Customs Saw this on a FB page over the weekend.

“Well, we had a nice episode this morning at 70’s mph  the rod that holds the spring off the hood they come from the manufacturer, broke off, just broke, bounced off the roof several times off the side of the car couple of times.

But thank God nobody else got hurt I didn’t get hurt see what the insurance is gonna say next week sorry guys we will rebuild.”

 

Are they talking about the safety catch for the hood? I've seen a few hoods with those missing, they're not very beefy. But that would mean the latch pin pulled out, too. Not sure what happened there, exactly. Bummer for sure, but not un-fixable.

 

I zoomed in and you can see the latch with the spring just above the front of the fender, still in the cowl. It looks like the retaining bolt came/pulled out of the hood latch mechanism and there was nothing left to hold the hood down. That is a shame as it looks like it was a very nice custom. Thank goodness nobody was hurt and they plan to rebuild it.

 

Ouch.

 

That must have made a hell of a racket.

 

The wife’s 56 Belair had 2 distinct dents in the roof where the hood bird left its mark from a previous owner,, nothing like this though! Would have been a sphincter moment!

 

Get the gas axe out and lop the roof off.

 

I have heard shoeboxes are notorious for this happening, really need to put a back up pin on mine. Would kick myself if I knew and didn’t do anything about it and something happened right.

 

In 30 years of racing I reckon that every single season I’ve seen someone’s hood make a bid for freedom.

You always need a failsafe in my mind. It’s just not worth removing the safety catch.

 

Yes they are! My dad’s Tudor has done that several times through the years and so did mine.

I was going home in mine after doing an inventory at my store around 4am and had to be back before 7 so as I was getting on the interstate I kicked it in its ass pretty hard and before I got out of second gear and the world suddenly went away. Thank goodness that nobody was on the road and I was able to get it to the emergency lane and just unbolted the hood and tossed it to the side of the road. Lucky me the hood was the only thing that was hurt and we had some spares laying around here so I drove it without a hood for a couple of days while I prepped another one for the rascal

 

Same thing happened to me in my '40 Chevy. My hinges held but talk about a woweeee moment at
40 mph. Completely crushed the cowl. After that I installed two jeep style hood latches, one on
eadh side at the front of the hood. Glad no one was hurt.

 

That would have made me drop my beer for sure...

 

I went out with my car for practice at Islip, we were missing a hood pin clip... I figured it would be fine for 6 or 8 laps... wrong... I was lucky there were only a few cars out on the track and nobody ran it over. Embarrassing... the safety crew slid it in my back window and off I went to fix it.

 

My first car was a '69 MGB GT hard top. The latch sucked and was beat. The hood (bonnet) first blew open at about 40. It had a mean fold in it. I bent it back (some) and tied it down with speaker wire. It was heavy speaker wire . That actually lasted a good while. Then, I came across another BGT on the highway one day. It was on. At a touch over 100 the wire gave up. That one caved in the roof because the bend was already in it. Didn't blow the windshield though. It was a hell of a hit, not to mention I was driving blind at 100. There was a 5 ticket ride involved. We did live. I pushed up on the roof and it popped back. The paint was blown off of the four corners. The thing that I always wondered, how bad would that have been if it was a convertible ? Shew !
Mike

 

Looks like it’s going to need a new interior also. Got to be shit all over the place. Maybe even a hole where the cushion got pinched by the old sphincter!

 

Shame, what a neat car. Hope they get it fixed!

 

Though it will be a pita, the roof has already had some work done on it. Its not like the cherry got broke or anything.

Thank you for reminding us that these old hood latches and hinges can fail, and that maybe we should take a few minutes and have a look at the latches and hinges on our rides.

As far as this ride, do the roof again, paint the car, replace the latches and hinges, and move on. You have another great war story to share about your automotive experience with this car. I'd probably carry pictures of the event.

 

Just pondering how one might approach the repairs, reskinning the crown of course a viable option, & as for pushing it out it would no doubt involve some shrinking/stretching & a hand portable English wheel would be handy I would think. An accident often times is the nucleus for a custom to enter a new lease on life, the lower body color could be carried from the windshield down the rear deck area to emerge as a totally different car, or even a 51 Merc. Monarch type nylon roof overlay could reduce some metal finish work if so desired. having removed a vinyl roof from a 60's G.M. I was surprised to find leaded seams were unfinished & in another case body filler was used as opposed to lead right from the factory.

 

Several years the auto factory used putty on roof joints. Those cars got vinyl top. Yeah at times one side got lead the other got putty. No sweat.

 

Same thing happened to my 56 chevy. Luckily it only wrapped itself around the windshield and did not beat the hell out of the rest of the car. Yes, it scars you for life. Notice my 53 chevy in my Avatar. That Hood crap ain't happening to me again. Full pic why not.

 

I hope it can be fixed, but this is why you should run hoodless it's just a good safety habit.

 

That didn't just pop open, the whole latch assembly pulled out of the hood.

 

Wow! That's a beautiful Merc custom. Glad you're rebuilding it.

 

~'53-'64 C/K Studes have a similar problem. Crummy latch, to say the least. So yrs back(decades, actually) the solution was, & is, to loop chain thru the hood-bar & the latch panel. Some guys use plastic-coated aircraft cable. Then use a padlock to secure it. Sort of a theft-prevention, but mostly for hood hold-down guarantee. Also kinds rattles... but beats kinked hoods... Folks also use a whole different latching assembly also. Depends on what you want.
Marcus...

 

I think it might buff out?

 

Unless the piece that held the pin and spring was comprimised to begin with it took a lot of air pressure to pull that piece out of the hood bit I'd have to believe that the safety catch was not working right or missing. This being s found on the net photo showing thr catch.
When I had my 51 Merc the catch worked but you had to set the hood down gently , push the latch back, get your fingers out of the way and close the hood. It didn't always catch the first try.

 

Hoods , we dont need no stinkin hoods...