I recently had my car painted, the body shop installed the hood before paint for me. Now that I'm reassembling the car, I noticed 2 things with the hood...

1. There is no spring to pop the hood when you pull the latch release
2. Even with the latch raised all the way up, the striker on the hood barely catches the safety part of the latch and isn't close to the actual latch

I was looking for ideas or am I missing something from the box on how to get around this.

Thanks.

 

Can you shim the striker? I dont know what to tell ya to do about a spring without seeing the bottom of the hood.

 

My RAI hood and my cowl hood both use the factory spring and latch assembly. What latch are you using? You may just need to adjust the striker, and maybe the hood a little, to get it all to line up properly. Pics of your current latch assembly would be helpful.

 

Here is a pic of the under side of the hood. I think I'll get a plate and weld the spring to it.
I can shim the striker down as well, just going to need at least 3/8" of an inch. I didn't know if anyone knew of a different striker that is deeper.

 

 

Ed,

Is yours a fiberglass hood? I need to find a latch assy and a spring so I can install them on mine before I can install my RA1 hood.

 

Yes, it was fiberglass. I actually sold my Firebird about a year and a half ago, regretfully. As I recall, the spring was a stock hood release spring. I don’t know if there’s a difference in springs between the steel hoods and the early 80’s factory fiberglass camaro hoods. The hood struts I used were for the factory fiberglass hoods, that much I do remember.

 

Thanks for the info. I see the picture above, but what did you use to attach the spring to the hood. Are those small adel clamps?

 

Sorry for delayed reply. The clamps were similar to a wall bracket for mounting hose or pipes, just much smaller obviously. Here’s a pic of what I’m referring too. I think they came off my stock hood if I recall correctly.

 

Is your fiberglass hood significantly lighter than the steel hood?

 

Mine is fiberglass.