Hood springs

[jreeder41]

Does anyone have a set I could buy? The ones on the car we just bought are shot and we need them by Wednesday of next week. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Fid]

1951 - 55 Kaiser hood springs are a tall order.  If you go to a KFOC meet, over half the 51 - 55 cars will have a wooden prop holding the hood  up.  Maybe it's a project the club could or should take on as I believe reproducing springs is actually not that difficult.  Since the only 1951 Kaiser I ever had a close relationship (now in the possession of Weas) has a working hood, I don't know if it is the springs or somthing else that causes the hood to not stay up.  If it is the springs that causes this, I think it would definitely be a worthwhile project.  Weas, you have one of the few left that does not have this problem.

[Weaz]

I wish I had the Kaiser right here to take a look at, but I wonder if the springs are similar enough to the old F-100 hood springs that you could swap them in? That could be dangerous too. Having a professional rebuild them would be ideal.

After looking up spiral-torsion springs, I agree with Fid. Seems they would be easy to get produced in quantity, provided they are actually the culprit.

[jreeder41]

F-100 was my first thought. We were working on one not too long ago. I don't remember if the current ford we have here has the springs on it or not. I will have to check into that. Perhaps I can find a way to make them work. If so I will pass on the info.

[mbflemingkf]

Kaiser Bill has a place on his web site in CA that rebuild them but I don't know anything about the price or outcomes. 

[jreeder41]

I saw that. But we are taking the car to Carlisle to set at our booth next Wednesday. We are going to build it as a shop car. I ordered a set of F-100 springs. I figured it was worth a shot.

[Weaz]

Take a lot of pictures of replacing the springs and make a little writeup here. If those F-100 springs work, and you show everyone how it's done, you'll be a hero.

[jreeder41]

We should know today. I'm bringing the car in to try and get it running and driving. Our local Napa had all the ignition and brake parts in stock! I'm stoked!

[jreeder41]

Well we got it to start on starting fluid. Tomorrow we will fill the temp tank and see if she will purr. We did change it over to 12 volt today. We replaced the coil, solenoid, voltage regulator, points, condenser, cap, rotor, plugs, battery and wires. Is the little button to the left of the column a push button starter? We had to jump the solenoid today. I compared the broken hood spring to the picture of the truck spring. They look identical. Hopefully the new ones will be in tomorrow.

[Fid]

Yes, the push button to the left of the steering wheel is the starter.  The button should work fine after the 12 volt conversion. The ignition switch has three positions - off (lever toward passenger side), on (center) and 'Valet' (can be turned on without the key when you turn the lever at the bottom toward the steering wheel and remove the key)

[jreeder41]

Thanks for the info Fid, we thought the ignition was wired wrong yesterday I guess not haha.

[jreeder41]

[Weaz]

More pics.
More pics.

[jreeder41]

Soon, Soon! We are leaving at 4:00 for Carlisle today. I installed the hood springs on the hinges this morning and I'm pretty confident they will work! We will be putting the hood on around 9:00. We had the car running under its on power last night for the first time in 30 odd years. Always a very cool feeling!

[jreeder41]

Well good and bad news. First the good, the ford hinge spring fit on the passenger side with no problem. Unfortunatly I ran out of time and could not replace the driver side too. The hood doesn't stay up on its own yet, it wants to but I believe the drivers side is too weak. The bad news, the clutch does not want to function no matter what we do. I'm not 100% sure if the clutch disk is frozen fast to the flywheel or if the the throwout is not making enough contact.  Oh well, it all needs to come apart soon enough.