Hood hinge repair or replacement

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retroron

retroron

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I'm fitting the hood to the fenders to set the gap and I notice when I start to close the hood, the hinges deflect sideways, not a good thing. So here is the set-up; the car is in white metal and the hinges have been removed from the body and are in place on there pins, but the retaining clips are not installed. Could it be the lack of clips is causing the deflection?

Ideally I'd like to use gas springs instead of the wound springs so it looks like I'll have to make the modified hinges myself.

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.
 
There's a push on clip that holds it in place on the body. You can buy new ones, but I felt they were too flimsy, so I cross drilled the pin that the hinge mounts on. I used washers to take up the slack. Used a cotter pin through the cross hole that I had drilled.
 
Furyus, I read your post yesterday. I'm probably going to do that, but I think I'm going to bush mine as well, not to mention the gas spring in place of the coiled spring. Thanks for the reply
 
retroron said:
Furyus, I read your post yesterday. I'm probably going to do that, but I think I'm going to bush mine as well, not to mention the gas spring in place of the coiled spring. Thanks for the reply
Click to expand...

Would like to see your mods if you have pictures and if you were able to replace the springs with gas struts.
Same slop in my 69 Barracuda hood hinges.
 
'Cuda, I'm in the process of getting "billet" hinges made for the Dart, I should get them back from the fabricator next week. I found a web page that gives the equation and has a picture of where to measure etc. Weird story, I was going to reconfigure my stock hinges. I went down to my fab guy so see if the small amount of machining had been done and he tells me he has a friend who runs a CNC machine and does trick stuff on the side. Long story short I should have the new hinges in about a week and the I can take all the measurements to figure out the shocks. I'll have to convert everything to metric units but that's no big deal.
The web page, for gas strut calculations, if you are interested is:
Gas Strut Calculator: Calculate the Force Required for a Gas Strut

As soon as I set up the hinges, I'll send along some pictures too.
 
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'Cuda_ragtop said:
Would like to see your mods if you have pictures and if you were able to replace the springs with gas struts.
Same slop in my 69 Barracuda hood hinges.
Click to expand...
'Cuda, did you look at Ring Bros billet hinges? They are pricey but all the engineering for your car is done.including the gas springs
 
retroron said:
'Cuda, I'm in the process of getting "billet" hinges made for the Dart, I should get them back from the fabricator next week. I found a web page that gives the equation and has a picture of where to measure etc. Weird story, I was going to reconfigure my stock hinges. I went down to my fab guy so see if the small amount of machining had been done and he tells me he has a friend who runs a CNC machine and does trick stuff on the side. Long story short I should have the new hinges in about a week and the I can take all the measurements to figure out the shocks. I'll have to convert everything to metric units but that's no big deal.
The web page, for gas strut calculations, if you are interested is:
Gas Strut Calculator: Calculate the Force Required for a Gas Strut

As soon as I set up the hinges, I'll send along some pictures too.
Click to expand...

Would love to see them. Do you think he would want to build another pair?
 
Are the 69 Barracuda hinges the same as all 67-76 A bodies? YOu might be onto something here! If they'll work on my 76 Duster, I'm in for a set.

Riddler
 
Riddler said:
Are the 69 Barracuda hinges the same as all 67-76 A bodies? YOu might be onto something here! If they'll work on my 76 Duster, I'm in for a set.

Riddler
Click to expand...
Riddler, If the 76 Duster has the same hinge as my 70 Dart, then they should work. I'll add you to my list.
Retroron
 
retroron said:
Riddler, If the 76 Duster has the same hinge as my 70 Dart, then they should work. I'll add you to my list.
Retroron
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what the 70 Dart hinge looks like but I think they're the same.... If you had a picture I could verify.

Riddler
 
Riddler, from my dart manual, the hinge. What has been eliminated and replaced (or will be) with a gas spring is the coiled spring section. The remaining section will be billet.
Cuda do you copy?
 

Attachments

  • dart hinge.pdf
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Yeah the hinge is the same. I'll prolly have to get another set of hinges as I removed the coil and bottom arm. Was going to do gas struts from the fender to hood.

Can't wait to see what you've come up with.

Riddler
 
Riddler said:
Yeah the hinge is the same. I'll prolly have to get another set of hinges as I removed the coil and bottom arm. Was going to do gas struts from the fender to hood.

Can't wait to see what you've come up with.

Riddler
Click to expand...
My post was little chopped up sorry for that. What I am going to do is replace the entire hinge. The upper pivot part will be billet and the coiled spring portion, the lower articulated portion will be gas spring. It looks like I'm about 3 weeks out for the billet arm.
 
A little more information. I'm going to use the stock pin locations for the hinge so the geometry stays the same. The plan is to use pressed bearings at the pivot point and drill and tap the posts to secure the hinge and spring to the body. Stroke length looks to be 4 inches. I'll have to convert the units from foot pounds/in to metric. More details when the parts come in.
 
Riddler said:
Was going to do gas struts from the fender to hood.
Riddler
Click to expand...


Was thinking kind of the same same but with the strut from the curved part of the hinge down to the bottom/side of the body behind the splash shield.
Ideally you would not see the strut or maybe just barely.
I have two pairs of hinges so I may see if I can "Fix" one set while waiting to see what retroron comes up with.
Would prefer to have a nice Billet Pair if the price is right.

I bought a pair of New Gas Struts for my boat that I have not installed yet.
They were about $20 bucks. Not the right length for this application though...
 
I tried the gas strut from the hinge to the lower rocker. While it kept the hood up, it wouldn't lift it. I'm sure if I spent more time with it I could get it to work. I'd much prefer billet also...

Riddler
 
20180202_085844.jpg
Hey riddler,
Did you ever come up with a strut to fit your hood? Im doing the strut conversion and tried a 120# (force) strut but it was too weak. I think 150s would do it but not sure were to source them. Criteria is 3" of stroke, 150# pressure max length of 19.5".

Any input is appreciated. .. maybe a truck hood support from wrecking yard...
Thanks. .i know this is an old thread.
 
Hey Retro,
I had called Guden and spoke with Karen previous to my post and we could not find anything in their stock to fit the bill. It looks like you have some pretty short struts for a 150# rating. Id like to duplicate. Do you by chance have any numbers off of those puppies?

Thanks again.
 
Hey Ron,
Scratch last number request. I think I found them on site. I think she thought that I needed 19.5 extended length instead of "equal to or less than".

Thanks for the reply!
 
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