MTFCA Forum

The hood on my '27 T tends to ride forward until it's too close to the radiator shell. I tried putting a short piece of hood lacing in the front hinge rod clip on the radiator shell. That helped a little, but after a few tens of miles of driving, the hood would creep forward on the hinge rod and again be too close to the shell. I got tired of messing with it and decided to try a fix. I got the hood lined up as best I could with nice gaps fore and aft and the hood hinge rod all the way forward in the clip on the shell. Then I drilled a small hole through the hinge rod close to the hood hinge, and put a small cotter pin through the hole and bent the ends down close to the rod so they won't catch the hood sheet metal when it's opened all the way. I put the looped end of the cotter pin down and put a small piece of hood lacing in the bottom of the clip. So far, it works great.The hinge rod is already as far forward as it can get, and the hood is prevented from riding forward on the hinge rod by the cotter pin.

On one of my cars I had the same problem. I cured it with a little custom turned bushing at the front. I machined a piece of rod to the OD of the hood hinge, drilled a 3/8" hole in the end and slipped it over the hinge rod. A bit of fiddling with the length of the hood rod and the bushing and all was fixed.
I use solid brass rods in all my hood hinges. They don't rust, so are easy to remove any time necessary.

Allan from down under.

That would be a better solution, and would avoid the chance the cotter pin ends could foul the sheet metal. A piece of copper tubing or a brass pipe nipple might serve as a bushing, if either is available in a suitable size. Some parts stores here have assortments of small brass bushings. I'll look for one in the right size, or close to it.