Lift offs can be a real pain, for just a quick look under the hood so I was thinking.... Where a standard hood bolts to the hinges.....Could you just use 4 hood pis, to "bolt" the lift-off hod to the stock hinges, to allow the hod to open "normal"? And just add the 2 standard placement of hood pins to the front, to hold it down & shut? Making 6 pins total. More needed? Obviously, you'd be losing the standard latch & pop-up spring, & struts (requiring a prop rod afterwards....I have a solution to that too) but oh well. Just hafta figure out how to grasp the front edge to raise the hood. Easy on a Camaro, since the front edge is exposed over the headlights, but trickier on a Firebird. Would a lift-off hood be internally strong enough to be tilted up on the stock hinges? Thoughts?

It would only work if you reinforced the hood. My Harwood liftoff is 8lbs and very thin. You may be able to rivet some aluminum to the hinge section, top and bottom, but i still think it would work. I can get you pics of mine if you like. It's so light that i'm positive it would crack if you tried to hold it up by the hinge mount area. It's just a skin with no inner support.

Mine will have 8 dzus fasteners once it gets mounted, 4 in the front, 2 halfway up the sides, and 2 in the rear.

Not that I mind lifting a hood off, but let's face it.

There are times you just need to look real quick. I in't wanna spend 2 minutes to look under it for 10 seconds, then another 2 minutes to put it back on.......

the hoods are just not made to be used with the hinges, there is no under structure to the hoods at all. I suppose you could fudge something to the factory hinges, but unless you are really really careful, the hood will crack.

Maybe build a light frame out of tubing or something, to add some rigidity to the hood, but at that point, you might as well just buy a bolt on hood.

That's why I referred to 4 pins to hold it to the hinges (2 per side), then 2 at the front to hold it closed.

Then if needed, the 4 pins on the hinges could be pulled, in order to lift the hood off all the way.

Not a snowballs chance in hell that would work. The stock hood hinge lifts would rip it apart. If you take the lifts off then you need a way to hold it up in the front while open and the slightest breeze would most likely lay it straight into the windshield.

Well...I did mention already, that the gas supports would hafta be removed, so I had already covered that problem.

You think the pins would pull through the hood? Then why doesn't the air flowing from underneath, rip a hood off at speed? I'd think 100+mph creates a bigger pressure than a wind.

i think he meant when you have the hood up, and your looking at things under the hood, wind could blow the hood over onto the windshield and break things

I knew what he meant. I was comparing wind on a hood up, to the airflow from underneath at speed.

I own one, it's in that picture on the left. How the hell are you going to lift it without hood shocks? You can't just grab it and lift from the headlight pockets. A proper lift off drag hood like mine is very fragile, that is why it is so light. I'm sure with enough time and money you could make one lift up with the hinges but it will end up being more expensive than a hood made to do that from the start.

To answer your question.

Airflow underneath is controlled by having the hood pinned. Lift it by the rear and it has no support other than the hinge it is attached to. There is way too much surface area for the stock hinges to hold it properly. I welcome you to try it on your own drag hood but make sure to send me pictures when it breaks.

How do you lift your without hood shocks? You can get your fingers under the front & rear edges first. Lifting (the front end) off a Firehood pin-on would be an issue in any case. No front lip to get your fingers under, like on Camaros.

It was just an idea. Maybe I'll just go with a standard bolt on 'glass hood.

That's what i'm saying, you can't lift it by the front edges if it's bolted to the hinges. It is way too fragile for that. It will break just in front of the hinge bolts unless you have some super lubricated hood hinges that lift like pure air.

Unless you are going with the full lift off method a hood made to lift on a hinge is the cheapest and best.

I lift mine by the cowl opening and front edge between the headlights, it still flexes quite a bit.