help holding down hood

I want to run the two tops pieces of my 4 piece hood on the 32.
I know the aftermarket has a slick kit for a one piece hood top but what about for the stock two piece tops.
Anyone has an idea that works.How about some pics.
SD

 

Zeus fasteners. one on each corner.

 

leather straps all the way down to the frame

 

Get yhourself some 1/2 x 1" rectangular tubing.
(There are two styles, one with very square corners and the other with rounded corners. I think the mildly rounded corners look the best and fit the rounded lines of the early Fords better.)

Make a pair of braces out of the 1/2 x 1" tubing that run from simple brackets on the firewall to the upper bolt that holds grille shell to radiator.
A piece of 1/8" flat strap cold rolled for the front tab.
The front tab will have a bit of a drop in it so the rect tubing can hang down the correct amount.
The back tab/bracket can remain flat and the button head allens can be installed through the welting channel on the side of the cowl. Alternatively, make the rear bracket with a 90 degree bend and mount it to the firewall.

Cut a couple of additional pieces of the 1/2 x 1" and lay these flat on the inside angle of where the hood proper breaks 90 degrees. (The 1" sides will be parallel with the horizon.)
Pop rivets work well here.

Get a piece of 1/4" stainless rod or cut down a stainless bolt to make the hood locating pins. (You'll need four.)
Make sure to make them long enough so the hood sheet metal and the hood inside rect tubing pieces are located on a 1/4" section of what will be the tapered locating pin.
Grind or machine a taper on it making sure to make the point very dull.
Chamfer the bottom of the pins.
Drill the hood braces through the long way - IE: through the 1/2" faces. Use a 1/4" drill.

Use the hood braces as a template, clamp them to the hood and drill the hoods sheet metal.
Using the hood braces as a template again, drill the now lying flat inside the hood pieces with the 1/4" drill.
Drill these on the long side - IE: through the 1" side.

Tap the pins into the hood brackets.
They will remain firmly in place while you weld the bottom side to the hood brackes. (The stainless pins weld very well to the mild steel rect tubing. In fact I used a TIG and a filler rod was not needed.)
Welding on the top is not necessary, once the braces are powdered or painted the top is sealed off.

Last, but not least make some drop-down tabs and weld them in place onto the vertical 1/2" inside the hood pieces.
The drop down tabs can be home-made tabs or manufactured Dzus plates. (The plates don't cost much and look good.)

You'll have to make a set of drop-down tabs oriented so the hole matches the hole in the Dzus spring plate.
Figure out the spacing required to have the Dzus pick up the Dzus spring with the proper tension and weld these to the hoods rect tubing brackes.

I recommend you use the captured in place Dzus buttons.
They won't get lost and better yet they won't tear up the paint like the removalbe ones do.

Operating the Dzus buttons with a dime works for me.

 

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Not too difficult to fabricate.
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Here's my cheapo system. This is the rear of the hood. 1/4" rod in the hood hinge loops. The hook that sticks out goes behind the edge of the cowl. The spring holds it in place until you want to open the top. Compress the spring until it clears the cowl and lift. For the front I bent a piece of 1/4" rod to reach from side to side. It might not matter but I didn't have to drill any holes in the cowl or the grill shell. I sound like a restorer don't I. While I was at it I bent up a prop that goes in one of the hood loops to keep it open while I'm working on the engine.
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It works well for me. The hood top that I want to get louvered has 4 holes, one in each corner where some long ago hot rodder put sheet metal screws to hold it in place.

 

Here is what I use on my one piece hood. I will use the same set-up on my two piece hood when it comes back from the louver shop.
I took some 1/16 inch stainless cable and some lead sweges and made a small loop on each end. Attached one end to the hood and the other end is held tight by the stock hood latches.
It takes 30 seconds to remove and reinstall. I find that just using the front latches hold it just fine. The two piece top may require rear cables, but that remains to be seen.

 

AV8Paul, interesting answer to an old problem.

As far as getting away with a front cable only, it works cuz the car is (probably, mine is) on a wedge with the nose down and airflow holds the hood down pretty good.

I have a side-opening one piece hood on my 32 and every once in a while I forget to latch it.
It always stays down, even at 70+.

The louvers may help bleed upward pressure air that comes through the radiator, but more than likely it's just the aero downforce on the hood top.

One small thing that proves downforce on the hood is; if the cowl vent is open in city traffic, hot engine air from the hood louvers go right down the vent which makes the cowl vent somewhat useless at low speeds.
Highway speeds, another story.
Once past about 50 mph hot engine air no longer enters the cowl vent. That indicates to me - along with the unlatched hood staying closed at speed - that there is a considerable downward aero force on the hood.

Aero force or not, the 31 project hood does not have louvers. Because I plan to install a cowl vent in it and get some low speed ventilation benefit from said vent.

The no-louver hood top is not as cool looking as a louvered hood top, but cool is as cool does....

 

Really great ideas.A lot of food for thought.
What about leather straps with some king of spring along the lenght?
Thanks again.

 

You can buy the leather straps with the crazy looking springs and all the hardware. I believe the place is Restoration Specialties in northern California. They have all kinds of cool stuff.

Several years ago one of the pro builders built a 28/29 stretched phone booth P/U running a nail head. He used their leather belt hood hold down system.