Smashed hood latch bracket - What would you do?
 

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I'm in the process of restoring every aspect of my 87 Turbo and it will also get a full respray with new seals everywhere and I need to fix this ugly hood latch bracket.
It got damaged when I was young and naive trying to lift the engine in from the top...big mistake never done it again...

So how'd you fix this to look the best again?

I wonder if you could contact Porsche Classic for the part ?????? Then weld a new piece on.

Contact Lart or "Just Joshin" There are SOOOO many of these tubs laying around It would be fairly cheap to get the part, I would think when they remove it they can cut around it and then you can carefully drill the pinch welds out, Give it to your paint/body guy and he can spot it back in.. I think the 944 Hybrid guys have a these in their shop because when they do LS Swaps that portion interferes with the air intake...

I'd be inclined to weld and grind the torn metal and then do old fashion body work with hammer and dolly to see if you can get it looking ok with little/no filler. I'd worry a bit that the impact of the hood latch would crack bondo loose after a while. If it's too far gone, I just looked at it does look like that is a separate piece of metal spot welded into place. You could have Lart cut out that area for you, so you could drill out the welds and plug weld it into your car. To get yours off, I'd use a spot-weld removal drill bit, which drills though the top piece without drilling through the bottom piece. That way, you can plug weld the new one fairly easily. I did something similar when I had to remove the battery bracket from bottom of the battery box, which is similarly spot-welded, as shown here:

https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...y-options.html

In this video there is a tutorial on how to remove the hood latch.

I'm with Tom, hammer and dolly it back into shape.

If you need a skim of filler, a good quality product like Evercoat Rage will not turn loose like generic shelf Bondo brand.

Since you'll be riveting the latch back anyway, if you are worried about strength, make a reinforcement out of sheet metal that will tuck under the original piece to double the thickness. Rivet through all three pieces.

You can have paint made to your original code that a paint specific store can charge into a spray can to match.

T

LOL, except for the part of using the grinder backwards...!

You should always position a cutoff grinder when making a cut with rotation of disc oriented to go AWAY from your body in case the blade catches or grips the piece enough to force the grinder towards you or your hand.

More, the blades can shatter, clockwise rotation into the material you are cutting lessens the chance that a piece of 20,000 rpm shrapnel will fly towards you.

You can see the grinder jump a few times towards the user in this video when it binds.

If a supervisor saw this on a jobsite, you'd be fired on the spot.

T

Agreed. And look for SprayMax paint if you paint it yourself. It has a hardener that gets released into the paint before spraying, so the result is true chemical-resistant automotive paint just like a single stage paint a body shop would use -- leaps and bounds better than anything else in a can. And, I had it mixed to the Porsche code and the color match was definitely good enough for discrete parts under the hood.

http://usa.spraymax.com/index.php?id=829

But if you do remove it, no need to pry up the surrounding metal and bang on it with a hammer like that video. Ouch. These will get it out without bending the surrounding metal.

https://www.harborfreight.com/3-8-ei...ter-95343.html

Jimeny crickets, I quit on the video after the grinder but went back and skipped fwd to the part you alluded to.

No disrespect (this guy is a RL'er I think) but when he broke out that hammer and was wailing on the PS reservoir perch, you could see the wheelhouse just buckling.

Up vote for the spot weld cutter too. Forgot the brand I have but the cutters are replaceable with a small allen wrench.

Carry on...:D

T

Wow great response guys, appreciate it!

Maybe I can buy the bracket from that video, it looks to be cheap... Why would he damage so much, isn't the car going back to nice condition with those parts back on?

Ok so first try to weld the crack up and grind the seam down, then hammer and dolly it back as good as it gets and fill if needed to success.

If totally bad result I'll drill it away with that spot weld drill bit and start with a nice piece.

Thanks!

I can send you one for free just pay shipping

It doesn't get any better than that. Saint Louis :rockon:

My thought exactly, Lart for pres!

How would you get it out Lart?

Aprox shipping to Sweden?

I would just cut the section around and you can carefully remove the latch plate, I'll go ahead and cut it off and pack it to get a price on shipping.

the trapezoid shape tab/flange would be a perfect spot to drill a few holes and plug weld the new latch to your existing rad frame.