I'm fitting a better condition hood from a '72 parts car to mine.
Can't get the thing to seat and fit evenly. you know around the
light cutouts and across the front so I'm considering
hood pins instead. Does anybody have any advice on them? I've seen them with
4 pins and with just 2. I'm getting ready to make them myself 'cause the ones I've
seen advertized, Sparco etc... Just don't doit for me....

Four pins would be one in each corner for a hood that will have no hinges.

Or you would do two, just in the front, to eliminate the front latch.

On a stock metal hood, I would only use two at the front edge.

Use aluminum ones that have threaded ends. Moroso makes them.

I have seen many 914's with 4 pins at the front. I only have 2 now and at speed, there is some lift of the leading edge of the hood, even though the hood is very tight at rest.

I think the panel just flexes from the aero forces. Now that I'll be going so much faster, I'll probably add the 2 additional pins up front.

You can see the lift in this pic, its the front straight at Sebring and probably only around 90 or 100 mph.

and the flex dam folding under the car

I'm thinking of going with two, one at each corner of each light.
Like this...I'll check out Moroso

That thing is long gone.

Florida hurricanes must of blown in alot of flies.
Those are dead flies on that chrome bumber, right?

yes,

at sebring they call them love bugs, certain time of the year they are everywhere.

In your car, in your food, in your clothes, you just get used to having bugs crawling all over the place.

I haven't track tested mine yet...
but I put the 2 pins down on the leading edge of the hood. My thoughts were that if I could keep air from forcing up the leading edge then it would reduce lift.....

I also agree with the recommendation on the aluminum pins... (nice stuff)

Also, I did something a little tricky on the rear of the hood panel:

may or may not work but I bolted an aluminum strip onto the hood with the original bolt holes. This strip sticks rearward and is shaped to just slide below the cowl panel. Its also heavy enough of stock to hold the hood in place well and is not flimsy if you know what I mean.

In order to ease positioning, I took some aluminum angle iron and used body panel adhesive to glue the angle iron into the perfect position so that it guides the hood into the correct mounting position each time... (I'm not doing a good job of explaining this)

finally in the interest of weight. I was able to then remove all of the hinges including using a hole saw to drill out the built into the body mounting nuts for the chassis side of the hinge mount.

saved another pound or so with the removal of the hinges.. plus I then created an aluminum gas door on the hood to facilitate adding gas without pulling the hood off.. (another ounce saved at least! ha...)

brant

I get what you're saying and I like the idea. The back edge just slids into place. The pins keep it from moving. This may not be legal with all race groups (SCCA, PCA). They like to see a more positive connection.

Paul

Its going to be a 2 series car...

PCA club racing and our local Vintage group
I haven't teched the car yet, so we'll see if they pass it or not...

I basically did the same thing with my engine lid too. It slides into place forward (into the motor firewall) and then pins down with 2 pins....

I also tried a little trick on my rear trunk lid to save weight... but now I'm hijacking this thread

brant

Brant
Do you have a picture of what you did to the front?

I've got a 35mm of the pins in the chassis, but not the hood as I disassembled it before I took pictures...

I'm buying a digital camera soon (hopefully after pay day on the 1st of the month)

so perhaps in november I can start posting pictures of all this crap I just keep talking about.

brant