Hood Latches

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Major System Category: Body (Hood)
Task: Install latches and strikers
Parts: Corvette donor latches/strikers
Prerequisite Tasks: gas struts
Additional Costs: $20 Hood latch rub plates
Time Requirement: 90 minutes
Date Started: September 30, 2012
Date Completed: October 1, 2012
The latch and striker system use Corvette donor parts. There is a driver and passenger side version of the latch. The rule of thumb is that the side with the two square cut outs face front. In my case, the Corvette latch bolts were available. I used those with an extra set of washers on the inside of the body shell.

The side of the body is marked up for the latch install. The Corvette donor bolts are  1/4 inch,  so I drilled the center of the square cuts to give me some latitude to adjust the latch position on the body. Orientation: Driver side latch.

Consideration: It is much easier to do when the doors are uninstalled. The back of the latch can be reached from both the wheel well and door opening.

Corvette donor latch installed, with the Vraptor Speedworks rub plate between the latch and the body shell. I painted my rub plates black. They come unpainted. The square cut outs on the rub plates match the donor hardware.  Orientation: Driver side latch.

I purchased the Vraptor rub plates. These were originally called paint savers. Basically they act as a shield between the striker and the fiber glass behind the hood latch.

This the edge where the hood mates to the body shell. My goal is to keep this aligned. My other goal is to  keep the  left/right and up/down measurements for the hood with 1/8 inch tolerance. These goals do not play nice together.  Orientation: Driver side latch.

Consideration: The manual has this paint marking scheme to figure out the position of the striker. While this might work, it ignores the alignment of the hood and body lines. I developed a different methodology for striker placement.

My method measures from the edge of the body shell to the center line of the latch where the striker  mates. This approximately 9 inches.

My methodology is as follows:

1. Close the hood and ensure the edge of the hood aligns to the edge of the body where they meet towards to top of the door opening.
2. Position the hood latch so it sits in the middle of the up/down and forward/backward. This is so it can be adjusted.
3. On the body, run a measurement from the edge to the center line of the latch. I found this to be approximately 9 inches.
4. Run the same measurement on the hood and project a line perpendicular to the mounting block for the striker. This line aligns to the striker.
5. Duct tape the striker in place and bring it down to the latch. It isn't very easy to see the striker and the latch, but I was able to reach my finger up and feel the location of the striker, then I just lifted the hood to verify the location.
6. Adjust the latch/striker as necessary.
7. Tighten everything down and test latch the hood.

I make a similar measurement with the hood. This one is harder to do because the body shape curves and the mounting block for the sriker is about 2 or 3 inches away from the edge.

The hood is going to want to creep around in terms of fitment. Right now, I am fairly happy with how it turned out. I reran the laser level against the hood. She is still within 1/8 of inch left to right.