Hello all. My 69 Hurst Olds hood wasn't staying open so I bought new springs from fusick oldsmobile parts and even after replacing it still really doesn't hold the hood open strongly enough. The springs are the correct ones as far as I can tell. Im open to suggestions. Is there possibly a different spring for the HO specific hood? Any help appreciated. Thanks, Ray

 

I believe what has happened is the "joints" in you hood hinges are loose. This seems to happen a lot with the 69-72 hood hinges. I had the same thing with my '69 4-4-2 convertible and I went through 3 sets of hood hinges, including changing out the springs with new springs from Fusick, before I found a pair of hinges that were good and strongly held the hood in the open position. Before I found the good set of hinges, I had to use an adjustable shower curtain rod to hold the hood open at car shows so the hood wouldn't fall on people looking at the engine compartment. There are vendors that rebuild hood hinges and that could be one of your options. Another option is to see what's available on this site - this site is where I found my good hood hinges. In any case, it was the hinges and not the springs that caused the problem with my '69.

Randy C.
'68 4-4-2 convertible (different hinges than a '69)
'69 4-4-2 convertible

 

What Randy said. If you have the hinges loose or if the hood is off the car you can remove the springs and grab the top bar of each hinge and twist them back and forth.....look for "play" or clearance (as evidenced my any side to side motion on the top bar). If they are clean and grease free you will be able to get a better idea of how much slack or play is in each hinge.

It can be this "slop" and wear that allows the hood to drop when the weight is on the hinges.

WARNING: While there are a few places that "rebuild" these hinges, you need to be careful who you use. I've seen the work from one place (out West I think) that was a real mess. The guy welded extra pieces of metal on to the hinges where the spring "notches" are. Maybe it was supposed to "tighten up" the springs when installed....who knows. Anyway, it really looked terrible with these cut off pieces of metal sort of raggedly welded to the hinges. Did it help....don't know (they weren't my hinges) but I don't think it should be necessary if the rest of the hinges are rebuilt PROPERLY. That usually consists of removing the old rivets, welding up any wallowed-out rivet holes, re-drilling the welded up holes or areas, etc. Basically, the idea is to fill in any worn areas so there isn't any excess play or slack in the hinge assembly. New rivets are used to re-assemble them.

If you get to the point of wanting to send off your hinges for rebuilding I can try to dig up the name of the place that did the "ugly" work.

You also need to be aware of the possible finishes any rebuilder will provide. The original hinge finish is a grey phosphate plating finish. Some of these rebuilder may NOT offer real re-phosphating if that is a concern as well. You'd want someone that can have them nicely replated (phospate) if you are wanting a "correct"/original/restored finish. Some rebuilders only offer paint and or powder coating for finishes.

 

This usually happens if the hood hinges were lubricated. Wash the excess lubricant out of the hinges.

 

so who is a legitimate rebuilder that can rebuild them correctly and does good work?

 

I look on the web and found HHR (hood Hinge repair) out of Virginia. Has anyone used this place? If so whats your opinion?

 

Update on vendors who rebuild Hood Hinges!!! I sent a pair of hinges to a Gentleman named RowLand Hall out of Burbank CA. I just got them back and they look outstanding!!!!! He even Makes his own rivets and marks them as if they were the originals ( rings and letters) His web page is Concours quality Hood Hinge Restoration. He bead blasts the hinges after he disassembles being careful enough as to leave any stampings in the parts.When done he paints them with a phosphate paint. I took them to a restoration shop to show them and they agreed with me on the quality of the work. I would recommend him to every one!!!

 

Interesting, thanks for the update Guy... got any pics you can share?, thanks!

 

You do realize I'm not real bright! The last time I tried to post pictures I had to go to someone else to do it for me. I will see what I can do

 

Ok lets see if this works

 

Rowland is the guy I mentioned above that welded on the non-stock unsightly metal pieces on a pair of Buick Skylark/GS hinges. Yours look nice and no added-on metal. Below are a couple of pics of the Buick hinges he did.....

 

Ouch!!! I can see what he was trying to do but that is not right! The Bracket slot looks washed out, what would have been a better way with an emphasis on keeping everything as close to original as possible. I would Tig weld the washed out areas of the slots to build back the metal and with some time, a grinder and a file, bring it back to as new. I hope that is what the owner of those Hinges has done.