Need a hood hinge-spring expert. I have a 1969 Malibu with a steel cowl induction hood. This morning when I was closing the hood one of the hinge pins failed and let the hood go sideways nicking my fender. Really p....d me off ! I welded threads to the pin that fell out and after removing the spring got it back together so I can open and close the hood. After assessing the damage I looked at the hood hinge that had failed and it looks like there are a few other points that aren't too far from failing also. These hinges look pretty new ( I have owned the car for appromimally 2 years) ,but can't vouch for where they had come from. I am wondering ,before I go out and buy new hinges whether they made special heavy duty hinges for these steel hoods ? I don't know what the regular or the SS hood weighs, but this hood has a little weight to it.
Second question is does anyone know a good , safe way of reinstalling the hood spring ? I did a search on this site before I posted this thread and came across A guy that had made an installation tool out of 3/8 pipe with a notch in one end of it. He had drawings on Geocities at one time ( 2001 ) ,but is no longer there. Any suggestions ? Thanks.

Ted

Ted,
The cowl hood uses a different, heavier spring than the regular hood. I got new hinges and springs from the local Chevy dealer about a year ago when I painted my 71. They were very reasonably priced and I know they are GM parts, so they should last a while. I have the part numbers somewhere if your dealers parts guys are too lazy to look them up :rolleyes:

Thanks for the quick reply. I will stop in at the local chevy dealer here in Central Illinois after work Monday and see what I can find. Know what you mean as far as lazy parts men go. Have had similar experiences in the past.
Ted

Bill;
Have a quick question about the hinges. When I go to the Chevy dealer do I ask for hinges for a "70" with cowl induction hood ? Will the "69" and the "70" hood hinges interchange ? In my parts catalogs ( NPD,Ground Up, Ausley's, ect.) they are listed under different part numbers indicating to me that they are different.


Ted

The only difference in 69 & 70 hood hinges is the 70's have a hook on the back to catch on the decapation prevention pin sticking out of the top of the firewall and the 69's don't have the hook.

I made one of my 69 hinges out of a 70 hinge by trimming off the hook.

I doubt that you'll find new hinges for either year at any GM dealer.


http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79696&highlight=hood+hinge+springs

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79514&highlight=hood+hinge+springs

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14473&highlight=hood+hinge+springs

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8671&highlight=hood+hinge+springs

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43517&highlight=hood+hinge+springs

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198&highlight=hood+hinge+springs


http://img445.imageshack.us/img445/9784/hoodspringstretch20ly.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Dean,
DOnt know if the 69 & 70 hinges are different than the 71, but I got new ones for my 71 from the dealer last May when the car was painted. Hinges and springs in GM packaging.

Good to know Bill
He can always get 71-72 hinges and trim off the hook (or leave it)

HANG ON!....before you go out and spend money on new hinges to replace the hinges that you think are fairly new to begin with. We just went thru this same incident with brand new GM hinges on a 72 a little more than a year ago.

The new GM hinges that you get now are NOT the same hinges that came on the cars originally. The rivets they are using on the new hinges are different and THEY ARE JUNK!

Here's our story....I used NEW GM hinges on a customer's 72 (Dewayne "Rookie" Martin, Green 72 SS clone, voted People's Choice at Peach State Chevelles show couple of years ago). We're all gathering at the shop one afternoon to do a local Christmas parade and Rookie has the hood up on his car, goes to close it and the left side just collapses.....luckily, as miracles go, the hood didn't hit anything and we were able to shut the hood without doing any damage to the car. I ordered a new (again GM) hinge and when we went to swap it out we noticed that the rivet failed because there wasn't enough material "mashed" and what little was "mashed" was too thin and weak and brittle. We compared the NEW new hinge and it looked like it would fail just as easily. Other than the rivet failing there was nothing wrong with the hinge. I put the rivet back thru the hinge, took a flat washer of approximate size and welded to the "thru" end of the rivet, ground flush, then went around the rest of the rivets on both hinges and beat them to try and "mash" them some more to prevent further failures. I told Rookie to keep and eye on them, we may have to go and make the same modification to the rest of the rivets. We returned the NEW new hinge.

So, all of that to let you know, it sounds like you have the same situation and one that is an easy fix. Also, to prevent you from spending approx. $130.-$160. on hinges that are probably going to be the very same thing with the same potential of failing.

Shannon

Interesting Shannon,
I will have to look at mine on SUnday. My originals were actually in pretty decent shape, I was just too lazy to take them to the shop and glass bead them and paint them. Plus figured that everything else was new, why not the hinges too. Don't remember them looking to bad but I will look at the rivets real close. By the way, I have always squirted some oil on hood hinges, makes them work much nicer and I really dont care if some oil drips off them.

Bill,

Let us know what your originals look like compared to your new ones....especially compare the "mashed" ends of the rivets.

Also, that's a big 10-4 on lubricating the hinges.

Shannon

PLEASE before you hurt yourself installing the springs, read the following discussion on it at Team Camaro....

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11016&highlight=%22Hood+spring%22+install+chain

Here is the jist of it...
Hood spring installation

This is the very simplest spring installation I know of. The description is for a hood spring but I have used it MANY times on all kinds of springs including trunk torsion bars. Below is a drawing that may make it clearer. I would go out there and take a picture but it is raining like a cow peeing through a pole bridge.

Have a friend hold the hood open all the way, or if you have to, use a prop. Hook the spring onto the rear of the hinge and keep tension on it so it doesn’t fall off. With the other hand hook your chain hook onto the spring hook and pull, keeping that tension. Now, I usually wrap the chain around my hand like you do when you are the anchor man in a tug-o-war. All the while maintaining the tension so the spring doesn’t fall off the hinge at the back. Pull on the chain stretching the spring out so you can hook the spring end onto the hinge hook. It may seem like you can’t get the chain hook off the spring, but it comes off rather easy if you start to remove it before the spring is set all the way down in the bottom of the hook on the hinge.

This method leaves you in complete control, YOU are in control of the spring and it will not fly off, I have NEVER had it fly off in any way while using this method.

It is best to mount the hinges to the car, but if you had to you could do the same thing with the hinge mounted in a vice. I have always used a chain that has a hook made out of 1/8” mild steel. But I have seen many guys use a link that opens and just hook it over the end of the chain. You could also make a dandy tool by cutting a link off making a hook. Then MIG weld it to the last link on the chain.

Of course this works for installation as well as removal.


http://members.aol.com/buickfam/springinstallation.jpg



Brian

First of all I want to thank all of you guys out there for jumping in with the suggestions. Classic Chevelle ownership has been and still is a learning experience. Shannon I think I am going to take your advice in regards to welding a washer on to the end of the rivet. The end of the one that failed was just as you described. Maybe should consider doing the same thing to all the other swivel points on the hinge, coat it with a good coat of black paint ( mine are still gray ) and it shouldn't look too bad.
Thanks to Martinsr for the drawings I probably will give it a try. It looks like it could work.

Ted