problems w/ Carbon Fiber hood

[asaenz]

Dear Sho folks,

My friend has a 94 SHO MTX.

He purchased a carbon hood from

http://www.deftracing.com/carbon_fiber_hoods/carbon_fiber_hood_92_95_ford_taurus_sho_cowl.htm

The hood will not stay latched. It hooks on to the yellow hook no problems. But when you go to press down on the hood for it to latch right away it just pops back up.

Do you have any idea on what the problem is? He said his orig. metal hood latched just fine so I don't think it is the hook itself.

I compared his latching mechanism to my and they perform exactly the same (press on the hook, press the cable hook, down etc).
The only difference b/t his hood (besides fiber) and my metal one is my hood hool (square hole) has a lip and his carbon hood just has a square hole w/o a lip.
I wonder if that is the problem? Like I said it seems like it lines up correctly. I can engage his cable relase hook with my thumb and it stays down.

Thank you for your help

Al

 

[St Louis SHO]

You have to use hood pins.

 

[Phoenix]

You have to use hood pins.

You absolutely need them. Many horror stories were told here. Hood opens while driving.

Cheap insurance if you ask me.

 

[SinisterSHO]

werd on the hood pins. Leave the latch as a saftey catch and put some hood pins on.

 

[SHOOFF13]

I bought a cowl hood for my sho as a replacement to my cincysho cowl hood that got wrecked in an accident. The deftracing hood has a problem latching all you need to do is adjust the hook where it catches I moved mine over to the left a little and it latches perfectly. I'm also installing hood pins because the hood is way too light and I'm always nervous that it's going to fly up. I just don't like the idea of going down the highway at 80mph and seeing my hood moving with the wind.

Definitely install those hood pins, they also come in carbon fiber to match your hood.

 

[somedude_001]

install pins. I had a **** of a time getting mine to latch origionaly. and when you pin it the fit is a lot better in the corners anyway.

 

[SHO Continental]

If you lower the hood stops it will latch. That is still the CarbonEFX hood, (same one that SHOBros sells for $5 more. )

 

[LOUDSHO92]

Also you might need to force it down a bit more. Lowering the stops will help as well.

 

[SolidState]

you can also adjust the latch itself upwards if that helps with the body lines.

 

[HotRodKid]

dont be stupid, throw your latch in the trash and just run hoodpins

dont use the lanyards to attach the pins to the hood, instead get in the habit of ALWAYS putting your pins on the top of the gauge cluster when you remove them

dont set them with your tools
dont put them in your pocket
dont put them on the work bench

doing it this way will ensure you never drive away without the hood properly secured

the stock latch should never be trusted AT ALL on a cf hood ... you dont need a "safety catch" when your using hood pins. and it just means you have to close the hood harder to get it to latch before you install the pins

dropping a CF hood (from anny height) = the loss

 

[St Louis SHO]

I'll take pics of my hood tomorrow... someone that will not be named did not use hood pins... lol I'll show you what will happen.

 

[K-Dawg]

I can't get the stock latch to work with my CF hood for the life of me. Move the latch to the left or up? I run hood pins, but I like the stock latch because it prevents someone from opening the hood and messing with stuff.

 

[SinisterSHO]

I can't get the stock latch to work with my CF hood for the life of me. Move the latch to the left or up? I run hood pins, but I like the stock latch because it prevents someone from opening the hood and messing with stuff.

I agree with this, plus the latch will help support the hood in the center. My hood will latch if I slam it pretty hard, but I dont really worry about it. I like having the latch there as just a saftey. That way if I forget my hood pins again, I will still have the saftey latch.

I've also started to get in the habit of putting the pins in the... pins when I open the hood, so I cant close the hood unless I take em out.