I'm wondering if anyone has experience using hood pins and no latch assembly. Where is the best points to mount them? What are the best kind to use? Problems with them breaking, coming out, etc?
Yes you can use them with out the hood latch .They mount in the hood bumper holes and the hood bumper gets moved to the first fender bolt .The bracket needs to be drilled to 1/2 inch . Use the Scott Drake stainless pin kit ,there is no chance of them breaking .
Yea all 65 and early 66 GT350s came without the Mustang latch assembly and only the hood pins mounted as pictured above. The only issues were people stealing the pins (if cable lanyards weren't used) or owners forgetting to install the pins and having the hood launch open during a drive.
I'm running this setup on my Mustang and it's been no issue.
I ran hood pins on one of my Mustangs years ago with no latch assembly. There was absolutely no problem doing so. The upward pressure caused from driving at speed is nothing compared to the shear strength of the pin material. I can't see a hood pin nor the spring pin that actually holds the hood down breaking under normal conditions. I would even hedge a bet that a set of hood pins would hold the hood down under extreme conditions like driving in a hurricane.