On my 41 the tilt fiberglass doesn't fit great, I need to come up with a fastener that will both pull the hood sides down and suck them in. My first thought was a simple L-bracket off the firewall side using a hood pin, the curved fender and tilting of front end doesn't jive so hot. My second idea some kind of sliding pin on the backside that could slide into a hole in the firewall. What other ways of doing this can ya give me ? The fiberglass is thick so I'm not sure how a dzus fastener would reach or be strong enough to suck the thick fiberglass into shape.
pin on the top surface of the hood to hold it down, pin on the side to hold the bottom on once the top has been attached
There are all kinds of hood latches, from the old DUTZ fasteners popular with salt flat racers. HRP The rubber style used on modern jeeps. Then the Model A type latch, available in chrome or painted black.
I wonder if you might want to spend some time grinding it thinner on the backside to let it fit closer?
Personally I would cut it apart and make it fit properly without having to force it into place with a mount.
may not help you, nut here's couple dozen pages of latches https://www.htfhardware.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=latch
Those are great , I have them on my race car They align easily and you never lose the hood pins. For a "show pony" there are these push button style available [but I would trust the above style over 100mph]
First, the front end is tapered at the firewall. It's wider at the top than at the side. Second, forcing it into shape with removable stuff is going to cause issues. Either cut it and fit it or buy into having it always be a fight and degrade over time. Fitting also means you will have to flex it to open each time. See 1. Finally, take a look at big rig hoods, they are double or triple the size of yours and they have designs to deal with the same issues. You can look at flip car hoods too.
Yes all the different angles is making this one challenging, not my first tilt front end, I'm hoping the heat from the engine will help this to form back into place once I get it locked into place. Your typical hood hold downs in the typical placements won't suck it into the cowl like it needs but would hold it down in the right spot. I researched some latches but they never seem to show it open and closed, I want to see the action, what makes them work so I can figure out if it will work. Something as simple as this should work, have an "L" shaped rod go through the hood into the oval hole on the bracket, give it a 180 degree turn and it should lock it in place. I would just need to figure out some kind of head to keep it from going through the hood. Lower fender cowl piece that gets thrown into the mix