I don't have a '72, but my '70 is pretty much the same thing. To open the hood, you have to pull the hood release rod forward, the hood will pop a little, then you reach under the hood, lower the hood just a little and pull forward and hold onto the release rod while lifting the hood up.
Essentially, the hood latch is a two stage mechanism as a safety against the hood blowing open if it's not entirely closed.
Closing the hood is another matter. The hood should be pushed rearward and only then should you try to close it. The downward movement of the hood should be continued until it latches. Ya gotta slam it. Seriously, it takes a little practice to balance getting it to latch the first time, and too softly to latch properly.
When I first got the car, I used to ease the hood down and push it closed to respect the machine. Unfortunately, when you push it's really easy to introduce dents in the hood where you're pushing.
In your case, I'd suggest lubing up the hood latch so it works smothly with little effort on the release rod.
One other thing that may be happening is the hood may not be hitting the latch at just the right location. If you don't have the hood properly aligned, and your fender gaps are uneven, or the hood isn't aligned with the front of the fenders, you might experiment with making small adjustments to the hood.
If your hood alignment is OK, I'd loosen up the latch a little and try to move it around to a better spot. All you have to do is loosen the three bolts around the latch and you should have a small amount of slop you can work with.
Good luck and let us know. -Matt
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"I work in high speed aluminum tubing."
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