Hood pins
 

Shopping for some hood pins. I am trimming the fat on the underside of my hood (the bracing) so I must run pins. This is to cut weight obviously, not for "looks"...

This is for a track/street car. Two options here...

1) Remove stock latch system and run something like these (any experience with these kind of pins). This would allow me to remove the stock latch and still lock the hood if I'm driving on the street.

NRG HOOD LOCK PINS/PIN KIT REAL BLACK CARBON FIBER NEW : eBay Motors (item 280299438916 end time Apr-29-10 00:46:57 PDT)

2) Go the more conventional way and run real "pins".. I would like to remove my latch system to take some weight off, but again.. it's a street car as well and I don't want anyone to be able to just go into my engine bay.

Aluminum Hood Pin Kit 1/2" Pin Black IMCA Circle Track : eBay Motors (item 350332763556 end time Apr-23-10 21:55:08 PDT)


What would you do?

i have pins on my car,on the street,and No one has ever touched them.
(G)

I may go for the sparco ones. With the sliding pin...

I made my own,way cheep...like $3 in Materials-4hrs time.
(G)

meh... I'm all about easy. I'll pay an extra $10 to have them made already... lol

See if you can get miata2fast to tell you where he bought his. They are lightweight and much better looking than those oldschool ones.

My buddy just got some really nice looking ones for his CF hood on his 350z. I'll see if I can find them. Much better looking than the ones you linked.

You could always run the AeroCatch latches if you are worried about security... They have a locking mechanism in one of their models. They are a little pricey however if you are on the cheap. Are you only pinning the front or entire hood?

AeroCatch® - new design of bonnet pin, available in locking or non-locking versions – see how it works.........

Because hustler and I are ballerz

The key here is functional and cheap guys...

lol.

Functional and cheep, look at our lemons car! Find yourself some 3/4" all thread and drill some holes, weld all thread to radiator support than drill some holes and get a couple of clips off a trailer hitch...done!

Attachment 198825

Attachment 198826

Attachment 198827

Haha... well, not that cheap. They have to look somewhat nice.

I`m just not down for paying for aerocatch or anything silly like that. Those are overkill and for the most part street cars and show cars.

Don't be a hater!

On the cheap I would do it lemons style. But really I want the security and the flush of the aerocatch.

Then just get a set of regular hood pins that suit your style... Done.

I did the $12 summit racing ones, on the inside of the headlights. You'll have to take out the rubber stopers and drill the holes out a bit. The rivet in the back of the channel is a bitch to get to. Put a small metal bead (as in jewlery bead) on the rivet so it'll reach down there, or go from the bottom if you have the room. Get a set with as much aluminum as possible so it won't rust. Unfortunetly my pins are steel amd have rusted. Meh.

Oh, and don't forget the latch system weighs next to nothing. I got rid of it for my intercooler setup, not for weight savings.

Sparcos ftw. Mine are going on when body works gettin done if theres a spot to mount the dam bolt :S

I just bought the Mr Gasket (or whatever brand they are) hood pins sold at the local parts store (Advanced Auto). They were cheap and made from SS. I mounted them where the rubber stops are located just behind the head lights (NA). Perfect Spot.

I drilled a hole in the center of the existing stops and slid them over the pins. Works great, tested to 130+ MPH (never mind where :giggle:) with no problems.

These...
http://www.mr-gasket.com/ProductDeta...ch=hood%20pins

I got mine from Autozone. Very cheap, light weight, and fuctional. You want to make sure that the stud is aluminum, some cheapies come with steel studs which will make you have aids.

I like the baller Aerocatch latches.

I do not recommend cutting the bracing on the factory aluminum hood. The net gain you get is not worth the sacrifice. I am all about radical weight savings, but having a floppy flimsy hood sucks. You can find all kinds of weight savings, and still have a car that looks good and is not a rattle can.

+1

What I did, and works great.

When I installed my hood pins on my Spec I removed mthe latch. I wish I had not I was always worrind about someone going into my engine bay (not that they did). I would recomend leaving it in and getting the cheapo hood pins. That way you can have some security. If you want to remove the cable for the latch you can fab a cable up so that you can pop the hood from the front of the car near the oppening.

Have a great day,
Jared

or get the cheapo hoodpins and use 2 padlocks instead of the actual pin. No need to shell out for expensive locking aerocatch latches :giggle:

Sure why not? Low budget but effective.

The Aerocatch latches are nice and I seriously considered those for my DD when I was looking for extra space for an IC (no stock latch).

BTW FWIW I only went to hood pins because I needed to get rid of the stock hood latch assy to make room for the oil cooler. Otherwise it was really not necessary for me. The stock latch is not hugely heavy and thus I would not consider it low hanging fruit on the weight reduction tree.

The pins in option 2 are cast. I got hit in the left front fender in a race and exactly one lap later both pins cracked/came apart and the hood came up... in the middle of turn 5 at Rd. Atlanta. Not that they'll ever crack w/o impact, but knowing that (if you go the pin & post route) you might consider the "hitch" pins mentioned since they are not cast.

Now this is the latch! Thanks for the head's up! I'd like to be baller too but my Urologist made sure I can't be...

Funny but I just picked up the latest issue of GRM today. There is a good article on practical aero design/setup for low budget race cars. They listed some of the common aero mistakes, one of which was... drum roll... Don't use the regular style (what I used) hood pins. Apparently they can create appreciable drag :facepalm: They did not say how much. I doubt it is huge so I am not going to sweat it.

So there is a benefit to the Aerocatch latches beyond just the baller look. That is intuitive but the timing with this thread is funny.

Yes the Aerocatch latches are the most aerodynamic of the options. However because of the price I doubt GRM will ever recommend only those. And since on a miata you shouldn't be stripping the stock hood of it's bracing, you'll only be adding weight with those latches. I'm all about my $12 pins.

A cheap piece of stainless or aluminum rod and a cross hole later, and I'd have pins that wouldn't rust. I'm just too lazy. I think mine are actually chrome plated, they've just chipped and it's rusting where the plating is gone. Meh.

Or pro race cars. I installed these in this car Friday.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2768/...1f26891f_b.jpg

lol@my overkill:
http://i39.tinypic.com/jv25w9.jpg

I like it!

The bracing under the hood is aluminum. The weight savings will be very minimal especially if you have to add hood pins. I did it on one hood and it was so flimsy and marginally lighter, I ended up just using a stock hood. There are many better ways to save weight.

I plan to run 4-6 (only way of holding the hood down) Aerocatches for the hood myself with regular cheap ones for the trunk lid. The joys of mounting your wing on your rear quarter panels as compared to the trunk lid... :D

Just to add a data point on the op. Those carbon circle keyed latches are a big no no. Buddy of mine has a v8 AE86 and at MSRC people kept coming up to look at the car and the motor. He opened the hood like 10 times that day and thought it was locked when he entered the track. Nope, crushed windsheild and cracked carbon hood. You cant tell if there locked or open.

Jake

repost

I did hood pins on our LeMons car.

2 X Used Bolt (Finger/Thumb sized)
<Drilled a small hole in both>

Drill your hood using a universal bit where you want the studs to be.

Place large bolts where you want and weld to frame
(Don't forget to align the direction of your drilled holes where you want to be before you weld. Also take note of the height of the drilled hole so it will be the proper height not to high not to low when before you weld as well.

Get a large thin washer with a small center and drill three small holes in a triangle formation on the outer edges. Use the universal bit to make the center large enough to fit through the hole.

Use the washer as a template to drill the 3 holes in the hood to rivet the washer down.

Bought a pin from Home Depot for $0.97

The End.