I have. It's fun. Did you know, if the one that you lose is the one nearest the front of the car, the nut falls all the way to the rear, and on a 70-72 hood, there's a little hole you can fish it out of? Also, did you know that if pain is not a concern, you can actually reach inside the hood bracing and catch a new washer and hex nut on a bolt in there? I have plans for a real fix, kind of simple really, but I don't have time to post the diagram right now, I'm at work. But it can be fixed without removing the hood bracing or cutting a big hole in the existing bracing, even, I think, if the nut comes free at the rear of the hinge.
That same thing just happened to us last week, swapping the track hood to the GS hood. We did get it back in place and the bolt tightened up. Beth
How'd you get it together? I'm interested in improving my "jam your fingers through the hole and pray" method
Chris, it was hit and miss and dig it back out from the little hole a couple times before Beth came up with the idea of sticking a loop of electricians tape on the end of her finger, sticking the nut to the tape and holding it in the right place untill we could get the thing threaded :rant: (I'm sure I would have thought of that eventually) God help us if we snap off one of the rear one's :shock: o No: The GS hood is on till the first race next spring so we can forget about it for a while. D,
If the rear ones break, I think I know how to fix it. Get a length of flat mild steel, maybe a 16th inch thick. Trim it to 1/2 inch wide. Measure the distance between the rear-most and forward hole in the hood for the hinge. Make your .5" steel strip 3" longer than that. Bend one end of the steel strip into a "J" shape, using about 2" of material to bend it, so the bent part is about 1.5" long. Now, mark out on that strip where the holes are in the hood on the strip, starting from .5" in on the end without the J bend. Drill out those marks so a 3/8-16 bolt passes through. Weld a 3/8-16 hex nut over both those holes. if you lose just the rear one, you have to break free the forward nut, I guess. I haven't quite figured this out yet, although if you need just the rear nut I suppose you could use a wider strip of steel and put a hole in the 'forward nut position' big enough to clear the nut you have. Simply take that strip of steel with the J bend, flip it over so that the "J" bent part faces down, and the nuts are on the bottom of the strip. Fish that strip with the nuts through the little slot up by the forward hinge. Position it over your holes and feed your hood bolts up through and screw them in. The steel strip will trap itself and allow you to tighten up the bolts if you need just one, and if you need both, the tosional strength of the strip will let you tighten the bolts. Trim off the little J bend, or bend it flush with the hood bracing. For just the forward one, simply use a shorter "J strip" I hope I never have to try that one out. I made up three new curse words putting that $#&@ing hex nut in
