The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Ideas for Locking the Hood

I've just begun a frame-off rebuild of a '51 3100. I'm dropping in a 350/350 combination with lots of goodies and would prefer to secure the hood to prevent any theft of the engine goodies. After searching the arichives, I did not find any threads related to locks for the hoods. If I missed an archive thread, please direct me to it. If you have any good ideas, pass them along.

With thanks in advance-
51Phatboy

howziit guy!

i posted on another forum with the same question...no one responded with a solution.

i've seen universal hood cable kits. LOKAR offers one; i guess i'd just have to buy one, to see if it works for my '56 chevy truck.

let's think of a crude hood lock, in the meantime.

drill a 1/2" hole through the release handle, install a threaded rod or bolt through the hole, secure with double nuts. rod/bolt will prevent release handle from being lifted.

the rod would be adjustable, with a fraction of an inch clearance. that way, there'd be no contact with the sheet metal above the handle.

for more security, you could drill through the rod/bolt, and install a small padlock.

Hmmmm, i don't know if that lock will be noticeable, but that's the best i could think of, at a moment's notice.

i'll sleep on it tonight; i get my best ideas in my dreams. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I have never seen it or done it for that matter but I will be in the same boat. I have been Pondering adapting a hood latch system from a bone yard truck. One with the release in the cab. Iam sure it will take some cutting welding grinding and even a little bondo. Since it sounds like your futher along then Iam in your project let me know if you fiqure something out.

:p

Want the low buck solution? Back when I had my '72 Malibu ragtop, I had the same concern-outside hood latch, any yo-yo at my high school could get under the hood and monkey around. Anyway, I noticed a '68 Malibu at a cruise night and he bolted a medium thickness chain to his hood latch. It was long enough to pass down between the grille and rad and padlock onto a factory hole in the frame. Paint it flat black and no one will even see it back there.

On the other hand, I guess this may require mods to your upper grille/rad cover, so why not go whole hog and just adapt a cable operated latch? I remember a lot of guys used to use VW Rabbit ones with some sucess. Prowl the boneyards and look for "small cars" cuz the latch should fit better. Best of luck and please let us know how it works out.

Regards,
Wannabe

I have thought about cutting off the hood latch handle and using an aftermarket hood latch cable. One day, I came out of Walmart to find my hood up with some yahoo showing his kid what the old pickups had under the hood. Teaching his kid the lesson of respecting other's property, huh. :mad:

i used a key type house door safty chain.

Howziit guy!

can you describe your set-up further?

How about using a 12v solenoid and adapting a trunk release style to the hood , do away with the original set up completely .
What about one of those Caddy auto close trunk latches ?
Chains ?? ........ yucky. .

you know at a motel the the chain on the door that clips in a slot?this is like that except theres a keylock on the other end so you can open the door a little and unlock the chain.

I made a hood lock with some 1/4" cable and a titanium master lock with a covered key hole- works great and was cheap to make. Made it after someone raided my parts one night :mad: - but anyway you cant even see it, all i have to do is unlock the lock from the frame with my kay and whala! I can send you some pics if you are interested.

howziit cgoodnow!

you can email me the pics, or show it here.

i'm interested!

You may be going the low buck way I don't know. If I was going with a frame off restoration, and when the time is right I will. I would check out some of the hot rod body shops around town and put in an aftermarket hood popper. The solenoids have advantages in that they add to the polished look of your frame off. This is exactly the type of problem that they deal with all the time. A lot of shops will give you pointers and suggestions if you are doing the work yourself. My experience has shown me that the old timer rodders like helping out. They know that when the time is right you will come back to them or may even send them new customers.

It's simple really...
If you can weld a little you can do this. After removing the four bolts that hold the latch in situ on the front radiator piece. Fashion up two pieces of 3/4'' or 1'' flat stock. You don't need but 5-7'' total. Round all edges. Drill holes for your lock shank size to fit thru. Bend as needed. Weld the short one on the latches locking arm and the other looks kinda like a T, it bolts using two of the same (but now longer) attaching bolts for the hood latch. When in the closed 'down' position the two holes line up and your padlock (key /or combo) faces forward , easy to lock/unlock. Paint black. It takes about 1/2 hour to do. You want the metal to be at a right angle so the lock works to it's best advantage. This is ALL metal, No cables to cut, No loud chains to damage grills and fish around and located in a tight spot. Once you hold and look at the latch mechanism it's easy to design in your head. I like combo locks cause there's no key to loose.
Sorry no digital camera for pics.

How about wiring a positive cable to the mechanism so that when the key is off it is energized. You would have to isolate the latch mechanism with rubber mountings. That would teach someone to not monkey around with your hood latch. You would just have to remember it yourself.

it is not enough voltage to give a good shock to somebody. now if you can wire it so it is energized with like 1,000 volts or something like that, it would be plenty secure.

How about welding the hood shut. You'd want to do it before painting...

Seriously I've thought about adapting one of the cable type remote latches common on cars and trucks today.

I don't like using an electric release to access the motor. If your battery is under the hood you could be in real trouble if your battery is dead.

I'm interested in this problem too and have only gotten as far in thinking about it to conclude that I'll use a cable lock until I find a better solution.

Talking to some old timers or paying a custom rod shop to do this part of the build sounds like a good idea. How about going to a custom show to see what other people have done, or going to the bookstore and looking through the ads in some custom rod mags to get ideas?