Im seriousely thinking about making my mav hood the reverse tilt type ... I Have the front hinges and cross bar from an old BMW and i think that with some mods i can make it work ... But heres my problem ... How do you keep the rear part of the hood held down ? I dont want to use hood pins ( although if it comes down to it i will ) and i dont want it fluttering in the breeze ... It didnt occur to me at the time to look and see how the BMW hood was held down in the rear ... My thought was to mount a cable type latch at the rear BUT if im using a EFI set up will there be room ? Any and all suggestions are welcome ...
It definetly is an interesting idea. To successfully do this, you should make a trip to the local junk yard and study cars that open that way. One car to look at is the 70-77 celicas--they open that way and have an internal cable release. You could farely easily run a cable through a hole into the firewall into the inside of the car. I think that you could even take the release mechanisms and latches from a junk yard donor and weld them onto the maverick to make it functional. That would certainly be trick...I havn't seen ever a maverick do that. Please post pics!
Here is a pic from this site I borrowed to give example of an efi setup. I think there might be room with a little modification. the latch would either be installed up near the cowl vent, or to the left of the intake----I am pretty sure it goes up towards the top, in the center near the cowl, There looks to be enough room
We're finishing up our Mav. with the hood reverse opening now. Just as been suggested we are using a cable operated hood release mounted on the ledge at the firewall. The final assembly is still in the works.
Not that I"m knocking your idea, but my 57 Ranchero hinges in the front and I really dont see the advantage of it. Its more of a pain in the you know what when you have to do things like change a water pump or adjust belts. The only advantage with the 57 is the old Y blocks have the distributor in the back.
I agree... Unless you enjoy engineering challenges, what is the point. The only time that anyone would know is at a car show. If I were going to do that I would go ahead and bolt/weld in a tube frame and tilt the entire front end. In fact it might be less of a pain to get the parts lined up. Seth
reverse hood Congradulations!!! It is great other people think the way I do, different is good ( to a certain degree) I flipped mine almost 10 years ago, and I have done my other car also. I did it similiar to what Runum did, I just fabricated my hinges I also put the latch on the firewall, but I cut the outer dimension of the latch so it would slide between the lip where the firewall and cowl meet. also before I installed the blower, I had 2 cylinders bolted to the fenderwells and 2 small tabs welded to the hood to attach them to so I would not have to use the hood rod, so when you popped the hood it went up up nice and slow kind of neat when you are goofing around showing off!! But since the blower I changed hoods and cut out the bracing on the underside so the cylinders are too strong for this hood and I went back to the rod, which I do not like. I will post a picture of a close up of the latch system I have if you want it, just let me know. By the way if everbody was the same and did trhe same stuff this world would be a boring place. Chandler
Wow Chandler it is scary how much we think alike. I guess it took several years for my brain waves to catch up to yours. You're right, it would be pretty dull if all the Mavs were the same color with the same options. Did you ever PM me about the final price of those cross shafts? Greg
Back in the late eighties a guy I know (now a body shop owner)had a `71 Comet GT.The car had a reverse opening hood and he used gas charged struts from a hatchback car to open it ...the Hood was released by an electric trunk latch. So you could sit in the car ,push a button and the hood would open! The car also had an electric trunk that could also be opened OR closed from inside the car,It was done using electric window motors. Also this car had a pair of driving lights (like fog lights but clear lenses) that were mounted under the front bumper were the tag cut out is. They were mounted on a hinge and when you turned them off they retracted undernieth the bumper! Flip them on and they`d fold back down. The car ALSO had shaved door handles, and to get into the car you had to put the key in the stock lock hole and turn it and the door latch would open (very easy to lock your keys in the car ) Last but not least he had a comet GT hood scoop that he made a "door" in the front opening of with a perfect fit and it was painted the same color as the car and had a chrome "GT" badge on the little door...well when you kicked the throttle the door had a vaceum actuator that would make the "door " open up like a cowl induction hood on a `70 chevelle I will try to get him to answer some questions about what latches,motors ect.ect. he used If any of you guys would like. Who knows ,maybe he has some pictures of the car he could loan me to scan and post here.
MAV , Chandler, Runum ... Thats Exactly what i want to do !!! ... LOL for a second i was thinking it was a new idea for a Mav ... Any and all pics will be greatly appreciated ... BTW Nice job on shaving the humps !!! I know there are no advantages to doing this mod but thats what being a car lover is all about ... Theres no advantage in frenching and antenna or a license plate but thats whats so much fun ... Most people have some sort of hobby be it gardening (By the way im shooting for 3 lb tomatoes this year) Thier lawn, sports, bikes or whatever ... To me theres nothing better than closing the garage door, Popping a cold one, Turning up the radio and just working on a car ... In the last 20 yrs i have worked on a number of project cars but i have to admit that the Mav that my son and i have been working on has been the best ...Mabey its the father, son thing but we have had a blast !!! Dreaming up new mods and even kicking the fender when a rusted bolt breaks then laughing till you almost pee your self ... This project started out as a daily driver for my son when he gets his license but i think we have gone way past that now ...LOL it seems the more work we do the bigger our list gets !!!! But thats ok because believe me they grow up FAST ... I am cherishing every second we spend together working on his ( MY ) Mav ... BTW heres the paint we have chosen ... Whadda ya think ??
father and son dude, super cool would love to see pics as you progress. My son likes the idea, yet all I havegotten him to do is sit in it and run the battery down listening to the cd player...oh well, maybe later...
Yea I too thought I had all these wonderful new ideas for my 16 year old nephews Mav we are building together. Now I find out that I seem to be about 10-15 years to late. That's OK he still thinks the car is cool and I would have died to have a car like this when I was in high school. 76 Mav, be sure to post pics of the car painted with that scheme. I know it will be very cool. Greg
