1961 Hood Front Attachment

[Sandy G.]

I have a '61 and one half of one of the front floating hood hinge attachment female receptacles (inside the hood) is broken and unusable. It looks as if the floating piece with the two nuts is somehow loosely riveted to the hood. Has anyone ever replaced one of the things? Is it even possible? If it is possible does anyone know where to get the part? Thanks, Sandy Gilman

[Richard M.]

Re: 1961 Hood Front Attachment

Sandy, The nut plate is a threaded steel dogbone shaped retainer. It's held it with a "cage", which is merely a sheet metal part that's riveted to the hood frame. This is all done before the top skin is bonded to the frame. I don't have a photo of the cage but you can see part of it looking in the hole.

opposite side showing dogbone in position
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missing dogbone side showing part of the "U" clamp part of the cage
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I've repaired these before. Hood has to be removed from the car. It's tricky and requires much patience. I had one that fell out of the cage and jammed itself inside when it was at the paint shop. I thought it was lost but it was still in there. I was able to shake it loose. I will put bolts and washers in there next time to hold the dogbone from getting loose.

This is a reproduction hood but the concept is identical. The dogbone felt out of it's cage. The cage has a "U" shape part that clamps over and holds the dogbone at the center. It's made to float around for hood adjustment. Tie a long string to the dogbone. The cage "U" part can be bent a little using a cotter pin remover(or bent tip screwdriver)to get the dogbone free.


Remove the male latch assembly on the side needed. This will allow access to the large hole behind it to get the dogbone out. Using your string let the dogbone slide it down into the male latch area large hole. Remove the string and tie it off at each end so you can bring the bone back down later.

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If your dogbone is in 2 pieces that's hard to imagine how. I have not seen any supplier with them available. You say one half is broken. If it is, I'd weld it back together. The threaded holes on your are probably stripped too. If my task, I would thread a 5/16"-18 bolt through whatever's left of the holes and add square nuts on the backside, then tack weld the nuts to the dogbone, remove the alignment bolt and thread-restore the nut assemblies to clean them. Test thread the hood bolts for proper fit.

Then use your string to pull the bone back into the mount area. This is where it gets tricky. You have to get it in position and bend the "U" cage piece to get it to hold the dogbone tightly, but loose enough to move for hood adjustment later on the car. You have to do this through the 2 holes. I threaded tie-wire to these so they wouldn't fall out again. Patience is a must.

edit.......Another way to remove the dogbone is to slice a slot in the fiberglass next to the capture area and get it out and in that way, but obviously will then require FG repair work later.

Rich

[Sandy G.]

Re: 1961 Hood Front Attachment

Thank you very much for the information. That was very helpful. Sandy Gilman