Don't trust factory hood latch!

[nzanesmith]

So my hood popped up at 55mph. I was on my way to get hood pins lol

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d108/nzanesmith/th_a006-1.jpg (http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d108/nzanesmith/a006-1.jpg)

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d108/nzanesmith/th_a005-1.jpg (http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d108/nzanesmith/a005-1.jpg)

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d108/nzanesmith/th_a004-1.jpg (http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d108/nzanesmith/a004-1.jpg)

[Good Times]

holy crap how in the world did that happen? latch broken to begin with? I'm surprised that something like thait would happen to a stock undamaged latch.

got more info on the condition of the latch? accidents? etc... ya know that makes a big difference on if it really is the fault of the latch itself.

but dang, that damage doesn't look good at all :(

[MTL_4runner]

Ouch.....yeah, 55 MPH winds would be alot of force on something the size of a truck's hood.
Hope it doesn't cost too much to get that reversed.

[AxleIke]

Thats pretty hard to do. Considering both the latch and the safety had to fail at the same time. If just the latch had failed, then the hood would have popped up an inch and wobbled like hell, instantly noticeable by the driver.

Sorry it happened man, thats a pain. Sometimes you just have bad luck. Hope it gets fixed.

[slosurfer]

Oh Dude that sucks! I bet you had some pucker factor going when that happened. You didn't have Tommy Boy add a quart of oil at the gas station earlier did you? Wasn't your truck rolled at one time? I wonder if something was damaged then? Either way, going to go take a look at mine in the morning before I leave.

Were you able to find somebody to get you unstuck afterwards. Hehe, sorry couldn't resist. :flipoff:

[nzanesmith]

Ha ha ha Chris lol. Actually i just pulled a 4x4 out on sunday, it got high centered lol. My truck was rolled, over a year and a half ago but was rebuilt. After my sunday of beating on the truck i noticed the hood seemed to be loose and i planed on picking up some hood pins today to be safe. It looks as if the latch itself is a bit rusty and dirty and wasn't latching properly. I made a point to check if it was latched closed before i left this morning since i knew it was having issues and it was closed all the way before i hit the road.

[BruceTS]

Dang n00b..... :tongueout:

what ya thinking :chair:

now your gonna have to sell your blower just to pay for all them repairs......

have you located a front diff yet???

[slosurfer]

that really does suck considering you were on your way to get hood pins

[nzanesmith]

Milton has one with my name on it. I need to pull the diff and check to see what all is broke first. I think given the current event, i will just repair whats broke and put new gears in it. Save the ARB till later. I pulled the interior and glass out tonight and tomorrow me, a body hammer and a dolly are going to see what we can do with the dent. It looks bad but when i pulled the headliner it doesn't look so bad. No cracked sheet metal or anything bad, its all basicly on big dished in area that should hammer out fairly well. If all else fails its back to the shop for smurfet. The glass is already waiting to go in.