48 DeSoto how do I mount the hood springs?

[marcapra]

It's been so long since I saw the hood on my 48 DeSoto (40 years) that I've forgotton how to put it on.  I assume the first step is to mount the front fenders.  Then bolt on the hinge assembly.  Then, screw bolts from the hood into the hinges.  But how do you mount the coil springs?  This blow up from the Parts List only tells me to put the coil part of the spring down.  

[Rusty_OToole]

Mount the hinge to the body and hook the spring to the hinge before you put the hood on. The hinge will be in the fully open position.

 

One way to put the spring on, is to hook it to your floor jack and stretch it then pack washers between the coils. The washers come out when you close the hood. Or you can make a gadget to hold the spring stretched, using a short piece of pipe cut in half with 2 washers welded to it.  Held in place by a couple of hose clamps.

 

There are several videos on Youtube on the subject.

[marcapra]

Where on the body do I hook the spring?  And where on the hinge do I hook the other end?  If someone can take a pic of their hood spring on a car similar to mine and post it here, it would help.  

Edited January 4 by marcapra (see edit history)

[marcapra]

Does my spring hook look like it's in the right hole on the body?  

[marcapra]

Someone on another site showed my a pic of the hood spring and it looks like it doesn't go into any hole.  Just a little divit.  Is that right?  

[R Walling]

 The safe way to stretch out the spring in order to install it on the hinge, is to clamp the short end of the spring in a vice and then bend the spring until one coil opens up and then place a large washer in the space.

 Then bend the spring in the opposite direction and place another washer in the next coil.

 Continue until the spring is long enough to place safely in the hinge.

 Then when you close the hood, the washers will fall out.

[Oldtech]

I think the spring hooks into the "little divot"  These things aren't user friendly. Good advise above.  They USED to sell funny shaped prybars for this job. 

[JACK M]

I saw a guy use a bunch of small wood shims that he had made.

I like this idea better than washers.

Here are pics of the 46 Chrysler passenger side.

 

 

[marcapra]

It looks like the top hook does go through a hole in the hinge in the pic above.  I guess I should first install the hinge mechanism before I try to figure out how to the put the springs on..  If you look at my second pic, there is a little clip on the hinge that looks like it might be for the spring?  

Edited January 4 by marcapra (see edit history)

[Oldtech]

I think you are correct.

[marcapra]

This is the best pic that someone sent me on how a 48 DeSoto mounts the hood spring.  It looks like the bottom hook goes on with the closed side pointing out.   I also include a pic of my car's lower bracket that I'm pretty sure is where the lower hook goes to.  But it seems like the hook would just slide off of that bracket?  

Edited January 5 by marcapra (see edit history)

[Rusty_OToole]

If it does you could weld a washer to the hinge and hook thru the hole. But I doubt it will.

[marcapra]

yes, I think the spring slants backwards, so it's not likely the spring could slide out the front of the bracket.  

[marcapra]

Keiser just noticed on another site that he sees a notch in the back part of the hinges, and that's what I think the green DeSoto spring is hooked onto in the pic above.  I thought it was that flimsy clip thing on the left.  I don't know what that is for, but I don't thinks it's for the hood spring.  Oh, now I know.  When I looked at the green DeSoto again, I saw that the little clip is for the hood release cable!  Thanks for your help on this!  

 

Edited January 8 by marcapra (see edit history)