Replacement push button hood latches

[TBULL]

Bringing this back to the top after installing these into my new hood. Here's what I found.
1.) The QL-25 latch has a thread length 1/2" and a threaded diameter of 3/4" x 24 extra fine thread. The standard garage handle would have 5/8" hole drilled for them, so you could enlarge that hole, but you'll have to deal with the screw holes that the old latches left. You may me able to go up in size to something like the QL-50 with a larger flange that may cover those holes.

2.) Due to the thickness on a Mark IV hood where the alignment ridge runs along the bottom of the hood, the thickness here is around .7" thick. The standard QL-25 won't reach. I contacted Quick-Latch and they pointed me to their mini latch extension nuts. These are awesome and made the whole installation very easy. These a a fairly new addition to their line.
https://www.quik-latch.com/mini-latch-extension-nut.html

3.) I marked my hood and drilled a single small hole all the way through for alignment. Then, using a 3/4" hole saw, I cut the 2 holes in the top of the hood without going through the lower shell. Due to the barrel width, I had to drill the bottom holes with a 7/8" hole saw. From that point it was just fitting the two pieces through the holes and tightening. After paint, I'll apply a little green or blue locktite when I permanently mount them in place.



I plan on running up to Shapiro in the morning to by some aluminum plate to mount the buckets to, then back to fitting more parts on the car.

 

[Tim M]

I saw pics and clicked on this thread.... Guess I was out of town when you posted this. To wrap this up, can you post what you did to finish this? Maybe additional pics of the brackets?

 

[TBULL]

Sorry been meaning to do this. I made receiving brackets that the "buckets" were riveted to. These consisted of some 3/8 aluminum stock I had. I cut and rounded them off. I figured I'd have 3 mounting screws to help maintain the rigidity. In hindsight I probably could have went with two fasteners.

I added rubber stops on the underneath side to stop the bracket from rotating around the fasteners. This made for a rigid base. I also slotted the brackets to give me some adjustability to the placement. Once I had them about where I wanted them I took the buttons out of the hood and marked the center of the hole on the aluminum bracket below the hood. With that done, I drilled out the hole for the bucket and riveted it in place. Even though I tried to be as accurate as I could, it still took some playing with it to get the alignment right. Since by this time I had the vents cut in the hood, I was able to reach through the hole to help the alignment. I ended up not using the springs with a metal cap. this was intended to pop the hood up when released, but the top kept getting bound up. I ended up removing them and I haven't had any issues with them since. I really like the cleaner look as well. They have larger buttons as well, but talking to the company and to way the hood opes, these are more than adequate for the job