I have reproduction hood hinges for pickup and they don't seem to give me much height when the hood is open, I can easily bang my damn head on the hood since I am 6 Foot tall. Is there any other options I can use out there. Any suggestions welcome.

Aussie 53

 

The original hinges were the same. The hood is too heavy for the hinges to handle, the hood springs are weak. The 1953/56 hoods was only designed to go up just so far. There's not much you can do. Compare 53/56 to 57/60. A world of difference.

 

along the same note, how the he;; do you wined the hood spring up?

 

you don't really.. thats part of the problem, not much preload on the spring.

I (like many) ended up doing the reverse tilt hood..

Sam

 

the passenger side spring on my truck is 'sprung', but I am a LONG way off from having to figure that out... however, I have kept my eyes open for ideas and seems I saw something somewhere about a tool with a lever/hook setup to wind it to where it should be. Hmmmm maybe it was the shop manual? I'll look later and see.

 

My 56 came with a piece of broom handle that was used to prop the hood up. Like Sam said, a front tilt hood was the answer.

Thus, the phrase: "Necessity is the mother of invention".

 

Yea, the broom stick works, but the color matched acrylic rod looks cool. I have seen some guys use clear colored acrylic. By cutting the 1" rod longish, you can prop the hood up a few inches higher. But, as stated before, the front tilt is the way to go. Jag

 

I've used just about everything. At one point, I used gas shocks which worked nice but I didn't use them after I made new inner fenders. Using, the gas shocks, I kept the hinges but added two gas shocks, one end to the hinge and the other end mounted to the inner fender. Now I'm using two hood props. I'm using 1/4 inch round rod. I bent the ends at 90 degrees. Since I'm not running the hood support rods, I'm using the forked portion for the bent prop rod. The other end, I merely drilled a hole in the radiator cover (forgot the name of it) and made a small bushing which screws onto the prop rod. That sits on the hole and holds the hood up to it's maximum height. Plus it looks good. The hoods are heavy, so to use the prop rod, you need one on each side, or a center one to hold the hood up correctly. The center one is nice but gets in the way when your working on the engine. Some use the prop rods from Japanese cars also.
I was going to do the reverse hood trick, but it seems like every truck out there has done that. I like the original hood opening. That way I don't have to lean over my fenders to work on the engine either.

 

Once upon a time a '56 I once owned had a stock hood and, while travelling about 55 mph, the poorly adjusted front latch mechanism became unlatched.....guess what happened next !!!! Another reason for going with the front flip.

 

Are you saying that if the front latch mechanism isn't adjusted correctly, I should go out and purchase a front tilt kit instead of adjusting it properly?

 

Poorly adjusted?

The reason hoods from this era thru the 1970's blew open was ppl slammed the hood down. Over time, that slowly bent the support brace that the hood latch bolted to..until one day, the hood wouldn't latch properly and ended up against the windshield!

 

what about the secondary latch, does it tend to fail also?

 

Got to love them old Fords.

 

I do not agree. If the secondary latch is intact it will always stop the hood from releasing. I have had a lot of old F-100s and have never had a problem with wither the hood latch or the safety (secondary) latch. It is so easy to adjust the latch that no one with any brains IMHO would ever drive one with a maladjusted latch.

The front tilt removes a lot of the strength of the front sheet metal and causes a lot of rattling when on rough roads. This is because the front fenders are not tied down to the cab, and the entire tilt is only latched at one point. It is fine for a truck which is only driven around to shows and in a city area, but it is not for a working truck........

As far as the hood hinges, the replacement hinges open far enough, and the originals with more preload work fine, also. I have two sets, both of which open my hood plenty far. The idea of making a hood rod prop is a good one as the wind can come up, and the prop can serve to keep it from moving up or down.

 

Sorry, I don't agree with you because it happened to me twice. Once on the nearly new 1963 Ford parts delivery truck I was driving...in 1964, and in the 1980's with a beater 1976 F250 I bought for $300.00. Both times the wind caught the hood, and the safety catch was RIPPED from its location, and the hood flew up and back.

In 35 years, I sold 100's of new hood hinges, hood latches and hood lock supports, and prolly 100+ hoods...and it was usually because the hood flew up.

It's a well known Ford trait.

Look in the members galley...you see trucks where the rear of the hood is slightly higher than the cowl.

The cause? At one time, the hood flew up...and that stretches and tweaks the hinges.