In a previous post I mentioned that I had inserted pennies in between the spring coils on my hood springs As it turns out, the person who gave me this info was wrong. The pennies stretched the spring all right but left it about 2 inches short. So the the problem becomes how to stretch the spring and hold it to a length of about 10 inches. That being the length of the coils. We decided to make a spring holder out of a piece of 1' angle iron by welding tabs of metal accross the open ends of the angle iron. We then attached one end of the spring to the floor anchor in my shop and the other end to the chain hoist to stretch the spring the required 2' to get a coil lenght of 10". This of course caused all of the pennies to fall out and spread the coils enough to insert the spreader. Then we put a hose clamp on each end to prevent the spreader from*****ting out of the spring under the pressure. Then hang the spring from the long end onto the hood hinge hook and it will slide under the bottom hook. Gently close the hood to stretch the spring and reach under and remove the hose clamps. Behold the finished instalation. Now we can retire our faithful hood prop. My first contribution to Tech Week. Not much but what the hell, we did it ourselves. B B
Bob, it may not be much, but it works and thats all that matters! I need to pull the hood on my '53 chevy (which is the same design) and didn't want to spend the 45 bux for the tool. I've been thinking of just making one myself, well now thats what i'm gonna do. Thanks! Rat..
The thing to do here is to make a pair of them so you can install the tool prior to taking the springs off! Then just store the springs in the "expanded" position untill you're ready to reinstall! Thanks, Bob K, for the great tip! And this works on more than just the 49-52 Chevys!
i have a couple of pairs of these in my garage, great cheap tool & sure in hell makes it easy to reinstall those springs.. great info for those who needed it..............joe
Great idea! Thanks for sharing. Roadstar and I are finishing up Big Olds peaked hood on Monday and I sure would like to instal the hood springs that have never made it on Big Olds since I got him. I'm certainly tired of looking at that piece of PVC pipe that I use for a hood prop, not to mention, it's probley dangerous as all get out.
Spring tool spam. Here's a tool with chrome springs included. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7903298258
Hehe.. you probably just saved somebodys life. I used a threaded bolt inside the spring,and some big spacers once,but this looks alot safer. Good tech!
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