New Hood Pins or Not?

[Grubb]

Sorry if this has already been discussed but when I searched I came up empty. I just ordered a Steeda cowl hood and as with most fiberglass they say pins are recommended. Do I need them? Does anyone here run this hood without pins? If I do need them I want to do either stealth pins http://www.wmsracing.com/wmsweb/hoodpins.html or quick pins http://www.q-latch.com does anyone have experience with either? Thanks


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[GallopingFord]

1. No you don't need them.
2. They are for peace of mind.
3. I had WMS hood pins and they failed on me and my hood nearly flew open at 70mph.

I'll elaborate and I've covered it a couple times on different forums. The WMS hood pins tie into your hood release latch, what that does is that latch that was designed for only ONE mechanism is now in control of 3. Way too much force on it to handle. The latch becomes harder to operate, and in my case, one of the lines got jamed on the WMS hood pins which causes both other lines to jam out (all lines are tied together) - all latches failed at 70mph.

If it wasn't for the safety catch, I would of had a hood as a windshield replacement.

I would go with the Q-latch think you posted. I've seen those before and they look pretty nice.

 

[05stroker]

That sucks to here! I love mine. I always give my hoods a firm tug after closing them from similar incident when I was younger.

OP, I did use some M1 sealant made by Chemlink to help the pins securely in place on mine since they are not recommended for fiberglass hoods. I drilled a center hole with a 1/2" drill bit and set them into the sealant before drilling the holes for the screws.

 

[Grubb]

Thanks for the responses. I think I'm gonna try the quick pins and have them painted with the hood so they blend in.


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[86GT351]

The Higher Quality Hoods are strong enough that you "Should" not need them. Piece of mind though!

 

[Captainstr8edge]

Another reason to put them in is to reduce flex. I believe I have heard people having paint issues due to flexing at high speed over time. I don't know anyone personally that has had the issue but I think I remember hearing that somewhere. I have some Scott Drake pins ready to go on my cervini as soon as the weather warms up. I like the simplicity that makes it almost impossible for the design to fail.

 

[TGR96]

I do not have any experience with either of the two options you listed, OP, but I did have some of the Scott Drake/Shelby style pins on my 07 GT/CS. My factory aluminum hood bowed up on the sides at highway speeds, and I put on the hoods pins for piece of mind. Plus, if I'm honest, I just thought they looked cool.

 

[AlbertD]

My experience with the WMS pins is completely different than GallopingFords (Sorry to hear about your hood opening up like that).

It was a pain to get them installed (alignment & lock/release testing), but once they are set properly they work great. They are hidden from sight, I didn't have to drill THROUGH my hood, and they hold the hood down as they should. No hood flutter at all.

Pulling the hood latch also doesn't require much effort at all, the key thing is to make sure the WMS cables are installed loosely and in such a way where they will not get caught on anything.

I've had mine on for several months and a couple of long road trips and have had zero issues. I actually forget that they are on there until I notice how secure the hood is as I pickup speed on the highway.

 

[Grubb]

Also does anyone know a good painter in the Dayton area to paint the hood? Has anyone with silver had a good match just painting the hood or will I need to have the fenders blended?

 

[cavero]

On my Shelby CS6 hood, I didn't want hood pins because I wanted a cleaner look. But, I noticed pretty quick that the hood would flex and flutter at highway speeds. Did a little research and it turns out that there are only 2 small aluminum bars for the hood latch bolts to screw into, so it wasn't really reinforced and most of the stress was on the fiberglass.

Needless to say I bought them for piece of mind. Even if the fiberglass was strong enough to hold, i figured in 5 years the fiberglass would be more brittle and could maybe break.

As far as the WMS Stealth hood pins go, definitely check that you have enough clearance under the hood to fit them. I almost got them, but when I emailed WMS they said I needed 20mm (dug up the email) of space between the rad support and the underside of the hood.

To check the clearance, I wadded up some putty and put it in the locations where the pins would have mounted and shut the hood. The hood will squash it and you can measure the thickness. I didn't have enough clearance, so I had to go with the Shelby pins (I've had lots of clearance issues with the underside of that hood, but that's a different thread)


Depending on the look you're going for you could also go with the Aerocatch hood pins

 

[one eyed willy]

I've been wondering the same, I hated hood pins on my old trufiber hood but the previous owner of the hood already had them installed.

My new hood is a trufiber but the quality is much better! I've had the car over 100mph and never see is flex, not even a little. So I've put off doing any kind of hood pins for now.

 

[loots06]

If I could do it over again I'd go with out the pins. Although it's piece of mind and they kinda look cool it's one of those mods I wish I could do over.

 

[Grubb]

Installed the hood today, very nice fit and extremely tight. I'm gonna go with no pins. Can't wait to get it painted!!!!

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[blownGTvert]

The fit of the Steeda good looks great! I just ordered a Cervini hood. Cervini told me their hoods are "reinforced" so hood pins are not required.

 

[her name is ponie]

I ran the WMS hood pins for about 2 years or so...Pricey and they never worked correctly for me. I ended up pulling them and just running my old cervinis hood with out them, for this new CF hood I have I'm going to run the Aerocatch pins posted above