guy72277
Forum User
I just thought I'd document how I put in my hood torsion rods because I searched all over forums and youtube and I didn't really find an explanation, tutorial or vid that helped me. Basically I just had a Eureka moment, understanding I was doing things the wrong way (scratched up my new paint) because I misunderstood how the rods fit in. I looked at many pics, thinking I knew how the 90 degree end of the rod fitted and I was wrong. It does not fit in vertically, behind the rod end with the mushroom bit on the end, but the 90 degree end goes in horizontally, pointing towards the back of the car - there's a slot for it to hold the end in place on the hinge. Wow! That's it... Walter Moore's photo from 2008 helped me. That was my problem, trying to twist the hell out of it with the 90 degree end in a vertical position (and have it jump out and scratch my lovely new paint) :-( It was really easy once I understood. Hope this helps someone because every other problem I've ever had during the restoration has been answered by forums. It's also been 7 hears since I took the rods out so you forget things... Looking at the car from the front,
1) bolt in left hand hinge
2) Put one bolt in the right hand hinge (the bolt nearest you and the front of the car.
3) Lean the hinge back on itself, towards you and the front of the car
4) Place mushroom end in the left hand side hinge
5) Place 90 degree end in the right hand side
6) Twist the hinge towards the back of the car (away from you)
7) Put in the remaining bolts to secure the right hand side hinge
8) Slot in the 90 degree end on the left hand side
9) Twist the mushroom end into its slot and hole it doesn't require that much force.
10) Hinges should now be standing up and resist being pushed down