Others may already be aware of this, but it was a surprise to me. I was flipping through my Hollanders recently and found that the 1968 A-body hood hinges interchange with the 1968 B/C body hood hinges. I was skeptical, so I checked the Parts Book, and yes, they are the same part number. As we all know, 68 hinges are one-year-only and are hard to get, but now at least there is a wider selection of donor cars.

The parts book also notes that the 1969-72 A-body hood hinges are the same as those on the 1969-70 B/C body cars.

 

Great information, Joe! As we '68 Cutli' owner's know, a lot of parts are unique to that one year only, and very difficult to come by. Whomever repaired Big Red (before we bought her in '89) used a '69 LF fender. Talk about a mess trying to align the hood. Still that way, as the SB got in the way for awhile. Have a '68 LF fender to rework, and a newer (older) set of '68 hood hinges to fix it all..............someday. Don't know if, at my age, I can do that Eastfield Community College Body Shop thing again. You were just scanning through Hollander's??????????

 

Pretty cool.

With that info out the B-C body guys that are in the dark will be wondering why all the hood hinges are disappearing from the cars in boneyards,
and why the prices on them all just suddenly went up for no reason.

 

Do 69 hinges fit a 68? There's just not enough room to get under the hood and already have enough dents in my head.

 

Nope. 68 is a one year only deal.

 

'69 hinges will fit a '68 if you don't have the original fenders. Service fenders from '69 on came with the 3 welded nuts so you can attach the '69 hinges. I have one service fender and one original. I'm thinking I might be able to weld a nut onto my original fender to allow me to install the '69 hinges. I may do that this summer/next winter. You can put a '68 hinge onto a '69 without issue (other than being sent to the crazy house for wanting to).

 

The Toronado guys already go thru that with airconditioning parts, which have a lot in common with A-bodies. You let an NOS airconditioning part show up on ebay and if a GTO or Chevelle guy gets into it, you're screwed.

I too always thought the 1968 hood did not open far enough. At least it didn't have that damned tooth like 69-70.

 

and Joe to be clear the hinges for the OAI hood are the same (including the springs) correct?

 

They put the tooth in for 69-70 to ensure you never lost that feeling of getting bit when peeking under the hood.

 

"and Joe to be clear the hinges for the OAI hood are the same (including the springs) correct?"

Did this question ever get answered? My '70 442 is in the body shop now and they are saying that my hinges and springs should be replaced for my original OAI hood. Has anyone had experience with this and if so where did you get replacements that worked?
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Hinges are the same, springs are lighter.

 

Thanks Joe...

 

Thanks Joe, I went ahead and purchased new hinges and springs from Fusick. Will have to see if the new springs work better than what I had.