Hood/Cowl Damage

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...

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...