Hood Prop Rod Mod

I wanted to be able to open my hood at the car shows and cruise-ins but I also wanted to show off the carbon fiber hood. With the hood wide opened not many people saw the hood unless they walked up between the cars from the rear. Since most people are walking in front of the cars I decided to make a shorter hood support rod so people could see the hood.

I took a hood prop from a 4-door Maverick that I was parting out and cut 22 in. from the length and bent the end the same way as the factory bent theirs. The holes in the radiator support for the short prop rod was already there. I made a support hook from a piece of scrap aluminum to hold the new short hood prop rod in place.

I found out that it is better to support the light weight hood in the middle because it only takes a good puff of wind to lift the hood out of the support rod hole. The way the support rod fits into the hood latch takes a little bit of finesse to get the rod out. I now have a support rod to show and one to be able to service the engine when needed.