, and suggested moving a pivot to a different spot, and it all worked then. But it took a lot of tweaking to get both sides to act the same, in the up as well as down position. But I had no choice, as I'd never find an original top for this oddball car....to copy or to buy.

 

Years ago when we stripped a '77 Mustang II down for the front end, I saved the hood hinges as they seemed compact and might be handy some day. They have a built-in mount for the body side, and pivot up under the cowl a bit. Might be just what you are looking for on your '36. See if you can spot a pair in your local junk yard.

 

another thought. VW beetle bodies were a stolen design copy of the 35/37ish Ford 2 dr. If you look at the Bug windshield area and how close the hood fits there, why wouldn't the very simple single pivot VW hinge design work on such a similar windshield/hood area design?

The VW hood misses hitting the windshield by quite a bit, due to where the pivot is. The pivot is tucked way up near the top of the panel in front of the gl***.

I think you'd still need narrow slots cut into the top of firewall cowl top though.

 

All great ideas, I do not want to flip to the side since you will not be able to get at that side of the engine to service or work on it. The front flip is my last resort idea and I like the concept except that it hides the custon 36 Grill from Alumicraft(i have 3 "orginals" and none fit right). I am going to mock up side hinges mounting where the cowl lacing ends this weekend, sort of a "L" shape. Not sure if I need a second pivot and planning on a prop rod to hold up the hood if cowl mounted. I will take pictures but how do i post them? I do have Picasa. Thanks for the ideas.

 

Thanks for the idea, but I want full access to the engine compartment. I have 2 exta sets of taillight stands, but not sure how you can contact me.

 

Thought about this as well after looking at the wifes O/T Taurus, an option for sure if the slots can be made to look "natural". Thanks.

 

It may be possible to have adequate access with a side opening hood. I made a side hinged hood out of a couple banged stock hood halves for a '33 Tudor, I could check and fill the oil and water, as well as set the points and timing all from the driver's side. I could also remove one clip and slide the hood off the hinges and remove it easily. The side panels had Dzus ****ons and came off quick too.

 

Thanks for the info, your top must have been chore. You are correct side panels stationary and removable. going to mock up the cowl side hinges this weekend, I am ***uming the pivots must be on the same plane.

 

sound like a possibility, do have a picture to look at, it may be a possibility? What locks it in place on the opposite side of the hinge? I have several taillight housings for the p***enger side but they are chrome or SS, I will dig them out this weekend.