intercooler leaves no room for hood latch/ support

matt1967

Famous Member
the intercooler I bought has room to fit behind the grill and the valance but leaves no room for the hood latch support, even trimming it, won't give enough clearence. so I'v gotta run hood pins, but that's ok. Ford Racing sells new factory original hood pins, that were used on Mustangs & fairlaines, for $22.
 
my camera is in my truck and if I remember I'll take some of the mods I did to mine. Basically I had to make a spacer for the bottom. I used a flat piece of metal about an inch or so wide made 2 bends on it and riveted it to the latch. I drilled a hole in the midde of it (the part that goes to the frame) and it worked good imo. I Cant however use my grill... for now is okay but in the future I want to. heres a rough paint mockup or it...

latch.jpg
 
Matt67,
On Kelly's Falcon is able to use the entire hood latch assembly. I did have to slightly mod the lower portion by just bending it forward and add a "stud" at the lower mount where it bolts to the rad. support.

On Mike's '69 Sportsroof I used just the upper portion of the hood latch and fab'd a lower support to clear the IC. We only had to barely trim the gravel shield just a little to clear the width of the IC.

Will
 
I never thought about just using the top of the latch support, but I guess that would work. I thought about modding it so it it would fit but the valance is in the way. I might just try that, cause I really don't like hood pins. if not then, I will use pins.
 
Just make sure you do support the latch somehow!
I would think that at highway speeds that the latch would bend under the airflow strain.
Maybe Mike can take a close up pic of his '69 for ya so you can see what we did.

Later,
Will
 
Does10s":3qlgfl6h said:
Just make sure you do support the latch somehow!
I would think that at highway speeds that the latch would bend under the airflow strain.
Maybe Mike can take a close up pic of his '69 for ya so you can see what we did.

Later,
Will

well, yes I know I have to support it, but I could do that by connecting it to the upper intercooler support I fabb'd out of angle iron, the intercooler is supported by the top and bottom, and it is bolted to the front 'wall' with 3/8" bolts and Nylocks
 
well, here's an updated picture of it. I checked the fitting of the latch, and I would have to remove the latch release arm and fabricate a new 1 to go around the intercooler, a little more fabrication than I have time for, it's because the placement of the latch is akward, and I can't space it out enough, and still have it catch the hood part of the latch, even adjusting that out/ enlongating the holes. I'll just put in the hood pins. who knows, maby I'll get 'glass front fenders and a 'glass hood, then 'glass in a reverse teardrop, after all, it will get raced a bit. I'm going to UNOH in August for High Performance Motorsports Technology. so I'll probably use the Falcon as 1 of my projects. http://clubhotrod.com/forums/attachment ... 1180571331
 
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