Hood Pin questions.

[dsmornothing]

Some of you may know already that my car is now a tubular front end car. Well I now do not have the ability to use the factory latch. I'm Just a bit worried about securing the hood safely. Ive looked into several pin kits, and just not sure what to go with. Im not sure If its going to be enough security or not. If anybody could chime in with some thoughts that would be awesome! And I am not using a Carbon Fiber hood either.

 

[snowborder714]

Do you plan on incorporating any sort of radiator support bar across the top of it and the intercooler? If not, how do you plan on supporting the front center bumper section?

If you do, you could always just weld plates off of that for the hood pins.

 

[shadow001dsm]

well i know sparco has some very nice latching hood pins I have a friend with and rx8 and he has them they look very clean.

 

[dsmornothing]

Well you called out exactly what I was doing with the bumper support. In the picture the two bars on top are for the pins. Im more or less concerned about the reliability of them and trusting them. And I have been looking at the sparco ones for a while now they are clean for sure.

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[shadow001dsm]

After seing his i wish i had saved up and gotten those ones, i belive they come in color schemes to, just a nice little after thought, his folded over and sat real flush with his hood.

 

[snowborder714]

I have the Sparco hood pins for my carbon fiber race hood, and while they're nice, I wish I had a nice set of Aerocatch ones.

But I would think if you welded a plate of thick enough material to be solid and not bend, then that would be sturdy enough.

 

[TSiAWD666]

I really love the Aerocatch latches. I've had them on my Eclipse for a few years now with no issues whatsoever, and the hoods been up and down a bajillion times.

If you order them from Merlin Motorsports in the UK you can save yourself a few bucks, even with the increase in shipping, over the cheapest prices I could find over here. If you do get them, I'd get their fixing nut plates as well as they make the install much faster and easier. Those too you can get here in the US (from Password JDM, perhaps other places now too) but the prices here are kinda nutty.

 

[dsmornothing]

I have the Sparco hood pins for my carbon fiber race hood, and while they're nice, I wish I had a nice set of Aerocatch ones.

But I would think if you welded a plate of thick enough material to be solid and not bend, then that would be sturdy enough.

Ordered the Sparco ones last night, Thank you for your input everyone! Now hopefully this is a sturdy enough setup. Death by hood flying up is not something I want!

 

[phunny]

Ordered the Sparco ones last night, Thank you for your input everyone! Now hopefully this is a sturdy enough setup. Death by hood flying up is not something I want!

Death by flying

 

[crazyquik22023]

I've had the sparco hood pins for about 2 years now with my carbon fiber hood. No complaints... hopefully they get the job done for you.

 

[crash89]

Ordered the Sparco ones last night, Thank you for your input everyone! Now hopefully this is a sturdy enough setup. Death by hood flying up is not something I want!

Ive had that happen before! NOT COOL! Had the top down and everything, just barely made it to 50 mph and BOOOM! Hood and windshield in my face. Bout made me poo myself.. I now have the Sparco hood pins!