Strongly considering hood latches

I could not take it any longer, I ordered a set.

Wish me luck lol

Driving between NorCal and SoCal on the 5 gives me a knot in my stomach looking at my hood lol

and bug deflector does nothing at all ...are they even meant to work?

 

Well, it's been about two years since I have done this mod and the hood has never been more solidly mounted on this truck. Zero flutter. Zero issues. What I do regret is not painting them prior to mounting them as the sun has faded the material and given it a sort of "fibrous" look similar to the rear composite bed. That is the only complaint I have of these. Other than that it's been smooth sailing.

I have driven a ton of other vehicles since doing these and have noticed we are not the only vehicles which are plagued with hood flutter, as even sedans of various brands do this even when fully latched. I think the issue has to do with the fact that the hoods are made so lightly and with thinner metal than the vehicles of yesteryear so the wind coming in naturally wants to flutter the hoods around.

I would do this mod again absolutely. Just be aware that paint damage around the area you cut is inevitable due to the heat you will create when cutting. A Dremel with a cut off wheel, a cordless drill, and a holesaw are critical items needed for the job, and masking tape as well as a fine point sharpie for marking your cutting area.

Do not feel guilty about cutting into your tacos hood. We are not the only ones requiring external hood latches. Jeep Wrangler and Hummer also use external hood latches as well. So cut away, have a ball and enjoy your new latches! I sure do on mine!

 

Can confirm this. One of the best, cheapest, and easy to install mods for truck abusers.

3 points of contact helps keep the central latch area from falling apart prematurely. I've had my bolts loosen up and could immediately tell it was loose from the giant leap in hood flutter. With these the front stays rock solid offroad, when crossing paths with a semi on 2 lane roads, and when it's windy as fuck.

 

Finally got tired of the hood ready to fly in my face and decided to install the latches that have been on the parts shelf for a couple years. I was also replacing the trashed multi "restoration treated" headlights so no better time tackle both. Many thanks for this thread and in particular @Airdog and @Sandman614 for their write-ups. My AeroCatch didn't come with a template so their input was above and beyond appreciated. The AeroCatch website has "instructions" that are pretty much useless, don't even watch the youtubes instructions. However, the drawing does point out that the hood pin is located just over 1/2" (14mm) from the center of the 1 3/4" Big Hole which is where problems can happen without the friggin template. I ended up making a template which worked off where the hood pin came through the hood. Hope this makes sense...

This is a PITA install, somehow the Dorkel was less stressful.

EDIT: Having seen @Sandman614 recent tear through I did reinforce under the upper radiator support with a couple inch piece of 1/8" steel.

Bit sticking through the homemade template with center points of the 1 3/4" and 1 1/8" circles marked.

Holes cut and connected.

Installed per Airdogs instructions.

New headlights, latches and a very badly sun beaten hood wrap...

 

Excellent work and it looks great!! Glad I could be of help. I agree with you that cutting up for these can bring up some anxiety. Such bullshit that they dont include a template printed into their lableing anymore....especially since the holes are so close to the edge of the cut to begin with.

 

Thanks, between your and Sandman's posts I was able to figure out the problem. Believe me, there were more than several beers consumed along with unreal strings of expletives...

 

Just a little update....so the core support is gone along with the hood latch on the hood side breaking off completely, so I did this a few months ago since my hood staying closed now relies on these hood latches. Though the hood safety catch is still in working order. Also the aluminum catch rods break easily...ask me how I know. I ordered the steel ones from summit for a really reasonable price as compared to aerocatch's price and eliminated that problem too.

 

I went with steel to start. Because I didn't trust aluminum to handle the sheering forces that wind can put aluminum through.

My hood latches are still intact and going well to the day. I still consider it one of the BEST mods outside of supercharger mods that one can do to their second gen.

Sure it adds a second step to opening the hood, but a small price to pay for piece of mind while driving. Besides, Jeep and Hummer use secondary hood latches outside of their hood pop method s well. That just tells me that we took a step in the right direction here.

 

You did a great job. Especially with making that template. Well done sir.

 

Do none of you know about the adjusters at the front corners? The skin flexes too and no latch will change that.

 

Uhhhh….I put on these latches and the problem I had goes completely away.
Whatever your point was it is completely invalid.

 

Your problem is different than the hood flex/rippling skin issue discussed in several other threads across the generations which causes or is the result of the skin delaminating from the skeleton. It took more reading to see that, my bad. Open mouth insert foot.

 

Thanks!

 

Just installed these latches this afternoon thanks to a great write up by @Airdog. Many thanks!

My hood developed a 1/4" gap and associated flutter about 2 years ago when I left it propped open for about 2 months in my garage working on some other mods and it twisted under it's own weight.

This past August things seemed to get worse when I had trouble closing it a few times and noticed that part of the catch inside the hood itself was rusted through. Someone who knows how to weld would probably have just tacked this up and called it a day (which I may still do) but for the added security I I the hood pins.



I still have a pretty sizable gap on both side by the fender, but the grill lines up perfectly and I can relax my fears that my hood is going to let loose randomly. I am definitely going to have to reinforce the core support considered its already cracked almost halfway through on both sides, but that's a problem for another day.

 

Twisted under its own weight. Sweet Jesus man.

These hoods and core supports really DO suck and Toyota continues to insist on using soda can thin metal to this day.

 

Your welcome.....but that core support wont last long with that crack and the hood pin there. It will be broken in half before you know it. After I did the initial install in about a year that part of the core support broke all the way thru. I had to sandwich it inbetween 2 peices of metal and rivets to fix it until I ended up completely replacing my core support with tubes and now the JDfab inner fenders.

 

I honestly wasnt surprised that it twisted being propped open that long. But the core supports...c'mon toyota. I really feel like they missed some huge opportunities to improve on the 2nd gen platform structurally and mechaniccally with the 3rd gen.

I fully anticipate this will blow apart soon if left unattended. I did see the pictures later in this thread showing what you did in the interim before the JD fab stuff. I will probably do something like that in the meantime time also until I figure out a long term solution.

I saw in another thread where someone sandwiched a good core support on top of a bad one, which seemed to hold up for awhile.

 

Well creeping up on 170k miles, many of which have been off-road driving, Toyota's fine metal selection has finally given way even after a bandaid weld several years ago. Found this thread searching for failed hood latch. I've already got the failed core support too. I love Toyota trucks but they really cheap out on the engineering and tin metal they use on the front end.

The rubber bungee did pretty well for added insurance on the way home from a recent Death Valley trip.

 

Mine flutters as well. Will probably add latch pins preventatively
Gives me flashbacks to a car I had where the hood flew off…
Well first it went up blocking the windshield. Then flew off.