Long time subscriber...so long I forgot I was a member, anyhoo I need someone to take a measurement or two for me. On a 1970 hood with hood pins, how deep is that cup that the hood pin sets in? Maybe a front measurement and a back measurement as they appear to be slightly canted in the hood. I would greatly appreciate the assistance.

 

Come on now, I can't weld up my hood until I set the depth correctly.

I attached the core support brackets first and located the correct spot for the pilot hole

Made some cans out of 3" OD exhaust pipe I had lying around

Took a carbide hole saw to my hood and had to do a little surgery to the inner support. That will get finished off nicely.

Cut down the can I made. They are too deep but not by much, maybe an 1/8" I need to shorten them prior to welding and finishing.

 

Well I haven't heard back from anyone so I think what I will do is heat these up and flare the upper edge over a 3/4" ball bearing to radius the things so they aren't square. That will bring them up in the hole at least 1/4" or a bit more and that should be about right from the pictures I downloaded. After TiGging them in I will radius the bottoms so they are softer as well. My intent is a 68 with what appears to be factory hold downs in a steel hood. Sort of like the Hurst dual gate it is wearing in the factory console.

I am dropping the hood off at the chem dippers tomorrow so I can start fresh. If you all are restorers, my apologies. I have owned this one for over 25 years and just making it my own.

 

I get 1/2 inch at forward edge and 9/16 at rear edge.

I didn't see your post until now.

 

Thanks! That helps a ton!

 

BTW, that vista cruiser is a sweet long roof!

 

Thanks, Tom.

I've had it for 40 years and have finally done most of the "improvements" I visualized from the beginning.

It's fun to hear people's childhood memories of them.

 

A quick update on adding 70 hood pins to my 68 steel hood. I tanked the hood to clean it thoroughly inside and out. $200 in Portland at American Auto Metal Striping.
I cut down the cups I built out of exhaust tubing and flared them to produce a rounded radius across the top. Slightly deeper in back than front as per the specs above.


I added a pin to locate the cups as I filed the meatal away on the hood to make them fit.

Once the cups were located


I welded them in


Now some body work and an old oil can dent that prompted this adventure. A bit of filler, polyester primer, and maybe some Hurst style stripes on the hood.

 

Nice metal work..thats going to look factory when you are done..love doing metal work myself.

 

You may want to consider adding a drain hole if the vehicle is stored outside as a small amount of water may pool in the cup. If you are using the factory 70-2 chrome round plates for the base of the cup, you won't see the hole anyway.

 

Thanks, these are fun projects to do during the wet season. Not too taxing on the brain.

 

That is a good call. I will do so. I am using the chrome round plates, again, good call.

 

Very cool.
Nice work.

 

Is this just for fun? The pins were there because of fiberglass flex.

 

Only always. There are certain things I like about Oldsmobiles, those hood pins are one of them. If it was a Pontiac I'd put a hood tach on it. If it was a Camaro...I'd sell it and buy something cooler.

 

I turned over the hood and built the interior side of the bracing that covers those pin cups. I used more exhaust pipe I had lying around.

Made the lid flush with the existing bracing. Applied black epoxy primer MP 175. Looks like it grew there.

Tomorrow, I will flip it back over and get the top in MP 175 as well. Then the top gets polyester primer and a good blocking. The MP 175 is DTM, the polyester is not, so both must be applied. The hood is not without its damage including some hack that took a grinder to it to remove the old paint once. The polyester will make quick work of it.

 

Looks really good, incredible work!
are you planning on adding the roll pin after the locks are pushed through the holes?
iIRC my factory hood has a slot for it to go through and then the retainer plate keeps it form coming out.
I think if you add the pin after you push it through it would work just fine and once the plate is on, would look factory.
Should not affect operation in any way.

Also make sure the pin has some wiggle room, not to tight in the hole or it may be hard to latch unlatch.

last thing was I saw a drain hole recommended as it is steal, there is a scuff plate with the pins so make sure it’s outside of the scuff plate area.

if you have already thought of these issue I’ll apologize ahead of time…it looks great, just want it to work great too..lol
Eric

here are some pics



Scuff plate is just larger than the pins

There is a slot in the hood for the roll pin to go through

The retainer clip is rested into hoof in middle

Hole is there for fessed portion of retainer

 

Wow, the pics are timely. I cannot source much on the net about those pins. Yes, from what I have gathered thus far I will pull the pin and reinstall once the latch assembly is in the hood. Any reason to not rivet the retainer plates in that case? And if I do pull and replace the pin, there is no need to enlarge the hole in the hood. I know I am being **** here but which way do the retainer plates go in? The elongated slot toward the front? Toward the rear? Different on each side? I'd like to get it looking like it was supposed to be there. And I take it from the factory the retainers were added after passing the hood pins through? That is why they screwed in?

 

the slot faces forward, both sides. I'll try and get you a pic from the book.

 

Ok, so, here's how they work.

The plate on the bottom is screwed on so that the pin assembly will not fly off the hood when released. They are spring loaded after all. There are three things the hood pin goes through:

1. The scuff plate.
2. The hood.
3. The rectangular plate on the bottom.

1 and 3 both have the slot on one side only. Both 1 and 3 are LOOSE and stay that way. Do NOT rivet the scuff plate to the hood, you will bone yourself. The way to install the pin is to put both 1 and 3 on loose and TILTED. The idea, put it tilted 45 degrees with the side with the slot being up. Put it on the hood pin. Rotate the scuff plate 180 degrees so the slot is trailing, then, put it over that side of the pin. Now, it is past the pin. Then, put it in the hood. For factory conditions, the hole in the hood is as wide as the length of the roll pin. Then, put the rectangular plate on the same way as the scuff plate. Tilt 45, put on one side of pin, rotate 180 deg, put on other side. I think the slots point to the rear of the hood, but it doesn't affect function.

