VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 Side opening hoods, ' 33 Roadster, how do you do i

I am loath to, and will not, except as last resort, fold the hood all the way over onto the other hood panel.

What do you all do when you are working on the car?

Fold the hood all the way over?

Fold over with some sort of pad on the other hood?

use one of those fold out hold open gizmos that attach to the radiator support rods? i have one of those on my '37 ford pickup streetrod, and it works well, but it does limit your access a bit.

Doug

It all depends on what will make you comfortable. Don't want any loathing. I have used several means to open and keep hoods supported. Towels or foam pads between panels strategically placed so nothing gets bent, scratched or nicked. Some hoods have support brackets 1931 (not all) is an example. I have made wooden supports, used hot rod bolt on supports and even on some of my tour cars just laid the hood on itself.

I have owned my 33 coupe for 46 years and have always carefully laid the hood over on the closed side with no problems.

I did see a metal gizmo that you attach to the two radiator support bars approximately mid way back that has a rubber coated fold out piece on each side. When you open the hood you fold out the rubber coated piece that looks like it is made from 1/4 round steel that is shaped with a dip to hold the bottom edge of the hood so the top and side pieces of the hood half each stand near vertical. At car shows you could actually open both sides of the hood as prop them up at the same time..

If I can find one on the internet, I will post the link.

No need to look it up on teh internet, i have one of those on my '37 Ford. It isn't original, but i suppose you can always take it off if you are going to a judged event.

It sounds like carefully laying the hood over on the other side doesn't hurt anything. As long as there is no bondo in the top panel that may crack from unusual flexing.

Doug

Usually with 34-35 Chevrolets the hood has rubber rear corner bumpers on the side panels. Not sure about 33 as rarely seen around here.

Anyway, what I can do with my 34-35 chevs is open the hood and place the hood side panel where rubber bumper is, and sit it in the cowl vent recess. But you can only do one hood side at a time.

I now use HOOD CADDYS from a shop in Ohio Kennys rod and custom, ( seller on ebay ) they are billet aluminum around $60 pair and spring loaded 3 position and mount to the firewall right beside the hood to rad rods. The ends have a rubber sleeve to protect against stratching.

I had a pair powder coated black to match paint on coupe and red for the phaeton. When I get the roadster painted will have them powder coated to match the paint choice.

So you have 4 choices, 1--fold over the hood, 2---mount on top into cowl vent slot, 3.. hood caddy mounts to rad to firewall rods...4 kennys billet aluminum hood caddys.

mike