Hinging an A12 Hood

I have a '68 Coronet R/T driver with an A12 lift off hood. I love the way it looks on the car but hate the fact that I can remove it by myself but putting it back in place jeopardizes my paint job. I have a couple of nicks on the cowl to remind me of this. It's not a framed perimeter hood that can use hinges with light weight springs.

I was thinking of building a light weight frame with flat stock aluminum that I could attach hood hinges to. I'm thinking I can "nest" the hood on this frame in some way to avoid attaching it and possibly cracking the hood yet allow me to open and close it easily by myself. I would still pin the hood as it should be.

Any ideas or has anyone already done what I am thinking?

There was a member a few years back that had done this on his car. Haven't seen him post in years, hope he ain't dead.

I asked him several times to post some pictures of how he did it but he never bothered to post any. He wasn't real interested in 'helping' out on any of the forums although I'm sure he knew tons-o-stuff.
Oh well.
Here's the only picture I have of it but it is doable, you can barely see the hinge and the rear pins are pinned. IIRC he said he glassed a threaded plate to the bottom of the hood, removed the springs and used a rod for support.

If you don't want a prop rod for support, you may be able to put a pin through the hinge itself. Open the hood where you want it, prop it up, drill holes in hinges, and put a pin in it.

Not sure if your hood is an original one or not but I don't think I would modify an original one.


When I owned my 383 69 Super Bee I bought a bolt on fiberglass Six Pack hood from AAR Fiberglass.
https://www.aarqualityfiberglass.com/cart/product_info.php?cPath=62_69_136&products_id=497

It looked beautiful and fit perfectly.

I installed hood pins in the front factory location and used factory looking hood pins (permanently attached) on the rear of the hood.

Original or not you could easily sell your current hood and buy a bolt on.

pm me if original hood ! ......

Thanks for the responses. Have no fear it is not an original hood. It is actually suffering already from minor stress cracking in front of the snorkel. The guy I bought the car from lifted it on and off the car by putting his forearms inside the snorkel and lifting it that way.

With two kids in college, buying a new hood is not possible now. I was hoping someone solved this problem before me and I could have picked up on their design. Back to the drawing board!

On my challenger (don't know if they are the same) I took the springs off the hinges, and welded the pins to the hinges so it lined up with my pin hole in the hood. So I had a hinged hood, that was still a lift off if I wanted. Sorry, no pics though. Went with an R/T hood and sold the setup.