Today's street rods and customs are built with ever-changing technology and the line between street rod and custom rod continues to be blurred. We're seeing more and more '60s cars being built with the attention to detail that up until recently was reserved for high-end street rods.
One area that needs improvement on these late-model cars is the hood hinges. Detailing engines is nothing new, but opening the hood to show off the engine suffers somewhat when the ugly stock hinges are also in view. Some innovative builders have started to come up with solutions, and this hood lift system fits right in. Jeff Lilly Restorations came up with an interesting hinge system for a '64 Ford Galaxie in their shop which can be retrofitted to many projects if room allows, so let's take a look at what it takes to get it done.
Before they could start making the hinges, they needed to determine that the arc they needed to build into the new hinges would not change the hood-to-cowl panel clearance. On some vehicles the hood moves back, closing up the gap to a point where it can hit on the cowl as the hood swings up. When building a project with consistent 3/16-inch panel gaps this becomes even more critical. With this type of hinge there is no play as with most original factory hinges, so that potential problem was eliminated.
On the interior side of the cowl and floor area they needed adequate room to install the gas shocks toward the outside of the car so that the custom kick panels will look natural without protruding too much into the foot space. On the driver side the emergency brake foot pedal system will be changed to a pull-up unit located between the bucket seat and console. In this particular application they have ample floor space width even with a console, which makes this a natural candidate. Another item to consider is the A/C heater box and any other items that are already behind the dash or will be installed during a custom build.
With a little work and ingenuity you can build a hinge system that will not only help lift the hood and hold it open but will add to your custom's underhood detailing.
