Hood came up on me tonight...

[FM2NOTCH]

Sure sorry to hear about your mishap. I think there should be a FoxBody "flying hood club" for everybody who has had this happen to them.

Nearly every early Fox that I have seen, when closely inspected, shows signs of hood lift at sometime in the past.

I try to remember to always double check that it is closed tight after I close the hood on any Fox Mustang or Capri. (Fingers crossed!)
Ron

official member of the foxbody "flying hood club"

totally my fault
_________________________________
85 LX 5.0 coupe, with bent cowl

[capri debris]

I don't think Fox hoods flying up is a design flaw... it's just real easy to forget to latch the hood all the way... so hood pins aren't a good solution because they can be forgotten just as easily.

A while back, an idea popped into my head that I think I'm going to do to each of my Capris incase this happens to me.

I'm going to buy two short tailgate cables like I have on my Ranger and weld or bolt the attachment posts to the hood and fender skirt near the hinge area... that way the hood can be lifted to it's full up position when I need to use the prop rod, but if it flies up while driving it will only go that high and not flip over and smash the cowl. The hood would be all bent up, but that's easy to replace... it's the cowl area that is tough to get right after it's smashed.

[eeprete]

Sure sorry to hear about your mishap. I think there should be a FoxBody "flying hood club" for everybody who has had this happen to them.

Nearly every early Fox that I have seen, when closely inspected, shows signs of hood lift at sometime in the past.

I try to remember to always double check that it is closed tight after I close the hood on any Fox Mustang or Capri. (Fingers crossed!)
Ron

you sure that is what you are seeing Ron, or something else? Because to say that about every fox you've seen, seems like a lot. After it happened once to me, it never happened again, and also have only seen a handful in my life where this happened to. Sort of an all or nothing thing, if's its happened, it looks like above. Maybe you're looking at the wrong foxes

Don't only think it's us Fox guys either. I saw this happen to a Buick Grand National as it was getting on the LI Expressway about 6 or 7 yrs ago. I was merging on in my Y2K GT, he was still in the merge lane, I moved to the middle lane, he then stepped on it, as if he had something to prove, I look over at the car admiring it and BAM! Destroyed the hood caved the windshield in, and also looked like it hit the roof hard too.

[PaceFever79]

Here 's what I suspect often happens

After opening the hood, old cables or sticky mechanism hangs up thus can't latch, or the
hood support posts are set too high, so you have to slam the hood to latch, or the owner
is simply too timid about slamming the hood enough to latch.

Either way, the person closing the hood doesn't check that it has latched.

When sitting in our cars, the hood slopes down and out of sight so it's hard to tell from
the driver's seat the hood is unlatched and buffeting when driving.....

The safety latch is merely a spring loaded hook, it can hold the hood for a while but the
constant buffeting of an unlatched hood at speed moves the spring and the safety latch
eventually lets go of the hood and causes the accident.

[BLK BRD 88]

you sure that is what you are seeing Ron, or something else? Because to say that about every fox you've seen, seems like a lot.

I suppose some of the bent hood tips & cracked/broken cowl covers could be cause by hood misalignment.

But I have seen quite a few that had dented cowls or upper windshield trim in the center that looks like it had been kissed by the hood.
Besides Ed, I may be prone to exagerate just a tiny bit!
LOL
Ron

PS I agree with what PaceFever79 says:

After opening the hood, old cables or sticky mechanism hangs up thus can't latch, or the
hood support posts are set too high, so you have to slam the hood to latch, or the owner
is simply too timid about slamming the hood enough to latch.

Either way, the person closing the hood doesn't check that it has latched.

When sitting in our cars, the hood slopes down and out of sight so it's hard to tell from
the driver's seat the hood is unlatched and buffeting when driving.....

The safety latch is merely a spring loaded hook, it can hold the hood for a while but the
constant buffeting of an unlatched hood at speed moves the spring and the safety latch
eventually lets go of the hood and causes the accident.

[gr79]

I have hood pins and gas springs on the hood. No way its going up or down on its own.
Even though the hood curves down, the ds pin and post is visible from the drivers seat.
Pins lock hood down without relying on any latchs and are quick to use.
Drawback is not a real clean 'look' or for non sports car use.

