Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Hood pins install

I need some help, I need to know what you guys did to install your pins? Did you have to take the bumper off to get the pins into the frame? Or can you just drill down into it. I'm just concerned about hitting something underneath. What kind of drill did you use to go through a carbon fiber hood? I heard they are a bitch to get through. Any help would be great thanks.
augie

unless you are an expert with drills, i would advise having a body shop do the install for you. that is what i will be doing this weekend. call around. i've called around and had quotes for $150 canadian for a 3 hour install job. supposedly it should only take 1 hour at most to install. you will find a shop.

yeah I'm having a shop do it, I just want to explain to them how to do it to make sure they do it right. One shop said it would take 4 hours because they wanted to take off the bumper and stuff, guy must have been out of his mind. I was just making sure you can drill down into the body and you wont hit anything like the radiator right?

once you look at the hood-pins, you will see that its not that complicated to install them

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On the 7th Gen celica, there is already an indentation "circle" in the chassis of where the hood-pin drilling should be done at

Sorry I dont have a better photo, but it should be just outside the black "nubs" that are pictured here.

or an alternative to that would to just remove those "nubs" and use these holes... that would get your pins to be 100% symmetrical on either side



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I would suggest though, that you have this done by a professional bodyshop - since if you drill and make a mistake, it will cost a lot more money to fix that, then if it you were to just get it done professionally the first time around.

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but if you insist on installing them yourself...

1. Open hood

2. mark exact location for where you want your hoodpins located

3. drill holes in the metal frame of your car... to pass the hood pins through.

4. bolt hood pins into the holes you just drilled.

5. roughly set the height of the pins by looking at the neighboring light covers. Then tighten the pins!

7. dab some grease onto the tips of the pins. Let the hood down gently. The grease will mark the hood for drilling.

8. drill through the bottom layer of the hood. shape hole to fit with dremel.

9. Repeat the grease trick until everything is fit perfectly the way you want it.

10. drill through the top layer and shape with dremel

11. Once both layers are drilled and shaped properly. Set the height of the hood pins again.

12. position the top latch plate, mark and drill. Install w/ the small sheet-metal screws.

More detailed install here...
http://www.venommotorsports.com/library/hoodpins.asp

those are different pins then I have.

Sparco and MOMO look basically the same... what brand do you have?

I got a brand from auto zone, but they are basically the same to install. Its just different the way it sits on the hood. It has a round plate that the pin comes up through, then has a clip that goes through the pin.

A guy qouted me an outragous price, but I found someone else to do it. I'm just not daring enough to drill through my new hood. Thanks for the help.

for better looks, i would have the shop install the pins in this fashion, slanted/vertical with the headlights:



as opposed to horizontal:



just my taste.