I dragged my other hood out for quick look, pics are either dusty or covered in water as ran out of light.
1A1678 on a 3-78 car, possibly January 78, 1st week, 16 beers prior!
It also has the same number stamped on the rear side corner but no access to pic yet.
20240823_175159 by
Ben, on Flickr
This one is on a 79-81 spare hood. The order is confusing and lack of year.
12B917 , but wondering if the order was mixed up and should say 12B179, after all, they are stamped in reverse and may have had someone lisdexic...but that still leaves one less digit, or maybe they missed the final 9.....who knows, except it's rare and super valuable....
Or 6-digit body number like 123917...unlikely, and from certain angles there seems to be a front edge to the B. Also different font to others, not seen any 3 with the serifs.
20240823_174530 by
Ben, on Flickr
Otherwise, I haven't looked at my hood in 15 years and it's been wrapped and stored since off so any finer details have never been studied. In the future I had 2 points to check where these hoods can be improved or where they crack.
The first was the rear inner angle where they can distort and crack near the hinges. Some guys have added heavier gauge flat steel strip inside the edge for strength. I was surprised to see that this was already done prior, long strips stitch welded and then seam filled for the entire length of the hinge mounts. No signs of ever having damage repaired, just beefed up. Good job. Not so good pics.
20240823_173443 by
Ben, on Flickr
20240823_173436 by
Ben, on Flickr
The other weak point is the slotted cutout in front of the hinge mount. These often crack here over time and often if hinges are getting stiff, flexes up and down and when opening.
This is the spare 79 hood, one opening is cracked, large on one side, tiny crack on other side. Easy to tack weld up. The other opening is perfect, I guess that hinge was also perfect.
20240823_152414 by
Ben, on Flickr
However, on my good 78 hood....no openings at all. I haven't seen these hoods without the openings there. I will need to study a lot more pics to see if the earlier versions didn't always have the openings, or if this one has been welded up, already know it has had prior work done. No obvious signs of a patch on either side, no flattened areas or signs it had been ground away to match the rest. Will have a better look tomorrow and possibly see if there's visual access inside. Either way, another surprise and another thing less to worry about or do.
20240823_181728 by
Ben, on Flickr
Finally, something I hadn't really noticed, on both hoods here and on all 77-81 hoods I did a quick search on....the small screw hole directly behind the rear cowl seal and almost exactly where the rubber bumper on the cowl would rest. I'm wondering if there was possibly an earlier version or at least idea, where that same bumper was on the hood and not the cowl? Seems unused in every pic. Will study some more.
You can see the wear mark from the cowl rubber bumper right on the screw hole, and rub mark next to it being the static spring bracket. The edge on both of mine is raised to indicate it has seen a self-tapper screw at some point...what am I forgetting?!
20240823_153345 by
Ben, on Flickr
20240823_152559 by
Ben, on Flickr
