Support

Until I came across a set of halfway decent hood support rods on eBay, I had been propping the hood open on the front lacing.

This is risky, because the hood could slip off, and based on the number of scratches along the rear of the grille section and the scratched surface of the hood corner, this practice is hard on the hood as well.

Equally hard is simply folding the hood all of the way over as it stresses the hinge and risks scratches to the hood itself.

So I was happy to come across the hood support rods! As you can see in the “before” photo, they were a tad rusty, and the hardware where the rod installs to the firewall would need to be replaced.

I disassembled the support rods, sanded them down a bit, and painted them with Rust Bullet. The hardware was replaced with stainless where possible.

Finally, I ran a little shrink wrap over the end where the hood would sit to keep the rod from scratching the hood and to provide a non-slip nook for the hood to sit in.

With the “new” support rods in place, I can relax when the hood is open and even have it open while the engine is running. Big step forward for such a small item!