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AeroCatch Hood Pins

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It was asked in a different thread if I had additional pics of the hood pins and I did not want to take that thread off topic and this may be helpful to others thinking about doing hood pins.

The place I chose is to allow the recessed latches to be installed in the area of the hood with the least amount of compound contouring, this spot is mostly flat with only one slight contour to the hood. I was able to install them and not deform the hood. This particular spot allows the pins to be installed in the core support and is a much stronger spot for the pins. It also happens to be a part of the hood with three separate pieces of hood material coming together to make a strong structure for the latches to attach to.

Once the pins are installed you use the template to determine the location of the latches and there is a bit of guessing here but it is not hard to see where the latch needs to be. Once you cut the surface of the hood you have another layer under the hood and yet another layer to make the under structure of the hood that needs to be cut. Here are some pics of them and the underside of the hood. I have since added a piece of white wrap material to cover the underside of the hood and make it a more finished look.

I think the sideways placement of the latches get you the least amount of distortion of the top layer of the hood and in my case lined up well with the hood vents from an aesthetic point of view.

Dave

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The aluminum is not easy to cut if you try and cut it all the way through, I find it easier to score the metal about half way through then bend it back and forth until it snaps. It is quite brittle once it is scored and you wont be fighting the cutting tool as much.

Dave
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
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Had mine done at Palmer Racing Development and it was no sweat for Dean. He had them done on my Carbon Fiber hood in no time and was quite reasonable. He is near Malvern, Iowa , so anyone in the Heartland , feel free to contact if you want any info on this or other track fabrications done on your Stand?

We do many things at our 3 Ford Stores , but I give Dean his due, as he is a race car fabricator and that is a different art!
 

Fair

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I just talked about this in our S550 build thread, but I will copy that below... took almost 6 hours, like the OP mentioned. Of course we took our time to make the cuts as cleanly as possible.

ADDING AEROCATCH LATCHES

The carbon hood from Anderson Composites has worked well with the OEM latch for a bit now, just always makes me nervous having a composite hood held in place with a stock latch. We usually add two positive locking, visible latches on all composite hoods we install and after some "cowl flutter" I noted at one track day, we decided to add a pair of Aerocatch brand hood latches to our 2018 GT.

aerocatch-GT4-S550-S.jpgaerocatch-pins-350S-S.jpg

This is where the factory 302S race cars place them - out on the edges, but about a foot back from the leading edge. I think they were trying to keep the pins on the leading edge of the sheet metal upper frame horn sections. When we looked at the carbon reinforced composite radiator support we found what we felt was a better location, farther forward and easier to mount the pins at.

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Evan installed some pointed marking pins inside some reinforced holes we wanted to use for the hood latch pins, which were then transferred to the underside of the carbon fiber hood.

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Once this pin location was marked the underside opening could be cut in the hood. This isn't super critical, not like the upper surface hole, and was cut out with a pneumatic body saw.

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Then the pin adjusted to point at the top layer of the carbon hood, the oval shape could then be laid out and cut. We like to cut the top opening with 2 hole saws then connect them to form the shape, but some like to free-hand cut this with a jig saw or body saw. We always smooth the edges and then drill the holes for the top flange to mount (we never use the flush, bottom mount version).

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With the upper openings cut and the latches fitted, the lower pins were installed. These almost never point "straight up" - the pins need to be clocked correctly, usually bent to line up perpendicularly with the hood surface (which is not flat). Using this factory hole at the radiator bracket hole allowed us to install the pins without drilling the radiator support, which makes this easier to "un-do" when we go to sell this car (to be announced soon).

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We kept the stock hood "double latch" in place, just to be triple sure the hood never comes open at speed. This makes it a 3 step process to open the hood - you open the Aerocatch latches, then pop the hood latch, then release the secondary safety latch.

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The Aerocatch latch opening in the lower carbon skin is right where the hood prop rod mounts on the driver's side, so Evan drilled and slotted a mating hole a couple of inches to the left. We don't use gas strut lift kits on composite hoods, as I have had one of those fail when the hood was open into the wind - cost me a windshield and hood.
 
We kept the stock hood "double latch" in place, just to be triple sure the hood never comes open at speed. This makes it a 3 step process to open the hood - you open the Aerocatch latches, then pop the hood latch, then release the secondary safety latch.

FYI - you can get rid of a step by re-orientating the spring in the hood latch. The spring forces the hood latch to require the initial hood latch in the car to pop the hood, reverse the direction of the spring to hold the latch towards the drivers side of the car and the hood pins and the secondary latch are both functional while the hood release under the dash is made non-functional. This makes opening the hood in the pits a lot easier, and still maintains the required 2 steps to open the hood.

I also remove the entire hood release assembly and reuse it to add a mechanical trunk release by routing it from the trunk latch to the passenger side interior just below the quarter window. If you move your battery to the trunk and have a battery failure having a mechanical release is a good idea.

Dave
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
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Exp. Type
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Blair, Nebraska
Perfect example of what some of our sponsors take time to do. The detail, cool pics and instructions from Terry Fair at Vorshlag are priceless.

You sure don't get this kind of detail and concern on many Forums --thanks!
 
You have to drill through the core supports two webbing pieces and then there is room to use the supplied nuts and washers to secure the pin to the core. When you have all the pieces in hand and look at the radiator core it will start to make since. Care must be taken to drill as straight as possible and you need the hole to be oversized so you have room to adjust the final PIN placement and alignment with the latches.

By the way I have updated the install process after doing a few of these now and can complete the process with a single 1" hole on the underside hood skin for the Pin to pass through. It can be done very clean compared to my first install in the pictures above.

I forgot to snap pictures of the underside on this build but the top side turned out OK as well.

IMG_7763.JPG

Dave
 
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clean that hole up with a file and dab some white paint on the exposed sheet metal and you're golden, For future reference I'd drill 4 small corner holes, then connect them with the death wheel.
 
I have a large gallery of my builds on my website, I try and contribute here as much as I can and do not want it to come off like a commercial or advertisement. Most of my builds are by consignment and as a result I do not post build threads without the new owners permission, most do not mind sharing but almost all of them want to wait until after the car is delivered before I post anything. The Silver car is quite special as the owner made a bunch of very good decisions about the build and new exactly what he wanted in the end.

I will add this image as it is just sexy as can be:
IMG_7775.JPG


Dave
 

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