Celica Forums Install Guides and Technical Articles Exterior Guides Hood Pins - How To Install

How To Install Hood Pins
By Isaac DeCoursey @ EverythingCelica.com






On the 7th Gen Celica, there is already an indentation "circle" in the chassis to suggest where the hood pin drilling should be done at ...just above the black "nubs" that are pictured here:









...

Since it's somewhat nerve-racking to drill through a new $600 carbon-fiber hood, I would suggest that you have this done by a professional body shop. If you drill and make a mistake, it will cost a lot more money to fix this than if it you were to just get it done professionally the first time.

Professional installation may cost from $15 to $35, and can be done at most speed-shops w/garage in about 15 minutes.

I, like many people, would prefer to not have hood pins, but most carbon fiber hood manufacturers recommend them since it is possible for your carbon fiber hood to fail and fly off your car! (Don't laugh, it happens!) Or worse, fly up into your windshield, smashing it and blocking your sight of view while traveling down the expressway at 70mph.

If tackling install yourself, here are the basics...

Required Tools:

• power drill
• 1-1/4" hole saw w/ arbor bit
• Drill bits of various sizes
• Phillips-head screw bit for drill
• Dremel drill
• #117 Dremel bit (or similar)
• Wrench to tighten hood pin posts
• Grease

Safety:

If you have a carbon-fiber hood, the structural part of the hood may be fiberglass and will become microscopic glass particles when you are drilling holes for the hood pins. Make sure you wear proper protective gear!!! I wore glasses and an air mask, but neglected to wear anything on my hands... and they were itching for a few days afterwords!!!

• Safety goggles
• Air filter mask
• Latex gloves

The Guide:

1. Open hood

2. symmetrically 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. hand-tighten the threaded hood pin posts into the holes you just drilled.

5. roughly set the height of the pins by looking at the neighboring light covers. Make sure they are vertical... you don't want them at some goofy angle when your hood closes.

7. dab some grease onto the tips of the pin posts. Let the hood down gently on to them, making sure the grease gets on your hood (The grease will mark the hood for drilling).

The grease spots are where you should drill with your 1-1/4" hole saw. Note: Make sure the arbor bit in your hole saw isn't sticking-out too far... you don't want to cut through the top layer of your hood at this time!!!!

8. drill through the bottom layer of the hood. Cut the 1-1/4" holes in your hood from the bottom of the hood... you should just be cutting through the structural support of the hood at this time, which is most likely fiberglass. Use the Dremel to shape/clean-up the hole when you are done.

9. Make sure your threaded posts are still vertical and repeat the grease trick in step 7 to mark the hole which will actually go through your hood. Be sure everything is fit perfectly the way you want it.

10. From the underside of your hood, drill a hole through where the grease was. Don't make it too big! Use the Dremel tool to shape the final hole to be just a tad wider than the threaded post, and to shape the edges of the hole.

11. Once both layers are drilled and shaped properly. Set the height of the hood pins again. Set your hood down and hopefully your threaded posts are still mounted a bit high so they go through your hood before it latches. Make sure everything is ok and that the post slides into the hole easily. Note: If the post doesn't go through the hole perfectly, you can just move it a little by just grabbing them and pushing it in the direction you want it to be.

12. Repeat on the other side.

13. Adjust the posts for the correct height. This step takes a little while. Take out one post, then adjust the other one so that it is WAY too low (so your hood will latch.) Then open the hood and raise the post so it will be the correct height when the hood is closed (Trial-and-error... never force your hood down too hard though!) Once the first post is at the right height, the second one should be easy.

14. Tighten down the pins. Get out your wrenches and tighten down the threaded posts at their correct height. They will probably get miss-aligned once tight... just bend them back to where they should be. Then slowly close your hood again to make sure all is well.

15. position the top latch plate on the hood as you'd like them, mark and drill the the included small sheet-metal screws. Make sure the drill is set on a "weak" setting if it has an adjustable clutch!

And you are done

what's the purpose of a hoodpin

for those who remove the stock hood latch and for those who want a little more security in their hood not flying up in their faces.