hood release wire broke on '51

[tamara51dyna]

drat. I have my '51 Godzilla 52 Super for a measley 2 wks and I have a prob. What kind of wire did they use for the hood release that only lasts 55 yrs?? Just shows ya America can't make good cars. LOL.

Anyway, I guess I just don't know my own strength. The handle & wire pulled quite a ways into teh front compartment and I can't seem to get it to feed back through the spiral along the fender in engine area. Do I just keep trying or is there another way? It of course broke on the side with all the stuff ya wanna reach, i.e. passenger side. Now I'm paranoid about the one on the other side. How'n heck do u get that ton of a hood off if they both snap?

[Guest imported_Thriller]

I've got a similar problem on my '52, but the cable broke near the knob, so I was able to affix a piece of chain to enable it to open. I'm looking forward to hearing an answer for this one as well.

It seems to me (can't check the car easily as it is in storage) that it is a pretty fine cable, as opposed to just a wire. Cable is strong, but moisture really takes its toll on them too.

I don't know about getting at the hood release without the cable though - you might be able to reach up (most likely need some sort of a tool like a long screwdriver perhaps) from under the car to pop it open.

Good luck.

[tamara51dyna]

Yah, I've been thinkin' on it and a possible solution, at least temporary (which of course, means the rest of this lifetime, lol) might be to attach a new line (teal blue plastic baling twine was my repair-material-of-choice for my '57 Chev usually) to the release mechanism. Something should be reachable and connectable. The challenge then is, how/where to access the end of it to pull. The part I don't like is needing several linebackers to help get the hood off and then hooked back onto the driver's side so I can work on the passenger side mechanism. Crawling across the engine is not as feasible as it was on the Chev, but then, that had the old opens-from-the-front hood -- and wasn't quite heavy enough to DEFINATELY kill u if it fell. lol

[Guest sixpack2639]

Tamara, the only way I can see that is feasable to release the hood latches on my '51 Special without the cables is from underneath reaching up and pulling the rod between the latches back twords the firewall. Bob's Buick carries replacement cables for these for around $45 a pair. www.bobsbuick.com

Hope that helps, Carl

[tamara51dyna]

Thanks, Carl. I had a good lk at the driver's side & there did seem to be room to reach up from underneath. Not exactly the procedure I want to establish! (But a Buick-drivin' gal does what a Buick-drivin' gal has to do.) I'm hoping I won't need a new cable, but thanks for the info if I can't bridge the gap somehow.

[JohnD1956]

Not ever owning a Buick of this vintage, I wonder if it's possible- with some extra people to assist- to open from the operable side, and then reach across to manually release the other side and lift the hood off entirely? Then use a manual choke cable to craft a new release wire.

I imagine if the original wire pulled out of the latch assembly, it broke off at the end and will be too short, even if you could get it back in the sheath , to reach the latch now.

One word of caution, there was a brief thread on these boards regarding how some thought the hood would stand up on end while off the car. Apparently in more than one instance the hood fell, creating additional body damage and ruining a bombsite ornament. If you do pull the hood off, I would find a way to lay it flat on the ground to avoid this scenario.

JD

[tamara51dyna]

Thanks JD. No danger I'd ever set that hood on edge. Yikes. (Would make for an interesting scenario for future archaeologists tho' -- human skeleton found pinned by a mysterious flying wedge!)

I've taken a 2x4, put some good notches in each end & it makes a good extra support for the hood so I can see what can be reached and what'll need the hood off to accomplish. Too bad the broken release is on the side with the coolest view of the engine. I can't have the garage door open without passersby wanting to "meet" my new baby & what's a decent tour of a classic Buick without a gander at an inline 8??

Tamara

[Guest ewing]

The hood on my 47 roadmaster is a big heavy beast. But what I found was that if I stood it on edge it was very stable, however if there was a chance of a wind 'gust' getting behind it , it could tip easily ( never actually fell over). What I did was took a piece of wire and hooked it 'around the inner cross brace, then hooked the wire to the wall of fence, or whatever it was stood up against. Very stable that way. The advantage of this was that that big hood can actually be carried by one guy ( I did it lots), as there is a tab of sorts on the inside cross member, closest to the firewall end, that you can use as a hand hold, then tilt the hood over your shoulder and its just the right position to walk easily, without hunching over. Whether by design or luck it worked very well. ( just stay out of the wind if you do it alone)!

Now putting the hood back on the car is another story, and you need a helper for that.

[tamara51dyna]

I'm thinking of rigging up a pulley on a garage beam. (Don't worry, I have a sturdy 1920s garage & house, built by carpenters who knew what they were doing.) Just enough of a lift to compensate for not having linebackers at my disposal. Might be a bit of overkill for a hood release fix, but I'm sure it will come in handy, because I have NO plans to ever get rid of this car. I kept the Chev for 26 yrs so 26 MORE yrs will ... ... have me sitting in it at the assisted-living home, up on blocks.

[JohnD1956]

This sounds like a good idea. What do you have on the operable side of the hood that you can attach to? I would only consider something with a strong lip which can be bolted to or clamped to.

JD

ps: Please see your personal messages.

[tamara51dyna]

ta DA, boys! Turned out to be easier to fix than it at first seemed. I had a good look at the side that still works, decided it was over-designed. Instead of the springs/cable/round gizmo, all one needs is a wire directly from the metal loop that moves the rod connected to both hood clamps, which turned out to be reachable with no prob even with the engine opened from the other side. One piece of wire coat hanger later, VOILE. 'Course I still need to finesse this fix. See if I can thread the new wire thru to the compartment and attach the handle. Getting the old broken, stuck cable out will probably be the trick. But in the meantime, I can lay the end of the new wire along the windshield so at least I can have access to the engine on the side with most of the goodies. AND as a bonus I also managed, on the 3rd attempt, to feed a seatbelt thru the seat so I could attach it to the floor bracket. That took way too much patience! Next: I find the reason for no brake lights.

[JohnD1956]

Can you attach a picture of this. Since I don't have one of these cars I can't visualize your repair.

Thanks

JD

[tamara51dyna]

Alas, the one thing I can't get my computer to do is move photos around

& for the moment I'm sick of reading tutorials. I want to send pix of the

new monster to the folks back in Minn. but will do it the old-fashioned

way and get some reprints at Walgreens.

Some rainy day I'll draw a sketch of my hood release fix and send it to you.

Or finally get "Tamara's 101 uses for coat hangers" published.