69 hood hinges
 

I needed to replace my hood hinges and ordered a pair with springs from Ames. I also brought a complete interior kit plus many other parts to restore my 69 Judge. For the most part, everything was good to very good except the hood hinges. I had 4 hours into installing them and than asked 2 of my friends to help with another 4 hours and we could not get them to function properly. We even tried the old springs but no luck. After examining them I found the holes where the rivets are were not exact as the old ones, throwing off the geometry. They returned with no problem. I want to know if anyone else has had issues with their hinges.
Thanks, Mike

Mike,

I have a 1969 also but not a Judge.

I had bought just the hinges from Ames at first and used the original springs but the hood would not stay up. But not the fault of the new hinges. It was my fault I had over stretch the original springs when I went and painted them. Order new springs from Ames installed them and hood stays up without any issues.

I did do a comparison of the new and old hinges and I did not notice and difference between them.

Reproduction hinges are the worst. They don’t fit.
Have your originals rebuilt and you will be extremely happy with the results! Contact Wille. He is the man:

Willy Wilson
434-258-2606
Wilson Antique Car Parts
1067 Clearview Dr.
Forest, VA 24551
[email protected]

Had mine rebuilt 4-20-2020
Shipping to VA from GA $25.55
Total with shipping back to me $224.33

Worth every penny and Willie is a great communicator.

I'm surprised with your results and just wondering if you had any type of discussion with Ames Tech support.

Edit - Link to thread - https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=843472

I'd be interested in what was offered for a possible cause.



Frank

I called support and they told me they did not receive any issues with the hinges. When I installed the hinges, the hood would shift at the top to bottom out the stops. when you let go of the hood, it would drop on one side about an inch. One hinge aligned fine but the other, I ran out of slotted adjustment. My old hinges worked fine but they have seen better days and were sloppy. My car was painted several years ago and still looks great so trying to align the hood was nerve racking to say the least.
When I took a closer look at the hinges, I could see the holes for the rivets were not in the same place, not much but enough to make a difference.
They returned them with no problem.
Thanks Mike

Thanks for the feedback Mike, I can understand your less than pleasurable experience and opinion. Hopefully this was just a case of one bad hinge.

That's the first unsatisfactory thing I've heard about their new hinges, Ames is usually upfront and honest about the quality of the products they offer.

I can see your concern with the paint, that's a sweet ride.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...2&d=1613851444



Frank

I had problems with my hinges from Ames, also I got same reply that they have never heard anything before. The problem was that the hood stayed too high and I was not able to adjust that low enough even when removing as much material as possible around the holes. I thought that there is something wrong with the car in overall, which still might be the truth... I still have the original ones, but haven't tried to use them yet, while they would certainly need new rivets and everything.

Does anybody have experience with the Eddie Motorsports or Ringbrothers billet hinges?
Expensive but they sure look nice.