Hood Spring Rubber Tubing

One thing that I had noticed on Lowell's car a while ago was that the springs that hold the hood up had rubber covers in the middle of them.  I guess that these are to prevent the springs from rattling or rubbing together.

Needless to say, my car didn't have any.  I had measured the rubber on Lowell's car.  Each was about 12" long, with an outside diameter of .312" or about 5/16" with the diameter of the spring being .214" or a little less than 1/4".  I had been looking for some rubber tubing of that size that would be flexible enough to go around the 90° bend in the springs.  A few days ago I thought of the rubber tubing that is used in fishing to attach lead pencil weights.  It turns out that it was available in black in 1/4".  So I bought a package containing 3', enough to do both springs.

The next issue was how to free the ends of the springs without doing damage to the car or me.  I had a dickens of a time getting them installed so I didn't want a repeat of that.  I had first attached them to the hood and then the other ends to the car.  It turns out that the other way around would have been easier.  I was able to carefully release the end at the hood and then move it over the radiator to get access to slide the rubber tubing onto it.

Spring loose from hood	Sliding the tubing on

A little lubricant inside of the tubing and a coating on the spring let me slide the tubing around the bends and into the center section.  Here you can see the ends of the tubing in place on both springs.

One other item that I've seen a few 330 GTs that are missing the hood safety wire.  This wire runs from the sheet metal inside the engine compartment to the bolt holding the upper spring holder on the right side.  If this wire is missing, a gust of wind or an over-enthusiastic helper can run the hood into the body or spring the hinges.  Here's a picture of what the safety wire should look like.  Note that it's covered with a plastic tube.  I used some heat shrink tubing and just left it without shrinking it.

The covering just prevents the safety wire from banging or rubbing off any paint inside the engine compartment.  The wire should be just long enough to put the strut that holds up the hood in place.  That will prevent the hood from being raised too far and doing some damage.