Securing 53 hoods

[sbca96]

quote:Originally posted by Tom B

Tom's solution is great, for the Hawks, won't work on 53s or 54s.

I had planned to eventually do a 53 conversion on my Hawk, so I did
some thinking on how to make a 53 hood open out. What I came up with
was making a pivot point higher up. Where the hood goes down to the
point up front, create a bar to go across between these two structure
points on the fender and remove the latch assembly and the lower area
under the "nose". Then the hood will rise up at the rear, and nose
will tuck under toward the radiator. I realize this is considerably
more work than the Hawk, but could be almost unnoticeable. One could
even add weight to the nose to counter balance the rear of the hood
and make it extremely easy to open.

FYI, I dont have a 53 around here, so I am going on memory from about
15 years ago when I was around one with the hood open.

Tom

[pgothard]

Flashback -

One other possibility to consider regarding distorted hood corners:

The hood design in the area of the hinges is rather weak. If, at some time, the hinges were stiff or rust-seized and hood was forcibly opened or closed, the torque may have buckled the hood corners. My '53 came with distorted hood corners AND very stiff hinges (from lack of lube). I think that's why CE sells those metal inserts - to stiffen up that area. I installed a pair on mine - piece of cake!

--Paul

[sbca96]

They can also be distorted by just not opening up the hood correctly.
Studebaker should have mounted opening instruction on each car. Most
will just lift and arc the hood at the rear like any other car, but the
C/K hoods need to be lifted AND pulled forward at the same time. I can
see this rarely being done.

Tom

[JimK]

Installing a pin as suggested for Hawks is a good idea, but it might become academic if the nut attaching the whole dovetail assembly to the hood backs out. [xx(] I found mine to be a little loose and tightened it up; a previous owner's restoration might have missed some detail here. Has anybody added a lock washer or some other "insurance" to this, or do I have something missing?

Jim K.
63 Hawk

[jpepper]

I had a hood on a 56 Hawk come up on me when I was 17 (a long time ago). I hit a bump doing 45MPH and up it came. I stood on the brakes so it never hit the roof. It gouged the fenders and bent the hood corners. It is something I never want to repeat. A buddy had the hood come up on an R2 GT at 65MPH. That one did a lot of damage. Without question put the latch pin in or some kind of mechanical restraint.

Jim

james r pepper

[Doug M]

Tex I looked through my 53 bulletin and did not find anything about this Doug M

[leyrret]

Here's a piece that I can't find in the parts book. It look's to be a bracket that is used with the j-hook safety latch. It would fit in the air defector(?) right were latch mounting bracket bolts to it on a hawk. The original would have to be cut and this welded in. Anyone know where this originated?