Hood/Cowl Damage

[78CobraII]

I have heard of a number of MII owners having their hood fly up causing damage to their hood or cowl. Apparently it happened to my '78 Ghia before I bought it as I have a crease in the cowl where the back edge of the hood would hit.

I've heard of a couple of ways of preventing this, usually either traditional hood pins or a chain and lock under the hood.

This "fake hood pin" set might be a possibilty also:
Mustang Black Hood Pin Appearance Kit at AmericanMuscle.com - Free Shipping!

As long as the lanyard was attached securely to the radiator support and the pin was turned widthwise across the car, the hood would only move a few inches.

Not the perfect solution, but easier than the other two...

 

[Wart]

I wouldn't count on the pin staying in.

View attachment 228077

And I wouldn't count on hte cosmetic adhesive holding.

I have to admit the thought of a flipping hood taking out the cowl is enough to make me put in some ugly assed pins or chain down the hood. Or something.

 

[Steel Steeds]

I was talking about this with a friend recently. I know it happens, I've seen the aftermath. My question is: Why? Our hoods have a latch equipped with a secondary safety latch. What exactly is causing both to fail on a number of Mustang II's? Is there some inherent design flaw in the II latch, or are people making some modification that makes this more plausible?
The hood and nose are off of my King right now (and freshly painted), as well as the latch itself. I want to be very certain that they will be secure when I put it all back together...

 

[78CobraII]

I drove the crap out of my '76 and never lubed or adjusted the hood latch, and the hood never unlatched, not even to the safety catch. I would think that if it was abody flex issue, I would have discovered it with the way I drove that car. It even went off-road a couple of times...

My '78 Ghia had dents on top of the cowl when I got it, so apparently it had already experienced a hood popup. Being a 2.3L powered Ghia, I wouldn't think it was driven that hard. It is real difficult to close, so it may have a problem with the latch that caused the failure. Might be interesting to look at other MII's with the issue and see if they are just more difficult to get the hood latched. of course that doesn't explain why the safety feature failed...