I decided to make a set of hood latches. The originals were all rusty and worn so something was going to needed to be done. I wanted them to operate smoothly so I used poly washers on the shafts to help with that
Album by Kevin Foust. Photos by Kevin Foust. 1 - 28 of 28 Total. 3598 Visits.
1 I started with the main body. Used flat sheet and bent the tabs like originals. I then drilled the holes for the shafts and welded a D shaped washer onto upper mount. I did this to keep the latch handle located so it would not be able to touch the painted hood. I ground a flat on the shaft to match.
2 I bent up the lower support and spot welded it to the main body. The latch arm itself is made from solid thick bar of stainless. I heated it up and bent it to match the original stamped pieces. I then drilled and tapped it for the shaft to be attached as opposed to welding it in. Small set screws lock it into position so it can be taken apart if need be.
3 Stainless springs were bought and drilled the shaft to hold them into position with a cotter pin.
4 Close up of the top mount shows it bolted on with trapped poly sleeve. Mild steel spring shown here but I did find some stainless ones later. I filed all the hole square with a small triangle file as I'm using small stainless carriage bolts in place of the original rivets. Gives the same look but it can be taken off.
5 Here it is installed. Screws were for test fit. You can see them with carriage bolts in the Final Assembly album. Quite a difference from originals and should last a long time.
6 For the hood hinge pins I wanted stainless rod and needed to fix them so they won't slide out. Here is the way I do it. I get a thick copper plate and drill a hole the same size as the rod.
7 I let the rod stick up about 3/16 and use the TIG welder torch on it . When it melts to the copper I lower the heat and it self forms a ball. fast and easy and won't slip through.
8 5 seconds on the buffer and this is what it looks like.
9 I am going to replace all the rivets with small stainless carriage bolts that I'll polish out. I need to get all the holes square and normally that means hand filing them to square with a triangle file. The piano hinge is thin enough that I decided to make up a die set.
10 I got a junk hardened piece of steel and had a square hole cut in it. Ron F. helped me with this and thanks to him. I then cut through it and then ground a slot. Now I can slide the hinge through and the round on the punch self aligns in the existing hole and with a tap of a hammer it's done.
11 Here's the squares done. Most of the hood side was hand filed where I couldn't use this. I did one and bolted it on and used the rest of the squares as guides to file to.
12 Here's one side done and with paint these should really set it off. there was about 12 layers of paint on this truck, several were brushed on!
13 Did the same on the hood latches.
14 Next was a hood prop. I never cared for the original optional style Dodge made. I was at a gathering one time and the wind caught a guys hood and flopped it over making a real bad tweak on his hood. I wanted something with a positive lock.
15 It attaches on the backside of the hood using the 2 holes for the DODGE emblem. I TIG welded the bent, threaded rod on the backside.
16 For the bar itself I wanted the same detail I used on the cowl support bar so I made up a forming die and pressed it down.
17 Ground a groove and then ground a radius on an angle on both halves. shown below is the result.
18 Close up of pressed detail.
19 I'm using a stainless bimini clamp on the core support bar. It was a little big but a round of poly tubing fits in perfect.
20 Close up of it installed. Poly wing nut cap on SHCS holds it in place. Spin the rod on the stud on the back to hold it on. You can see the poly spacer in the clamp here too.
21 Backside view show the rod threaded on. It installs to where you can hardly see the joint.
22 Lower hood clears the rod by over an inch.
23 This will give the hood even support when you have it open.
24 I can snug that clamp so it stays in that position and still put the rod in.
25 Decided to make covers for the black out lights. I'm using them for turn signals and stainless covers will match the headlight rings better than the standard, painted ones. Got some large round stock and I turned them out. Put it on a tang so I'd have something to hold onto for the grinding operations.
26 Needed to get the inner pocket milled out and Gary T. did that for me. I'm using the stock clear lens and an amber bulb.
27 I then started grinding the outer rectangular shape on the surface grinder. Once that was done I swung radii on the corners to match originals.
28 Close up close up shows rectangle before swinging. Step in OD is what I indicate off of to make sure it id true in round, I'll skim it when I'm ready to cut it off.
