Hood pin plates

[BGlover67]

How do you stop the hood pin plates on 65-67 Shelby's from scratching?  As hard as I try, both sides develop scratches from the pins going in and out.  Do concourse cars just replace them frequently?

[GT350Lad]

I have heard of guys putting a thin plastic disc cut to shape on top of pin plate and putting pins in before sliding out plastic or leaving it there for daily use and removing for shows 

[SBCARGUY]

+1

[Bob Gaines]

How do you stop the hood pin plates on 65-67 Shelby's from scratching?  As hard as I try, both sides develop scratches from the pins going in and out.  Do concourse cars just replace them frequently?

If you know how to do it properly there is no need to worry about scratches. It is a simple straight forward procedure that is easy to do. You adjust the pin shaft so that you can push the plate down past the hole in the pin shaft as you slide the pin in. You push down on one of the rivet heads so that you don't leave fingerprints on the plate. I try to advise show entrants of 65-67 cars how to do this so that they do not scratch the plate.

[roddster]

  GT350LAD has it:  Cut the plastic out of an empty plastic 1 gallon milk bottle.

[CSX 4133]

I imagine clear acetate film ( as found on new IPhone screens/etc) would work really well as a protective film between the pin and plate. They could be easily removed if one were to make a slit prior to mounting and you wouldn't have to touch anything.

[propayne]

If you want clear plastic that is all but invisible, look at some of the packages that stuff comes in, like various items from a hardware store.

Often times the see-through plastic area is large enough and flat enough to cut out a circle.

- Phillip

[Bob Gaines]

FYI at the very least the plastic suggestions will mar in the same way the metal will scratch. At the worst the plastic is visible and typically unsightly. You are trading the poor look of the plastic for the scratched look of the metal. I am at a loss to understand why adjusting it the right factory engineered way and using the correct latching and unlatching technique is not considered the viable solution over some other cumbersome, unsightly alternative.   

[BGlover67]

FYI at the very least the plastic suggestions will mar in the same way the metal will scratch. At the worst the plastic is visible and typically unsightly. You are trading the poor look of the plastic for the scratched look of the metal. I am at a loss to understand why adjusting it the right factory engineered way and using the correct latching and unlatching technique is not considered the viable solution over some other cumbersome, unsightly alternative.

I understand what you mean, Bob.  In an ideal situation that is the only correct way to prevent it.  But we are dealing with 1967 Shelby's here.  If your hood doesn't fit exactly perfect on one or both front corners, one may be tempted to adjust the hood pins to correct this detail.  Considering 1967's have both a traditional hood latch system as well as hood pins, this would be about the only reason to make them so 'tight'.

But no one here has an original hood that doesn't fit, right?

[J_Speegle]

If you seek out some of the nylon washers that are available they can fit well and are very uniform - less likely to look home made or take away from the over all look while protecting the surfaces your looking to protect.

Just an opinion  

[Greg]

If Bob's method wasn't used, why not cut an oval groove in the plastic and once the pin is slid in, pull the plastic out.  When you want to open, slide the plastic back under the pin and pull the pin out. 

[Bob Gaines]

FYI at the very least the plastic suggestions will mar in the same way the metal will scratch. At the worst the plastic is visible and typically unsightly. You are trading the poor look of the plastic for the scratched look of the metal. I am at a loss to understand why adjusting it the right factory engineered way and using the correct latching and unlatching technique is not considered the viable solution over some other cumbersome, unsightly alternative.

I understand what you mean, Bob.  In an ideal situation that is the only correct way to prevent it.  But we are dealing with 1967 Shelby's here.  If your hood doesn't fit exactly perfect on one or both front corners, one may be tempted to adjust the hood pins to correct this detail.  Considering 1967's have both a traditional hood latch system as well as hood pins, this would be about the only reason to make them so 'tight'.

But no one here has an original hood that doesn't fit, right?

Even If you are adjusting the pins so that they make up for some hood to fender deficiency you still can use common sense and as I described hold down the plate by putting a finger or thumb on the rivet to lower the plate down past the hole in the pin . Once that is done the click pin will slid through the hole WITHOUT scratching the metal.If the pin is so tight that there is no give when pushing down as to make up for a mis alignment or poor accident repair then you have more problems then any silly plastic disc is going to help with. So If one can't do that simple procedure and instead use the ugly milk carton plastic or some other equally unattractive plastic product to put under the pin on your 100,000.00 plus car then that is a darn shame.

[TLea]

 Or you could make it truly 100% original and just let the scratches occur as they would've back in 1967 even at the dealer

[SFM6S087]

Or you could make it truly 100% original and just let the scratches occur as they would've back in 1967 even at the dealer

+1

I'll bet very few (if any) of these cars were delivered to the first owner with perfect, unscratched, mirror finished hood pin plates. On the other hand, many probably had rust already starting, but that much originality is not widely valued. Everyone draws the line where they are comfortable.

Steve

[SFM6S087]

On my 1966 GT350 I've been using the method Bob mentioned ever since the restoration, and I don't think the pins have ever been dragged across the plates. But I still have marring because of the vibrations that occur when driving the car.  I suppose one of the plastic shields mentioned above might stop that, but at this point it's too late for the plates currently on the car. So I just keep driving & smiling. The most fun I have with my car is giving rides, and no passenger has ever complained about the scratched hood pin plates.

If I was more interested in appearance I'd replace those plates and protect the new ones with a combination of two suggestions here in this topic. I'd use Bob's suggestion to press the plates down before removing or inserting the pins to avoid dragging the pins across the plates (something I'm already doing). And I'd use GT350Lad's suggestion to keep plastic discs in there for everything except shows. That should stop the marring caused by the vibrations of actually driving the car.

Steve