so as some of you know i just bought a 67 GS400 Conv. i'm new to these cars been a stepchild for a while now. My question is there a easy way to lock down the hood? had a friend who saw my car and pop the hood open to take a look. I'm worry that someone may do the same thing and steal the star wars air cleaner. I'm seeing that there not cheap. has anyone else done this. worst case is i take it off each time and put it in the trunk. thanks johnny
You could get a small chain covered in vinyl and a lock and tuck it under the hood where it would not show and then you pull it out to unlock/lock it. Don't think there is an easy way to substitute a hood latch that is unlocked from the inside. Hoods were not locked from the inside until the mid to late 70's as I recall depending on the car line or model.
Here's where the previous owner did the same thing you're talking about. See the chain next to the release. There's another piece attached to the hood...
When I bought my 66GS the original owner had a refrigerator type lock that had the flat steel plate the went over a oblong knob with the key that you twisted to lock. It's swinging flat steel plate was attached to the bottom front tip of the hood and the bottom oblong knob latch was held with u bolts to the lower part of the grill, but the 66 grill was cast metal instead of the plastic 67 one though. Since it right in the center and vertical it didn't stand out much.. He also drilled a hole in the auto floor shifter push down button right above the knob and put a regular key lock so you couldn't push it down and take it out of park..
thanks guys all great idea's. i like the chain wrap idea. this weekend if it nice out i will crawl under and see what i can do kind regards johnny
hey doug these are the only pictures i can upload so far. i'll get some more later when the weather gets better johnny
Back in the 80's a friend of mine had a '66 GTO. He just used a padlock to lock it. I think he had a hole drilled in the hook part that is attached to the hood and when he closed the hood he would reach up behind the bumper and put the lock through the hole & lock it. The padlock kept the hook from fitting through the latch plate on the core support. I thought it would be hard to reach up in there to lock & unlock it, but he didn't seem to have a problem.
A lot of older cars had inside latch cables - our '49 Plymouth had one, so did my first car, a '51 Buick (actually it had two of them). I believe that most makes dropped them as a cost saving measure. When car owners got sick of having their batteries ripped off, the manufacturers put the inside cables back.
http://www.zlokhoodlock.com/how-it-works.html Anyone have something like this? This post scared me into looking into a hood lock. I am not a huge fan of the padlock and chain though. I just want something that blends in well and doesn't add more than a few seconds to opening the hood. Not sure if I would use the kill switch feature or not but it is a nice touch.
Liking this idea.. The best part is not knowing were to even begin looking when a thief try's to open it, so they should run away quicker. Dauntless, I actually still have the Z lok bracket on my 82 Regal but screwed off the cable pin at the front latch and tied the to the side as I always worried that the cable would break or get stuck and I wouldn't be able to open the hood my self. I had initially a Chapman lock way back in the day and saw that a dent puller would easily pop it out, then I went to the Z bolt which was "suppose" to be stronger ?? These were the days just before electronic remote alarms came to be..