Aftermarket Hood Latching

[Conjee]

I just tried to install a Fiberglass Monster hood and I could not get it to latch. The hood will flex when I put any force down, it already cracked at the tip. I did cut out a rectangle for the strut tower and it doesn't seem to be hitting the radiator cap. I am thinking of removing the latch and use hood pins, any suggestions for that? Also for those who have aftermarket hoods, what did you guys do to make it latch? Thanks.

[Galantman03]

did you install the rubber weather stripping on tha aftermarket hood? You also may have to adjust the latch itself up, and you might want to check the radiator cap anyways just to be safe

[Conjee]

I didn't install the weather stripping. The radiator cap is not hitting, I checked through the hood vents and it's clear. The latching part will not move down and lock, also the side lock is not holding on to the hood either. I am thinking of removing the latch and use hood pins, but not sure if that's safe.

[Galantman03]

oh ok, if you want to do hood pins, I suggest aero catch. But I know on my latch i had to grind off a point, my hood wouldn't go down because it was not letting the bar loop into the actual latch itself. The points I grinded down are on the latch itself, you should be able to find them by rubbing your finger on the front side of the latch, where the bar loop goes into.

[keith6110]

I had to move the latch all the way to the top, then I had to trim the center bolt support for the latch so the bolt can be tightened further up. I then bent my center support to make the latch tilt towards the hood.

I'm able to latch the aftermarket hood now, the problem is the latch on the hood is not long enough to latch properly.

Hope this helps.

[Conjee]

Gotcha, I will try grinding the latch a little, and play around with it. The coming week and the next week I will be pretty busy, so I won't have time till maybe the end of July or early August to work on it. Thanks for your help, hopefully more can give suggestions too.

[QnzMostWanted]

yeah u have to loosen up the latch bolts and push it up as far as it can go then tighten it, try to latch the hood then...if not, u might have to elongate the bolt holes on the latch to make it go further up, dont do too much, once u get it to latch, i'd still recommend hoodpins to help hold the hood down as well as the latch by itself isnt safe and ur hood could pop up....Aerocatch makes really nice hoodpins and would look great with the monster hood

[galant1983]

what i did was made the holes on the latch longer to give it more play up and down.mine needed to be up pretty high so it would close. ill take a pic in a little while to show u what it looks like when done if u want

[Conjee]

Pics would be great. Thanks for the tips.

[galant1983]

here it is!

http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z401/galant1983/285750_220392027997043_100000787427688_556046_8271 506_n.jpg

http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z401/galant1983/283988_220392091330370_100000787427688_556047_7304 073_n.jpg

[mrjaydeeone]

for my VIS EVO hood we ended up just removing the latch and I got some aero catch locking hood latches

[Conjee]

Tried adjusting the latch and moving it up. Hood still won't latch and started to crack really bad due to force. Ended up not using it. Am using hood pins for now. What did you guys use for the windshield nozzles? The stock nozzles are too big. Any recommendations of what nozzle to get? or just drill a bigger hole?

[beam514]

I think it's still hitting something if it flexed.. unless the hood pins work fine. On my cf hood, the hood shifted back by like 1mm, and cause it to not be able to latch for 2 days while I tried to figure it out. The edge of the hole on the hood was hitting the striker.

Anyway, for the windshield nozzles, I used aftermarket nozzles that look OEM. They fit on my hood, but the holes on my hood were big enough for the OEM ones.

http://www.dormanproducts.com/p-11594-47137.aspx

These are cheap and easy to install. No possibility of breaking any plastic like the OEM ones.