Guys i was just thinking. the design of the 1st generation hood was AWESOME. i mean seriously, who doesnt love the reverse open hoods.... (very exotic) why did mazda change the way the hood opened when they designed the FC? my opinion is that a reverse open hood on an FC would be nice. what would have to be done besides custom hinges?

-Markus

 

except how many SA/FBs have you seen without a bent hood stay???

 

Bent stay???

What does that mean?

BAD
Front opening can blow open when driving and scare the crap out of you.

GOOD
Rear opening is less likely to fall on your head when working under the hood.

 

The hood stay is the lever lock, that holds the hood up when it is open on a front hinge hood.

 

I have yet to have any of my 14 cars with normally opening hoods land on me while working on them, and my bimmers "reverse hood" was a pain in the *** when working on the front of the engine. (ie. you had to remove the hood to do the timing belt)

Never had a hood latch failure either, and I have logged several hours (yes I do mean hours!) at over 110mph.

The hood stay is the bar that holds the hood open. I guess first gens have problems with them holding up.

The only advantages to reverse opening are mainly cosmetic, (cowel clearances are greatly reduced) and offer a better access to the firewall and rear sides of the engine.

I wear 44" suits and weigh over 200lbs and have no difficulty getting to the firewall or rear of the engine on my 2nd gen.

Another disadvantage would also be in the cantilever mechanism required to have the reverse opening hood. Additional weight, additional parts, additional structural support forward of the axel, etc... Sounds great for a trailer queen if you ask me.

 

i dont understand. (bent hood stay?)


-Markus

 

The hood stay is the lever lock, that holds the hood up when it is open on a front hinge hood.

On many many front hinge hoods, the stay gets bent from the owner or mechanic not releasing the stay before attemping to lower the hood.

 

corvetts still use them

 

...that's not really a design flaw, though.....

 

oh... and my vote goes for having it mounted on 4 hood pins and then pulling the whole thing off when you want to work on it...

 

Yeah i should have made that an option too! lol

I wouldnt mind haveing hood pins. but i do like reverse open hoods.

-Markus

 

This goes way back - I used to autocross a 1098cc MK-1 bugeye sprite.
It had a light flywheel, a shimmed clutch, HC pistons & a .090 milled head. Compression was around 12/1, so it would wind the tach around & tap the zero pin from the back, - and eat exhaust valves.

I reversed the bonnet (hood) with the hinges down on the bumper mount, so it would swing way over forward.
With everything wide open, I could do a valve job in 50 minutes (every ~7000 miles).

Man, would a rotary have awesome in that car!
I think it weighed ~1600lbs.


I reversed the bonnet (hood) with the hinges down on the bumper mount, so it would swing way over forward.
With everything wide open, I could do a valve job in 50 minutes (every ~7000 miles).

Man, would a rotary have awesome in that car!
I thing it weighed ~1500lbs.

 

I dont really understand the hood stay thing either. My buddy's '80 just had a little prop rod to hold open the hood, and that was it. Maybe other cars had a stay instead of a prop rod or something.

 

I would like to mount mine with 4 hood pins, but
I also don't want to take off my hood if somebody wants
to see under the hood. So could I mount the rear hood
pin on the rear hinge? just curious Lates matt22

 

I wasn't just refering to the RX-7 with the hood stays.

Most of the modern car's with front hinged hoods have locking hood stays, as well as many of the '70s cars from Japan.

 

Meh i like my rear hinge one, except now the damn thing sticks everytime i pull the hood release lever inside the car....

-Tyler