Strongly considering hood latches

dam, that was an easy sale, I will pm you my paypal info

 

@Nimble9

 

That's nuts!!!!! well good to know that this might be needed in the future!!! thanks for the tag!!!

 

Revisiting this old thread because I still haven't done it, but just drove this truck on the interstate with heavy winds at 80 at some points. Never have I been more nervous about my hood potentially flying up on my face before. That was not cool at all. Wanting to do this badly, but weakening my radiator support further worries me, considering how thin the metal they use where the bumper stoppers are.

Got them waiting and ready to go in, I guess I need the extra push of encouragement that it is okay to hack up the hood.

How has it been holding up for everyone who has done the mod?

 

I had to do this. Aluminum plate on both sides riveted in because that shitty fucking core support. Mines gonna be gone soon.

 

Oh shit. Yours split in one spot entirely. How is that aluminum plate holding, good mod? How thick of plating did you use at that? These supports are soda can thin man it sucks.

 

Haven't been able to commit to doing the hood latches either. My support split almost all the way through on both sides, so bought the replacement, cut the ends off it and sandwiched those on top. The extra thickness where the hood stops make contact seems to help with the hood flutter. Good enough for now.

 

Its holding like a champ now! Not sure of the thickness but id say twice as thick as what Toyota used. My whole core support and inner fenders are just getting the shit beat out of them. Ive got patches all over the place. Just did this https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-meetup-thread.217178/page-4079#post-17670128 yesterday to fix my drivers side inner fender

 

I'm just afraid of cutting. One slip up and your paint on the hood is done is the way I see it. The other side to me says tape it down good, stay in the lines and you'll be fine.

You and I really just need to tube up our whole front end is what we need to do. My issue is that this truck has always been my daily driver and no one is capable of doing the work in a few days even though it is a very feasible thing.

 

My truck is my DD also. Ive got a friend who is a fabricator and now that I have weekends off from work i'm ready to take the plunge and cut it all off. Pretty sure between him and i we can do it in a weekend no problem. I keep waiting for him to trash his core support so his truck can be the guinea pig and not mine though. But we'll do it sooner rather than later at the rate i'm cracking this shit apart.

 

Saw this. A man can dream.

 

I gotta just find me a good fabricator who is capable of doing good work in reasonable time.

Holy crap! I need to get a hold of Alex. That would be perfect for me! Fully boxed instead of round tubing is the most ideal for the front end.

 

Interestingly enough, I had this issue as well when I did mine tonight. Do you have any pictures of what you did as far as slotting the hole goes and placing fender washers in the setup goes? It would be really helpful. Thanks in advance.

 

Damn bro you really went to town this past weekend on the front! I need to check my core supports for this as well.

 

I just slotted the hole in the direction I had to move it to get everything to line up. In my case I had to slot the hole towards the cabin. I just threw a fender washers on the top and bottom. From what I'm reading even fender washers aren't enough support and the whole thing has to be reenforced. I'll likely just weld on some strips of steel when I get a chance to, but for the time being hopefully this will hold.

 

Mine sits perfectly straight through the hood latch hole. Despite that the pin needs to move back and be a little more tilted for some reason. I have to apply a lot of pressure to the sides to close the latch otherwise, I do like the way they look and function though. Really cool and they do actually hold the sides of the hood evenly to the fenders now, so that's a big plus.

 

I regret not installing them sooner. Stopped the wind flutter on pavement and stopped the vibration induced bouncing offroad. On my last trip it looked like the driver side corner was bouncing around but thought it was my imagination. I checked it and turned out the nuts got loose, tightened them up and it was solid again. After driving around with the hood solid its super annoying, distracting, and obvious even when it's moving around a tiny bit.

 

I haven't driven it with them installed yet, but they seem incredibly solid. After I get everything good to go and on the up and up I'm going to spray some white lithium grease on the inside to ensure the mechanism inside the latches does not seize up. For now I gotta find tune the pins themselves and see if I can get them to go through the latches easier.

 

I cannot take the hood rattling any longer...I do not know if it'll ever fly off and take the windshield out but man it definitely feels like it on the windy 5...

For some reason this package is a bit more expensive but it looks more secure:

$91 Aerocatch 120-4100 Xtreme Plus Flush Locking Hood Latch and Pin Kit - Black

https://www.amazon.com/AeroCatch-Xt...=1524588275&sr=8-2&keywords=aerocatch+extreme

Anyone try that one vs. the OP aerocatch?

Need to take my truck in for service and brakes so I figure I'll do this at the same time.

 

locking hood pins vs non-locking that the OP has