Cruising down 495 into the valley of the Potomac and onto the Legion Bridge, a gust of wind hit me, I was going 70 mph, and my hood latch released on me!!!

Thank God for hood pins or else I would have been in big trouble. Probably a broken windshield and dented top surfaces all around. Saved me some money already. Thank God that they are functional. :nice:

Holy balls! That is ridiculous that your hood latch released. My hood has done some shaking (on 495 actually) but thankfully hasn't flung open on me. Maybe I should consider some hood pins. Hopefully this isn't a common thing.

I have not noticed any major hood shake with mine and I have had it up to 120 two different times - but stories like this make me nervous.....

Anybody know or think that having the Redline hood hydraulic lifts installed will help keeps things more stable at speed?..... :dunno:

Glad you dodged the bullet on that one, man :nice: - hood flying up in your face is just a bad scene all the way around!

I wondered if this was going to happen to a regular person after it did in the grand am race.

lucky that your hood pins were functional

I am just making a theory here, but as the car hit the bridge, there is a downward drop of about an inch or two. Bridges are usually lower than the land leading to them.

As I was approaching the bridge I think I saw the hood move slightly? I am not completely sure. By the time I was across the bridge the hood was completely loose and pulling on my cables. The cars on my right were beeping their horns to see if I noticed. Boy, did I ever! I slowed down to 50 mph until I could exit and fix the hood.

I'm glad people still look at this car in case I was on my cell or something and did not notice right away. :nice:

My hood did some major shaking when I was going 70 mph and was hit by a 40 mph crosswind. I don't have hood pins installed but my though is if it did release, sure there would be some major damage and FORD would have to pay for all if it for having a defective design.

For those who have to justify hood pins to a disapproving spouse, show her or him this thread. :nono:

What a coincedence. My wife is right here trying to keep me from the hood pins.

maybe a dumb question, but do you have to worry about scratches from the cables

My Ford Racing Hood Pins have a plastic liner for the cables. No issues with scratching.

Maybe I don't get it :dunno: I can't really tell from you pic, but aren't your torsion clips (attached to the end of you lanyards[cables]) tight against the strike plate when the hood is closed? Or is there space between the stike plate on the hood surface and the torsion clip?

<!--QuoteBegin-38special@April 17, 2005
By the time I was across the bridge the hood was completely loose and pulling on my cables.[/quote]

How would the cables get pulled? They are attached to the torsio clips which are in a fixed position (they don't "float" up the pin).

How would anyone be able to see your hood up if you hood pins??? The pins/strike plate/torsion clips would keep the hood in the permanent closed position regardless of the latch.

I sense a fish story

How would the cables get pulled? They are attached to the torsio clips which are in a fixed position (they don't "float" up the pin).

How would anyone be able to see your hood up if you hood pins??? The pins/strike plate/torsion clips would keep the hood in the permanent closed position regardless of the latch.

I sense a fish story
[/b][/quote]

I was thinking the same thing. <_<

XtangGT and 2MFF

You bring up an excellent point, but I was too embarrassed to explain, but here goes:

I have yet to get my pins welded. Currently I am using something called "Magnum Steel" to hold them in place until I get over to my body guy next week. I brought this up in a previous thread[http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index....wtopic=12352.] The stuff is a really great. I have a double nut and washers towards the top of the pin's last part of threads, as a fail safe to keep the pins in my hood. When the hood latch failed, the torque on the "liquid welded" pins broke them loose.

I have been pricing some different places to get them welded, but since the half measure seemed to keep them ok, there was no worry to speed up the process.

As it was, since the cable was securely fastened, it held my hood in place. Scared the #$%% out of me.

Learning my lesson, I am due to get my pins welded on Tuesday.

The bottom line is still true, The hood latch did fail. My jury rigged pins, for all of their faults still held. I was lucky. :nice:

So the pins are just mounted to the hood and not to the sheetmetal on the rad support? Weird...

Our hoods need to be vented somehow, way to much pressure being generated from air in the engine bay.
I posted a few weeks ago about my experience with hood shake, while making my first road trip down I95. 75-80mph cruising speed with strong outside wind maybe 30+mph. Hood really did some shaking but never came loose. Someone asked about the Redline Tuning hood struts, I have them. Hood still shakes, but maybe just maybe they help hold it down a little. They would not help with the shaking though.

I just think if the air pressure that is generated at higher speeds could be vented we would have a safer hood. Cowl vents maybe, is that a possibility? A little cheaper than a new hood. :dunno:

Doesn't the Mustang have a secondary catch (up front, outside) that would prevent the hood from flying up if you pulled the hood release? :scratch:

i have to agree something may need to be done. Me and my wife went on a drive over the weekend and a semi truck drove by us and we were going about 70 when all a sudden the hood allmost came up. Made a thud noise we looked at eachother and i slowed down a bit with the fear of maybe my hood would fly up. Got alittle nervous everytime we went passed a big truck.
Oh and we were on the other side of traffic the truck was coming toward us when it passed us. So the upward draft from the truck going by really shook the hood. So bad in fact that i thought it may have warped the hood.

You should go to the dealer and make them aware of what happened. Have them run it through service to check the latch adjustment. Why? First to make sure the adjustments are correct. Second to start building a record of Mustangs that this is occuring to. If enough have problems they may recall with a fix.

Welded?????????????????? Never heard of that before
Your pins should have come with 2 nuts and 2 washers per pin. You put one nut/washer combo on the pin, insert the pin into the hole in the rad support (or where ever you guys are mounting the pins on the 05s), and put the remaing washer/nut on the pin. Adjust the top nut/washer to get the pin to the right height and then tighten the bottom nut/washer combo. You want to have the 2 nuts/washers sandwich the support you are mounting to.
Here is a tip: go to a hardware store and get a spring (heavy coil) with an inner diameter that wil fit over the pin. Trim the length of the spring so it provides some "tension" when closing the hood and installing the torsion clips. This will forced a tight fit between the torsion clip and the strike plate and keep the clips from vibrating and possibe unlocking (or just making noise).
Also keep in mind that hood pins will eventualy "divet" the hood where the strike plates are mounted, especialy if the "flex" is as bad as you guys are claiming it is with your cars (I haven't noticed anything with 8 runs at the track, several canyon runs, and daily freeeway jaunts at 70-80+ , with bridge/overpass transitions).

http://www.prostreetonline.com/pso/i...MS-M16700A.jpg

Yep. I think people that install hood pins are looking to rationalize their decision as being something other than "looks"