So yeah...the other day...I did an oil change on the car, closed the hood afterwards, and went out for a drive. I get on the expressway, and the next thing I know...the hood on the drivers side up by the wiper cowl is flapping around. So I get off at an exit and pull into a parking lot, get out and check it out. Well, to my own dumb ass fault, I didnt close the hood in the front all the way. However, when I opened the hood to look at the area up by the cowl, I noticed the actual HINGE itself was a little rusted and it snapped in two. So I closed the hood all the way, and checked everything, and it was all tight still. Went for a drive, and everything was fine. No flapping around. But it still pisses me off that the hinge is broken. So I'm thinking I might just bust out the welder and weld the 2 pieces back together. I wouldnt even know how to swap out the hinge for a new one because theres the part that attaches to the actual hood, and then theres the other end that goes into the firewall.

There wasnt even that much rust either on the hinge. Just a little bit, that I never noticed before, but it must of been enough to eat through the metal and make it snap off some how. But the hood is pretty secure when its closed all the way, so Im not worried about it flying open when driving. But still...pisses me off that something so small would break like that. mad.gif

 

ouch, can't weld rust. But I'm sure you know that..

 

Yeah...I'll sand it all down, weld it so its better than stock, grind down the welds, tape everything off, load up the spray guns, and away I go..... smile.gif

 

check the other hinge while you're at it.


and maybe consider a new hood with pins?

 

i wouldnt just sand and weld...get some scrap metal and make a barcket and weld the two peices to that.

 

I fitted hood pins.

I never did say why.. I mean my Tib isnt exactly fast but I was involved in a close shave once that nearly ended my life and every time I get close to 100 I get horrible flashbacks.

Anyway here is what occured...

A mate of mine (Fatty AKA Jay) had a 430BHP (or WHP as you lot say) Ford Escort RS Turbo. This think was seriously amped. MASSIVE IC and Turbo setup, massive drilled rotors, KONI adjustables and so on, it was basically a race car (even had a weight reduction and inner body wax coating to stop rust) was a perfect example and an amazing sleeper car, it looked bone stock apart from the 4" scorpion exhaust system.

So we were out driving, man, this car was so fast that when he hit it hard my feet lifted off the floor and I couldnt keep them down... Good thing he had recaros.

So we got into Sutton, a small town about 10 miles out of the butt end of London and it was known for boy racers (as we call them).

Came up the high st (cobblestone) at about 15mph (limit is 15) and noted a skyline, so Fatty says to me "Ill kill that thing, they handle like boats" so we tailed up to it around the back of the high st and he FLAPPED it. Sure enough, when we got to the corner we devoured this skyline (please note that I didnt condone this and was screaming at him "IF YOU DONT f***ING STOP ILL YANK THE EBRAKE !) eventually he slowed down and I stopped crapping it. I dont like racing, street racing or anything away from the track with the correct safety precautions.

So we dipped back into the top of the high st (cobblestone) and slowly edged our way back toward home, and that's when the cops stopped us.

The first thing they said was "what are you running under the hood" to which Jay replied "that isnt really your problem is it?" and handed over his group insurance (mechanics have this, you can drive any car, any engine with any mods but it's liability only). The cops looked over the insurance but insisted on seeing the engine bay, Jay got irate and told them to mind their own f***ing business and they told him to get out of the car, cuffed him and then one of them leant into the car and pulled the hood latch.

With Jay sitting on the curb and me sitting in the passenger seat they had a good poke around (nosey basically) and then closed the hood ** and uncuffed Jay and handed him a producer (explain later) and let us go on our way.

We reached Mitcham (my home town) and there is a road called Grove Road. Jay was still really irate about what had happened and floored his car down Grove Road (which is about the size of one US lane with cars parked either side mounted on the pavement.) We hit about 140mph and the needle was pressing against the small bar at the end (off the clock basically) and then it happened..

WHAM. The hood flew up and smashed straight through the windscreen. They say that when you're in a live or die situ that things slow down, well I can vouch for that. All I remember is tilting my head and trying to see where we were going. How we stopped without hitting anything was a complete mystery, I was shaking for about 4 hours after and had actually pissed myself, I really thought my time had come and I would die in that car.

We got back and inspected the damage. Hood bent up like a banana, hood hinges ripped straight through the metal valance and ripped about 3 inches into the dash. Roof flattened for about 8 inches back, window pillars bent to bits and half of the windsheild had imploded onto our laps. The car was pronounced totalled a week later by a adjustor.

Ever since that day when I go over 70 and see the tip of the hood starting to quiver I get nervous. So I decided for safety's sake to pin my hood down. It's a bit of a pain sometimes when youre in and out of the engine bay but for the safety alone it stops my fears.

** in the UK you dont have to carry any documents apart from a tax sticker in the front window. Thus, if you get stopped the poilce will issue you a producer that says you have 14 days to go to the local station and produce all your documents proving you are legal. Jay didnt have his license that day..

We did file a complaint with the police but they just kept sending letters of rebuttal and in the end we gave up, thankful just to be alive.

 

^ One of my friends had somthing similar happen to them, but at much lower speeds. I can totally believe how scary that must be. I wasnt riding along with him, i was behind and wondered where i was going if the hood came over the back of his stubby little honda.


Visionz, Id replace the hinges on both sides. Its easy to do, I was messing with spacers to see what i could do about rasing the back of my hood (on an off note 3/4" works nicely), and had it off and on about 5 times. Its just removing 4 bolts and reinstalling them. Only hard part is making sure you get your hood back on strait, and that just requires looking it over a few times.

 

Just to demonstrate the situation I google earthed "Grove Road" and put in some markers to explain the situ.

Remember it was about 11pm so dark..

Purpley color indicates where I used to live.

Blue shows a small box van having to go into the bus lane to get around a car. The bus lane never used to be there, they have made the curbs smaller from the look of it and added a bus lane, good idea then.

Green shows the direction we were heading in, at the corner is where it happened..

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (LoonWulf @ Apr 30 2007, 05:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Visionz, Id replace the hinges on both sides. Its easy to do, I was messing with spacers to see what i could do about rasing the back of my hood (on an off note 3/4" works nicely), and had it off and on about 5 times. Its just removing 4 bolts and reinstalling them. Only hard part is making sure you get your hood back on strait, and that just requires looking it over a few times.</div>

Attaching the hinge to the hood isnt the hard part. Its attaching it from behind the firewall. If there was easy way to get back there, I would just go buy a whole new hinge assembly from the dealer. But since it would be a huge pain in the ass, I'll just weld the 2 broken parts together. smile.gif

 

sorry, im a bit lost :s

what part exactly....like picture LOL, are you tryin to fix? cause ive had the HINGE for the hood disconected from the body more then once.

Sorry again for needing a better explaination, i have a hard time visualizing things i havent seen 02.gif