Hood safety latches for the Zephyr

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Tom Wells
Posts: 928
Joined: Fri May 08, 2015 7:34 pm
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Hood safety latches for the Zephyr

Post by Tom Wells »

I wanted to prevent the hood from flying open on the track so I started researching hood pins. I found out I didn't like the usual pins that stick through the hood and are secured with an external clip. What I did like is a new (to me) kind of hood latch.

Here's where I got them: http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002 ... ge_o00_s00

They are called AeroCatch Plus Flush Hood Latch and Pin Kit - Black, Part # 120-2000

Here's what we had to do (thanks to Herb & Sandy for the help!):

First, we had to decide location. Since the hood bumpers on a lot of Ford products and also the Zephyr are located fortuitously, we decided to use the existing holes. The bumpers were removed, and then with some difficulty, the captive nuts. The slots the nuts came out of were quite usable.

Then we had to locate where the holes in the hood had to be put. This was a little bit interesting, but yielded to our intellects when we decided to use a 1-1/4" holesaw to remove the lower part of the double thickness of the hood structure that was there. Then we put a stud in the slot, approximately centered in the holesawed hole and lightly closed the hood on it.

The mark on the underside of the hood was used to drill a 3/32" pilot hole to use when placing the template for the latch itself. There are crosshairs on the template that crossed at the drilled hole:
Hoodpin templates.JPG
Hoodpin templates.JPG (1.63 MiB) Viewed 2321 times
You can just see the small holes where the template lines were marked onto the hood.

Then the holes were holesawed, the smaller were 1-1/4" diameter, the larger were 1-3/4" diameter:
Holes sawed closeup left.JPG
Holes sawed closeup left.JPG (1.56 MiB) Viewed 2321 times
Holes sawed closeup right.JPG
Holes sawed closeup right.JPG (1.12 MiB) Viewed 2321 times
Hoodpins holesawed.JPG
Hoodpins holesawed.JPG (1.74 MiB) Viewed 2320 times
Lots of work went into making openings below the template holes so the backing plates could be slid into place and installed:
Left catch.JPG
Left catch.JPG (1.26 MiB) Viewed 2320 times
Right catch.JPG
Right catch.JPG (1.39 MiB) Viewed 2320 times
More photos in the next message.
Tom Wells
Posts: 928
Joined: Fri May 08, 2015 7:34 pm
Contact:

Re: Hood safety latches for the Zephyr

Post by Tom Wells »

Hood latches continued...

The hood pins were next. Shock absorber washers were perfect for the job:
Bare Hoodpin.JPG
Bare Hoodpin.JPG (1.6 MiB) Viewed 2320 times
The rubber bumper tubing was supplied with the kit:
Rubber on hoodpin.JPG
Rubber on hoodpin.JPG (1.66 MiB) Viewed 2320 times
Both the pins and the shock absorbing tubing needed cutting to length after the top parts of the latches were installed.
Overall hoodpins.JPG
Overall hoodpins.JPG (1.65 MiB) Viewed 2320 times
Here's the final external view:
Finished catch.JPG
Finished catch.JPG (892.65 KiB) Viewed 2320 times
Just when I thought this great addition would make the car ready for Daytona, we took a ride. The right rear tire scraped the inner fender at the slightest bump or turn. Guess what my next project is?
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