I have the same problem on my truck, but the parts truck I've got doesn't. However, the spot that it rests on is bent back, I don't know if it was done intentionally or not. I'm interested to hear if it has a real fix..

 

My truck does the same thing. Always has since I owned it. I just pull on the handle of the safety latch when I close the hood. This fall some old fraternity brothers came into town for homecoming. They wanted to see the truck. They wanted to look under the hood. One of the guys went to close the hood. I let him. I didn't say a word to him about the safety latch. He closed it. The next day I looked and did not see a scratch on the underside of the hood lip.

Here is a stock tip: Paint your saftey latch and lock mechanism argent silver.

 

You made me go back out and check it out again. I removed the cardboard I put in and the hood definitely won't close without me holding the latch. Hopefully someone has a little trick of the trade to adjust it. Looking at the underside of the hood, you can see where the latch has hit over the years.

In the mean time, I will grab the silver that I have and paint those pieces. Thanks for the tip. Maybe I will see something I missed when I have those parts off the truck.

 

Well, I was looking through some posts on hood latch adjustment and someone said this: "Check out a shop manual" I don't know why I never remember to look there.
Well the manual says the auxilliary hood catch is not adjustable. So it looks like my options are cut adjustment slots or add some sort of shim....or hold the catch back when I shut the hood.

 

Well, I went out to the garage to remove the latches for painting and i got to thinking. There is a big gap behind the Aux hood latch, so can I put a bolt of some type to push the handle down just enough.

Well, I dug around for some bolts and did this:





This worked just fine. But it is a rigged solution. I need to find some sort of cage nut that will attach in the gap and then I can easily fine tune the adjustment. Time for some hardware store browsing.
Notice the nuts are pointing up on the latch now. Dang I forgot how hard it was to get those nuts underneath. Well after I get the latches painted, maybe my tiny hand 10 year old can help.

 

Necessity is the Mother of Invention!

 

Or I could just hold the dang latch when I close the hood, but there is no fun in that.

 

I have got to ask. Is the bald guy in coveralls the electrition? Or sound
stage manager maybe? He looks to be really into wiring something up.

Why the heck won't spell check fix this: electrition

So cool. I love family pic's like this as much or more than looking at
stock, original 48/50 F1's. Thanks for the warm fuzzy I got from this Bud.

 

The roadie never gets any credit.

 

Ain't that a fact. But he get first pick of the girls.

 

The kids have had a lot of fun together. The three youngest are Dustin's (the soldiers, he flies drones). The have been stationed in New Mexico and are moving to Arkansas in May. She is here for....well, don't know how long.

My wife though Dustin was a bit teary watching the show. It has to be tough. It's great that they can skype almost daily, which is better than no contact for months on end. But it has to be hard seeing your wife and kids but not actually being there. I don't think enough people put much thought into that sacrifice. (This forum seems to get it really well.)

The roadie was all over the place. He even grabbed a mic and helped with backup vocals on occasion. His momma got a kick our of me and her brother picking him up by the back of his overalls and moving him around. Her first boy, so she is not used to that carrying method.

 

Family is so cool Joe. Even a bad family can have good times.

 

Well I came up with a solution to the latch. I got myself some cage nuts as well as a clamp nut.


I tried the clamp nut from above, but it just didn't fit quite right. The cage nut fit perfectly, but because the latch is below the valance, the nut was angled too far to hit the handle.

Well, I then thought to put the clamp nut on the handle underneath. That works pretty good. Adjustment is limited, but it is enough to get the job done. The only problem is that when you adjust the latch so the hood will close, it is barely grabbing on to the lip when you are opening it. If it released at speed, I'm not sure it would hold.



I got the latches painted as well. Also the hood is now closing very well. I can go back to the cowl and it only pushes down a 1/2" or less. I don't have any rubber on it either.



It's a 3 day weekend for me and it is supposed to get up to the low 50's. So, I plan on taking her out for a drive this weekend. I will just don a hat and gloves and cruise. Gonna hit me some back roads.

 

Enjoy the drive

 

Well, I got the truck out today. It got up to 50 degrees.
I went for a brief ride around 1:00 then for a bit longer one at 4:00. The later drive was definitely cooler. I had to put the hat and gloves on.

For the first ride, I got to the bottom of the hill on my little street and turned right. Well I look back and a county sheriff was right behind me. He didn't bother to stop me, so that was good. At one point I got her up to about 45 mph.

I got on a couple of gravel roads that were washboard pretty bad. With no shocks and light weight, it was pretty bumpy. I kept worrying if something would fall off. The drivers side door would rattle lose every once in a while, but I know about that issue.

I have a small leak at the oil pump. It looks to be through one of the bottom bolts. I will need to get some sort of thread sealer to put on it and see if that stops it.

Here are some pictures of the drive:












They are a little dreary, but it is January in Missouri. I was just excited to have a day that was 50 degrees. It was a fun drive, but I might try to find some paved roads for the next one.

I have a couple of videos that I'm uploading now. I will post those shortly.