how can i lock my hood shut?

19mustang65

New Member
Apr 25, 2004
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Phoenix AZ
there has been alot of car theft lately and i really need to get my hood locked down...what are my options excluding locking hood pins. can i rig up some type of cable latch that pulls from inside the cab? any ideas please.
 
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Yes, you could rig up a remote hood release but if they are professionals it won't stop them. I once saw a pro steal a car at the grocery store; the doors were locked and he was in and driving away in about 20 seconds. By the time I got in the store and had them call the police he was miles away. Best bet is an alarm and Lojack so the car can be traced. Steering wheel locks will slow them down. Another good option is a hidden kill switch for the ignition. Some people like to move the battery and solenoid to the trunk. They can get around these things but they prefer to take an easy target. The more things they have to get around, the more likely they will take someone else ride.
 
i have alarm which is on the doors and hood, and i have the grant steering wheel system. i plan to put kill switches but im not quite sure on how to do it.

i have hood pins right now and they are what hold my hood down, i dont have the factory latch anymore....with the locking hood pins you gotta use the hood latch cuz they arent made to hold it down, my lock it.

if i could just run some type of cable to a latch in the hood i think it could help. but its hard to think something up that would work well. im far from an engineer
 
ok, this is what i did and or what i am in the process of doing....from front to back, the hood; a friend of mine told me about this little deal that basically acts as a hoodlatch and you have to use a little key inside the car to get the hood open, they dont make them anymore but i called damn near everywhere and found one for like 60 bucks at some stereo alarm shop...so you could too, trust me they work. Kill switches, i read on here that someone had put one where their lighter is at by replacing it with a windshield wiper switch, in which case that is obvious how that works, i am going to do that any day now. Also my neighbor gave me this little keycard looking deal that you hook up to like 6 different places, what it does is interuppt the circuit by splicing the wire into two different leads, and the only way to complete the circuit is to have this little key on your keychain and put it in the slot....anyways, i also have this alarm (thanks to the neighbor) that you put on your dash or console or anywhere for that matter, and what it does is work on pressure changes, so if someone opens the trunk, window, door, or even the hood, this thing will sound like a 100 cops are bearing down on you....its a really awesome deal, oh yeah and the club....lol

See now i wouldve cared less about all this, if my damn civic (of all the cars to take) wouldn't have gotten itself jacked bout a month back........ :notnice:
 
A cable won't stop anybody. What I do is disconnect the coil wire and use a lock and chain. It is ugly and a pain in the butt but its definately gonna work. In addition I also have one of those autolocks that attaches to either the break or clutch pedal.
Kevin
 
Sicarius428 said:
A cable won't stop anybody. What I do is disconnect the coil wire and use a lock and chain. It is ugly and a pain in the butt but its definately gonna work. In addition I also have one of those autolocks that attaches to either the break or clutch pedal.
Kevin


disconnecting the coil wire on a daily driver is kinda a pita when going to school and work everyday.so i need somthing else
 
I have seen a few links of chain welded to the bottom of the hood, and a few links to the core support. Pad locked together. Since you did say you wanted to hood locked. This is a good way I think that you can obe day, if needed remove them, without any real negative effects on the car. Hood pins and such make if very hard to repair if you change your mind later.
 
chip

FasterThenU72 said:
Also my neighbor gave me this little keycard looking deal that you hook up to like 6 different places, what it does is interuppt the circuit by splicing the wire into two different leads, and the only way to complete the circuit is to have this little key on your keychain and put it in the slot....:


well this is a great idea, but it doesn't work well. I spent $300 on one of these when I bought my last car. I thought it was the coolest thing, they showed me how it was hooked in 6 different places... blah blah blah. I'm at a bar one night with a friend, he asked me to drive home and when we got in the car, he had dropped his chip, turns out he had the same thing, I tried putting in mine and it worked. there are only 6 different keys for them, and although they say they are hard to find, I have found them on the internet. Not as safe as you think.
 
I have a set of locking hood locks from JC whitney, they work well for me. For install, I would suggest a step-bore- drill bitbecause you need to drill a large hole, 1/2 " if i remember right.

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LINK to JC Whitney
 
MitchGT said:
I think DarkBuddha has something for a cable operated hood latch. It was from some gm car, but at least it will keep engine parts in your posession.
Hey, that's me you're talkin' about. :D We did do a cable release hood latch but it's from a '70s Ford F series truck. You are correct that I originally recalled it being from a big Oldsmobile, but when I broke the handle on it recently and had to replace it, I realized that it was actually the Ford part. We'd pulled so many different ones that I apparently simply got mixed up.

Anyway, some will say it isn't much of a theft deterent, but I figure it will at least keep casual theives from easily popping my hood and nicking bits from under there. If you're interested, you can see some info on the swap here: http://groups.msn.com/DBsMustang/hoodrelease.msnw

Hope this helps.
 
FasterThenU72 said:
ok, this is what i did and or what i am in the process of doing....from front to back, the hood; a friend of mine told me about this little deal that basically acts as a hoodlatch and you have to use a little key inside the car to get the hood open, they dont make them anymore but i called damn near everywhere and found one for like 60 bucks at some stereo alarm shop...so you could too, trust me they work.
(snip)


The voice of experience is here to give you a heads-up: Keep the "front end" of that hood lock cable well lubricated. If you don't, it'll corrode and bind up. The spring under the key lock plunger just isn't strong enough to pull the cable back to the "unlocked" position if there is anything putting a drag on it. Mine is called the "Z-Lock", and after I get it cleaned up and re-lubed, it's going on eBay. There's got to be a better solution.

Years ago, Mustang Monthly magazine showed a latch conversion using an F-series truck part, something like the setup linked above in this thread. The rig they used, IIRC, was an F-series dealer-installed accessory latch that featured a T-shaped pull handle with a key lock in the center. Anyone else remember that?
 
This one is simple stupid. Get a broom handle, dowel, piece of pipe, bar stock, whatever, of the right size to fit between the hood latch hook and the radiator support. Attach a cable to one end. Put it between the hook and the support. When you close the hood, you can't open it without pulling on the cable to pull this stopper out of the way.

I discovered this when I left a 6" socket extension in the hook/support position and closed the hood. Oops.
 
All of the kill switch and card ideas are mute if they can get under the hood. Coupled with hood locks, they can be effective.

I used those hood locks pictured above for years with good success.

Don't forget they can still just roll up, pick up the car, and drive down the road. They can figure out what you've done later.

Per LVMPD, the low jack system is the best thing you can do. If it's stolen, they can find it fast.
 
I have had my stang for the last 34 yrs and am going to do everything I can to make it hard on someone to steal it from fuel cut off concession switches to start secondary batteries and now a hood lock which I'd like to know if I design something that could be bolted on without changing anything except 1 drill hole and couldn't be opened by just 1 person but would lock your hood how many people would buy this item and how much would they pay.