Using tailgate cables sounds like a clean looking, hidden, practical idea.
Another idea:
Use a short strap/cable/chain with d-hook ends.
Anchor ends to body and under hood.
Use eyebolts, anchor ring, whatever for anchor points.

http://www.trailerpartsdepot.com/items.asp?Cc=A-TIE-L
http://0.tqn.com/d/sailing/1/0/i/0/-...ightTether.jpg

[MY70GT]

Oh man, I was born in '85, lol. But my brother and sister are a decade or so older...I moved to levittown with my girlfriend now, but I'm always in the neighborhood. My parents still live there, and my sister right around the corner. I have a small general contracting company and I pretty much started out down there so I have some loyal customers that I still do work for. I don't know if you need any help with the car, or parts, etc..But I'd love to offer anything I could. Do you go to Captree on sundays?

Thanks for the kind offer....i am sure i may need some help down the road, the same goes here for you. Do you have resources for Fox parts locally? I used to go to Captree and OBI with my son when i still had the Torino Convertible...maybe you saw the car before?

[SVT Rob]

I've had two hoods pop on me, while on the highway doing 65mph, both times the safety latch caught it. Once was in my 85 GT, shortly after installing the 2.5" cowl hood, I didn't have it latched all the way, and the second time was more recently in my Capri. I had shut the hood, but didn't latch it all the way, when I hit the highway, I saw it pop up. I've never had the safety latch fail on me, though. Thank heaven!!

Sorry to see that happen, but you do have the right attitude as far as getting it fixed!!

Rob

[ry4ns302]

I havn't even looked at the car ever since it happened, maybe tomorrow I'll check out the damage thoroughly. I started pricing out glass hoods and gauge pod vents... I don't even begin to know how to do any body panel stuff.

On a cooler note: went to my girlfriend's familys' house today for a party and got to meet "Vinny the postman" and his '74 corvette-L88 12.7:1 compression race motor. He wanted to sell the setup to me for $10k. He said it was a little too hairy for the street, and he's lookin to give the car to his wife and get something else. I'd love to see the set-up in something a little less "flashy" go and chase some people down. That 114 stench lingered for what seemed like 5 minutes after he shut it down.

[78Z7]

Every time I shut my hood I give it a good jerk with my fingers just to make
sure it is latched. I don't know if that helps, but so far so good.

I do the same. I have never had a hood from a fox open on me. I did have one fly up on my 66 Mustang but never on a fox.

[86STANGCOUPE]

this is the reason i use hood pins on my 86

[86fiveoh]

I always checked my hood too, but it has happen to me also, pretty bad damage too, winshield, roof, ect. In my case it actually bent the safety latch, so the latch tried to save it but couldnt hold on. I never liked pins either, but was scared to have it happen again so I put pins on, and painted them black. Yours doesnt look too bad, it could have been worse, like this;

[TNT]

Sure sorry to hear about your mishap. I think there should be a FoxBody "flying hood club" for everybody who has had this happen to them.

Nearly every early Fox that I have seen, when closely inspected, shows signs of hood lift at sometime in the past.

I try to remember to always double check that it is closed tight after I close the hood on any Fox Mustang or Capri. (Fingers crossed!)
Ron

Guess I'm a member, even though I wasn't behind the wheel. Took the car to a mechanic and he didn't check to see if the hood was closed.....it flew up on him during the test drive. Similar damage to the original poster of this thread.

I've known my hood doesn't always latch since I bought the car, so I always check when I close it.

[Andrecoll123]

What did you end up doing? My hood flew up on me too and I’m going crazy trying to find a resolution

[rich75043]

It's an 8yo thread so the op might not even remember posting.

[evlgt85]

What did you end up doing? My hood flew up on me too and I’m going crazy trying to find a resolution

I went through something similar with a 90 GT about 20 years ago when hoods flying up seemed to be contagious. The car had JUST gone through extensive bodywork and a repaint.

It depends on how many/which panels are damaged, but generally you have to replace:

• Hood
• Cowl panel (sheetmetal)
• Cowl grille (plastic bit)

If it hits the roof, and it often does, the roof may need heavy massaging or even replacement. I can't rightly remember how bad the roof was on the 90 GT, but for some reason I'm thinking it managed to break the sunroof - or at least I remember replacing the sunroof at some point. Wasn't my car, I just did a ton of work on it.

Regardless, there are no cheap or easy solutions, and cutting and welding are almost always required. :/