Hood Hinge Repair

[kb426]

This is how I rebuilt a set of hinges for the 51. I'm not saying it's the best way, just the way I did it. I started out by cutting off the rivets that hold the arms to the mounting plates. I glass beaded and vatted the parts to be nicer to work with. I welded up all the holes that would be reused. The plates were welded and threaded for the shoulder bolts to thread into. I know this won't surprise any of you but there were some mismatched dimensions from the factory. The arms were machined to equal length for hole placement. The plate end had 1/2" holes. They were bored for brass ptfe bushings. The bushings take a light press fit and then the arms were flipped and the extra length faced off. The hood end was left .015" undersize as the hood pins have worn. If the hood end doesn't work properly, I will remove the welded pins and put bushings in the arms and bolt them to the hood in a similar method as the mounting plates. This is today's stopping point on this project.

[kb426]

Hinges are on the truck. They will have to come off after it's warm enough to paint to finish them. I don't have the hood adjusted good enough yet. I'm going to wait until it's the last time for them to come off to spend more time on that.

[WZ JUNK]

Looks great.

It made me think of something I made recently to keep from banging my head on the hood latch pin at the front of the hood.  My 54 Chevy hood sags like most.  I made a wire Z to go between the two links to lock the hood up in its highest position.  You open the hood as high as it will go and wedge the Z between the two links of the hood hinge.  The hood will drop slightly and tighten so that the hood will stay in nearly its fully open position.  I added some heat shrink tubing to the ends to help with the grip and keep it from scratching the arms.  I also added some bright orange ribbon to keep me from trying to close the hood with the Z in place.  It has nearly stopped my sore head problems.

John

[kb426]

Good idea, John. I'll be ok until the gas springs die, hopefully not on the side of the road when I need them.