Anyone make there own tilt hood

[STEVE1103]

Want to tilt my 55 F 100 hood, not from a kit.

[DanStokes]

Please post some pics and/or more info on the project. I haven't done this but Squirrel and others may have. More info and pics are always better.

Dan

[squirrel]

I worked on a 56 ford pickup with a home brew tilt hood, it was horrible.

I've had same era Chevy trucks for decades, and never once saw any reason at all that I would want a tilt hood on any of them. Zip. Zero.

I guess i'm missing something?

[Loren]

The purple Challenger hood opens forward. It's a help, especially reaching for stuff at the rear of the engine. It doesn't make access to the front any more difficult and there is a quick-release deal for if it did; the whole hood comes off with a couple of Dzus's. But in that case it was easy to do, with the possibility of picking a single pivot point and having clearance everywhere through travel and then using prop support at the rear center so that counterbalancing wasn't needed.

The F-100 is a much different deal, because of hood and fender shapes the motion has to be a lot more complicated...up, forward, and tilt to a stop. Prop rods don't work well 'cause it's too much of a reach. Since others before have figured it out about as well as can be done, you can watch a "kit" function on somebody else's truck and see how it works then if you're a competent fabricator (or ready to try), copy that directly or in your own style. Unfortunately there is not a lot of possibility to improve on what's already out there but then, you don't have to. You do have to do it at least as well as the other guys.

I once spent days making a '38 Chevy hood tilt forward. Considerations included structure in the front of the car which could actually support the weight of the hood when it was sitting there open; a hinge arrangement which travel geometry provided adequate clearance over the grill through travel and side-to-side stiffness so it didn't sit there wiggling back-and-forth, and also had the strength to hold the weight with all that leverage placed on it; a means of counterbalance/support such as springs w/ mechanism or lift cylinders with appropriate force and adequate brackets; a means of limiting travel forward that will withstand being slammed into if that should ever happen; structure into the sheetmetal of the hood to spread the loading and avoid fatigue/stress cracks later; the hood itself being stiff enough in the right places to handle being supported from the opposite end from which it was designed for; and finally it has to all fall into the right place when closing where a latch can catch it and hold it tight and then the perimeter must be supported (by rubber blocks etc). when it's down to keep it from rattling or rubbing on the fenders.

The above deal was for a friend, it all seemed like worthwhile effort until upon completion his wife stood there with her arms folded and spit out "Well it all looks just the same to ME". One of the reasons I avoid working on people's hot rods now.

[squirrel]

I guess I drive my cars and trucks too much

[Loren]

You just have your own way of doing it. We all do.

[squirrel]

yup! I like using the hood mounting to access the engine, not to show off my fabricating skills

[squirrel]

(although I am really impressed that the hood hinges I made for my Chevy II made it into a detail picture in the Hot Rod article on the car)

[Barry Donovan]

body on frame, I can see use of pins or the reverse open like on lorens photo.

all tilt.. only seen it on higher end drag cars. Pipes out to the side, full tube chassis.

on body on frame, you may get a see saw from the cabin on the bumps, real annoying.

reminds me to get some hood pins for a gmc. it got very cold this year. Frame is shorter than the hot black body expanding in the march sun..
I have a trick for the hood. A bang and thud and tug at the same time.
no need of that.

ready to go the pin route.

have fun with the tilt project, now that we all robbed your thread with opinions.