'68 Hood Female Latch Springs And Underbody Insulation

[Joel K.]

Are both female latches on a '68 hood supposed to have springs? The one I'm working on only has a spring on the right side.
How is the foil-backed underbody insulation supposed to fit under the car? Bought the pieces but the insulation was missing on this late '68 and the AIM doesn't mention it. The car has the riveted on clips and the white plastic shields. Checked archives but didn't find much on how to install the insulation pieces.

[Michael M.]

Re: '68 Hood Female Latch Springs And Underbody Insulation

I can check my '68 for the hood latches and report back. With regard to the insulation, are you referring to the transmission tunnel insulation?

[Joel K.]

Re: '68 Hood Female Latch Springs And Underbody Insulation

On the insulation, I'm not referring to the trans tunnel insulation but to insulation that fits under the seat area underneath the body -- it is held onto the underside of the body by pointed clips that are riveted to the body. There are steel shields that bolt onto brackets that are riveted to the chassis, and two white plastic shields that go up by the footwell/lower firewall. I understand that the insulation was added during the production year and that early cars do not have it. The one I'm working on is a July car.
Thanks for checking on the hood latch springs!

[John C.]

Re: '68 Hood Female Latch Springs And Underbody Insulation

Joel

My April built 68 has springs on both latches, but they did change over the course of the model year so I think a spring only on the right side could be correct. My Dec. built 69 has a spring only on the right.

The insulation on both my cars starts about 12 inches up on the angled firewall face and runs all the way to and up under the center frame cross member. On the sides it almost touches the frame rails with about a 1-2 inch gap.

John

[Joel K.]

Re: '68 Hood Female Latch Springs And Underbody Insulation

Thanks for the info, John. The two insulation pieces I have are roughly "L" shaped, with pre-cut holes in them -- can't see what the holes are supposed to be for. I presume these go in like the tunnel insulation, with foil facing down. The reason I questioned the hood latch springs is that most vendors list them in pairs but this car only has the right one. It's a July car so that may be correct.

[John C.]

Re: '68 Hood Female Latch Springs And Underbody Insulation

Joel

Yes, the foil side goes down. The one leg of the L warps up around the side of the transmission tunnel where the exhaust pipes pass close by.

There does appear to be several pre-punched cutouts in the insulation.

One is a large rectangular slot to allow the lower bracket that holds the plastic heat shield to the under body of the car to pass through the insulation. On both my cars the slot is not in the correct position and it looks as if the assembly line workers cut there own next to it to make it fit. On the drivers side there is also a cutout for a firewall clip that hold the wires that run to the reverse light switch on the transmission.

On my 69 that has the plastic shields it also appears that there may have been punched holes to allow the two upper mounting studs that hold them in place to pass through. I can't tell for sure with the shields mounted in place. These studs are also the top anchor point for the insulation. On my 68 that did not come with these shields but instead used the metal triangular ones it has additional clips at this location to hold the insulation in place.

John

[Joel K.]

Re: '68 Hood Female Latch Springs And Underbody Insulation

John,
Again thank you very much for the information -- it's most helpful in figuring out how to fit these pieces to the car. Now that I have your explanation and can look at the pieces and the car with that in mind, it makes sense; I just wasn't seeing it before.

Joel

[Jack C.]

Re: '68 Hood Female Latch Springs And Underbody Insulation

My January built 68 has both springs.

[Rich G.]

Re: '68 Hood Female Latch Springs And Underbody Insulation

My July 18 build 68 BB has springs on both latches. Would small block hoods be different, possibly? I agree with the comments on the insulation.

Rich G#38594

[Michael M.]

Re: '68 Hood Female Latch Springs And Underbody Insulation

Joel, I apologize for not posting sooner. I looked at my '68 (Nov., 67 build date) and it has springs on both female hood latches.

-Mike