Thank you for the explanation.
Am I correct in understanding the latches themselves pivoted (acted like a hinge) and pins from the hood fit into them on both sides of the hood?

If that is correct, how much movement did the latches have? was there something that limited the amount of pivot the latch had? I'd bet it was a pita to be sure the pins and latches were in alignment every time a person closed the hood. I wonder if the current latch and pins like what my 90 Dakota had would have enough movement to act like a hinge, seems to me like 30-40 degrees of movement would do the trick. If I needed more then that, I could pull the hood off.

My Plymouth hood is pretty light, I can lift it off the car by myself, but that's not something I want to do every time I want to check the oil.

What do you guys think? Gene