1915 Chandler hood parts

My '15 Chandler 5-passenger touring is coming together. I've reassembled most of it with the parts that came with the car.

I believe I'm missing a part for the rear hood hinge pin. There is an open support bolted to the cowl/firewall along with the radiator support rod. When the hood is on the car, the protruding hinge pin rests in the open 'U' of the support, but anytime one side of the hood is lifted to access the engine, the rear of the hood simply lifts off the cowl, and tries to slide off the other side.. even using two hands it's easy to have the hood slide off the cowl. To prevent this I have temporarily wired the hinge to the radiator support rod, to keep the pin in the 'U' support.

Either this open top 'U' support is actually a worn-out part that should be an enclosed loop to capture the hinge pin, or I'm missing some kind of bushing that fits over the hinge pin, and rests in the open U, and is somehow held in place on the cowl or firewall.

Other cars I have have a hinge support that is bolted through the firewall after it is slid onto the hinge pin, capturing the hood hinge. With the overlap of the cowl over the firewall, and the design of the radiator support rod anchor, this 'bolt it in place' arrangement would be quite difficult.

So, can anyone take a photo of, or describe what the correct part is, or tell me if the existing support is just a worn out part?

Next, I've looked at dozens of factory and advertising photos, trying to see the hood hold-downs. I have the parts for the hood, and they match the holes in the hood, the stretched length of a holddown will be about 4". I have some old holddowns that I could modify to use, the base that is bolted to the frame and splashpan have 1-1/2" bolt spacing, the Chandler has 1-1/4" spacing. I can modify the holddown bases by oblong-ing the holes, but dont' want to do this unless the holddown is close to looking correct for the Chandler.

I've attached photos of the holddowns, the 'other car' hood hinge pin support, and two of the Chandler hood hinge support.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Greg L

THE PIECE HOLDING THE HOOD IS ALL I HAVE EVER SEEN ON A CHANDLER CAR, TO MY KNOWLEDGE THERE IS NOTHING MISSING. YOU ARE CORRECT IT DOES NOT WORK VERY WELL.

Thanks PikesPeak, I think I will have to fabricate some kind of retaining bushing for the hinge pin. The pin barely rests in the open 'U' right now, and will be sitting completely out of the 'U' when I get hood lacing on the cowl.

NOT a very good design, which is a surprise to me, the rest of the car seems to be well thought out and engineered.

Attached is a photo of one of the hood holddowns resting against the hood, Since you have seen Chandler cars 'in the flesh'. Does this

type of holddown look remotely correct ?

Since I have them, and are spares, I will probably go ahead and redrill or file the holes for the bolts so I can get them mounted on the frame, and have some kind of hood latch on the car.. The hood bounced around a lot without latches.

Do you have any photos of Chandlers you have seen?? I'm going purely on advertising photos, and reprints of manuals etc..

Thanks for your help..

Greg L.

THE HOLDOWNS WITH WHICH I AM FAMILIER HAVE ONLY ONE HOOK FOR THE FINGER, NOT MANY PEOPLE COULD PROVE THOSE ARE INCORRECT HOWEVER. GOOGLE "1915 CHANDLER CAR" AND CLICK IMAGES AND PERHAPS YOU WILL GET A LOOK AT SOME CARS THAT WILL HELP. PUT IN OTHER YEARS FOR A BROADER SEARCH.

Thanks PikesPeak, I've looked and looked. I've bought original factory photos, I've expanded images off the internet. I've looked at factory images in original advertising and owners manuals..I've bought a good magnifying glass but so far no good images with enough detail to know for sure.

In some images, the hold down looks like it has only a single hook or loop for a single finger, but on others I'm pretty sure I see two hooks for two fingers. It's just too hard to see any real detail when enlarging old photos.

The parts manual has no images for these parts.

When I was at Hershey a few weeks ago, I looked at and measured every hood holddown I saw, and did not find the 1-1/4" spacing on any holddown of any quality, the ones that had the right spacing were very, very cheaply made.. From looking at the hood hardware for the hold down latches which I do have, I think the latches had to be pretty good quality.. so I suppose I'll go ahead and modify these to work.

I suppose that will guarantee I'll find the correct ones soon. Murphy's law prevails.

Thanks again for the help.

Greg L

IN ANOTHER THREAD KEISER31 SHOWS A GROUP OF THREE LATCHES THAT ARE VERY NEARLY THE SAME AS THOSE ON A 1922 CHANDLER HOOD. I SUSPECT THEY WOULD BE CLOSE TO THE ONES YOU ARE LOOKING FOR. SOMEONE WITH A 1915 WOULD HAVE TO CONFIRM.

1928 Plymouth Hood Latch or Catch

My Father own a 1915 Chandler. I will pm you with his info.

Hello,

Did you get your hood latches figured out?

I could send you a picture of the hood and latches from my 1914 Chandler if you still need some information.

H.Wintz

Thank you very much, no, I haven't figured out the rear hood hinge mount on the cowl/firewall, and I don't know what the correct hood latch would look like.. I'm finding that most hood latch lower retainers have a 1.5" center to center spacing. The Chandler has 1.25" spacing..

I would GREATLY appreciate a photo or two of the correct hood latch. And a photo or two of the rear hood hinge support on the cowl.

What type of hood lacing does your '14 have? flat, or the type with the recessed channel in the middle? it seems that the recessed center would keep the heads of the rivets from touching the hood.

Thanks for your help, I'll PM you with my email address, but if you want to post photos here, that would work too.

Thanks again,

Greg L.