Yes, the retainers were screwed in because that effectively screws captive the hood pin.

I had a roll pin drift and it was a bitch to get the hood open. I then slid the roll pin out, and simply lifted the whole hood pin out of the hood (once the roll pin is gone, there is no retention). Personally, I would put the big holes in the hood since you absolutely want these removable without removing the roll pin. Also, you need to make entirely sure the roll pin or whatever is there instead will not move. Since you're handy, I would drill a hole in the bottom of the hood pin main rod for a punch. Put the roll pin in, center it, and whale the tar out of the roll pin through the punch hole, or peen the roll pin somehow so it doesn't move. This is why serious hood pins are studs with the pin on top; if it moves, who cares? It is a known design flaw for these to drift and then keep the hood from opening. This is why repros are solid rods pressed through the hood pin shaft, you don't want them ever moving, and it is a lot easier to apply massive force on the bench than in the hood (unless you have the hood off the car and on the bench, like you do.

 

Crap! That is a lot to digest! But point taken. I will not be riveting those plates in. It also tells me how far to open the holes tin the hood top and bottom, the same as the length of that roll pin. I am not a fan of sheet metal screws so I may do 1/4x20's and nut zert them since this is not a restoration. Great intel.

 

It seems it doesn't matter but I will take whatever information you have. It sounds like the hood is not slotted, just a big hole.

 

Herk is probably right. I forget.

 

 

NIce and warm today on Easter Sunday, I got the hood in DTM epoxy


and then polyester primer. The hood had a lot of gouging from an idiot with a grinder at some point in its life, the super build polyester will make quick work of it.

This product goes on pink, sands grey. Built in guide coat. Two heavy coats, it requires extremely dry air (I use an electronic air dryer) and a gun with a 2.5 tip. It is like spraying Manhattan clam chowder, similar consistency. Hood pins are looking great and the oil can dent is history.

Somewhere in time this hood got folded up, so the entire drivers side was a huge oil can. I used a stud gun to shrink the steel back down. I have owned the car for 27 years, it has needed this the entire time. I gave up looking for a better hood and figured I would just have fun with this one.

Time to block sand.

My car is 67 Tahoe Turquoise with an Ermine white fender stripes. I am considering a hurst olds style hood stripe in white, up one side of the center hood bulge, around the back of the grilles and back up front. I don't want to offend the stripe police but I think this would be a cool look and still olds, not chevy. Thoughts?

 

Great job!!

 

I laughed out loud at this. Great work btw.

 

That is looking really great. Wish I had your talents for metal work
looking forward to the finished product!

 

Thanks! I actually did sell my 69 SS/rs 396 hugger car to build a 41 ford PU a few years back. F bodies are cool but there are just sooooo many of them. My Olds has been with me for 27 years, longer than any other. For good reason.

I love metal work. Metal is dumb, it has a short memory, easily controllable and if need be, easily replaceable. What's not to love?

 

Bagged the car in my garage. Sanded the tops of the fenders to get a color match. 25 year old lead paint. It isnt going to match but breaking it at the stainless should make it easier on the eyes.

Mounted the hood and applied sealer

Shot out some Ermine white

And laid out some "Hurst" style stripes

And laid on three heavy coats high solid clear. Next up, wet sand and polish to remove the lint (west wind here always causes static electricity but the temp was perfect) . Almost ready for summer.

Thoughts on the stripes? The painter that shot the car 25 years ago didn't lay the stripes out like the factory. I duplicated his stripe dimensions so they would work together.

 

I think they look good. The one spot I question is the back. It looks like the stripes will go under the rear hood chrome molding. A little different than the H/O but since you are trying to make it all work together I think it will be fine.

 

I actually installed the rear chrome vent and went around it with my strip. I have a lot of wet sanding to do over the next couple of days. The color is not a great match but the entire car is getting close to needing a re-paint. Of course, I would rather have a straight hood that doesn't match than a matching color hood with dents in it.

 

You made that hood a work of art.

 

Thank you for that! I did hit the hood with 600 tonight, 24 hours of curing. It sanded soooo nice! It is now flat as hell and tomorrow I will progress to 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 3000. Then it is bonnet time. I would have started with 800 but there was a lot of crap in the paint! Hopefully I don't burn through anything. Wool bonnets are an art form, and I am not Michealangelo. Of course, he didn't drive an Olds.

 

It's crooked. LOL!

 

Wet sanding and polishing..



Still have to hit it one more time with compound and then polish to finish the job nut looking good and very straight!

 

Here is the car detailed and done after installing the hood latches.

The latches work great and it does secure the hood nicely, this will never open on the drag strip.
New insulation blanket, found the washer bottle and installed it, still working on the hoses and squirters. Hood pin retainers installed as well as hood light.

Gratuitous engine shot with M/T covers installed. I ordered a lid for the washer bottle today from the Parts Place. You can see I used 70 vent covers rather than the wire mesh stuff. Looks nicer.

Last shot of the project. Day Two Olds and one of one.

 

Nice ! ! ! I LIKE IT

 

Turned out fantastic, looks like it came that way.

 

Nice!!!! Really matched up well.