https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fr4b1hde88q29ob/hmkymSrhCP
this is a link to my dropbox folder of the pics I took this morning. I'll try to write up a pic by pic description later, but we're heading to a rangers game and need to get gone now.
Really quickly though, I am contemplating rebuilding my hinge to be a double hinge so I can put new fenders on and not have to cut them and use the latch system I've built. The tabs at the back of the fenders have Dzus fasteners to hold the fender pieces together.
The hood has bolts welded to the bottom flange and hole drilled through the inside fender flange to bolt into the square tubing frame.
The hinge is made from a Ford Backhoe swing chain, with two pieces of flat bar bolted top and inside of the frame right behind where the bumper welds on. This allows for adjustment if necessary.
I used old beat up body pieces because that's all I had. The fenders both had rusted thru top front corners and the hood was on it when the PO rolled the truck and make the front clip look rounded over like it belonged on about a 1998 Taurus.... had to straighten it out and bondo some holes over.
The limiting device is just an air cylinder we had in dads storage "warehouse." He buys stuff like this whenever he sees it "cuz we might be able to use it sometime." He has another one just like it that I'll eventually mount on the other side. Right now it takes 110 lbs of pressure to raise the hood, and then it slams up and then slams down. So until I get the other side mounted, i'm not worried about on board air.
The whole thing was my dad's idea, and he held pieces while I built... The hood pins were more of my design because the originals squeaked way too much so I bought the Autofab hood pin bushing set. Awesome idea, but I can't bolt them into the hood because of the angle the pins come thru the hole just before it seats down. Maybe when the other air cylinder is mounted, it will work better and all the air volume and pressure can overcome the tight hole and angle difference. So for now, the bushings come out before raising the hood.
For the record I have a 3" Body lift.
Hope this helps. It did take a full day of engineering to mount it and build the first hood pin setup. Then I spent about 4 hours one day putting the new pins on it and getting them located right. If the pins were leaned toward the front perpendicular to a line running through the hinge and hole through the hood, it would latch real easy and I could leave the bushings in all the time. But that would require cutting and fabbing a countersunk area into the top of the hood. Haven't had that gumption yet.
Have fun. Gotta go.
