Billet hood lath/DSE Core Support

[cdushane]

Guys, I have a dilema trying to make these two pieces work and looking for some input. I purchased the hood latch from Fesler and I'm running a DSE core support, the problem is the latch is to thick and hits the close out panel before you can shut the hood. I've spoke with Fesler and DSE but no one seems to have any suggestions on what I can do. Has anyone run into this before and was there a way to fix it?

[Mikael A]

Originally Posted by cdushane

Guys, I have a dilema trying to make these two pieces work and looking for some input. I purchased the hood latch from Fesler and I'm running a DSE core support, the problem is the latch is to thick and hits the close out panel before you can shut the hood. I've spoke with Fesler and DSE but no one seems to have any suggestions on what I can do. Has anyone run into this before and was there a way to fix it?

Have some one rework the close out panel to clear the latch. Or take some material out of the latch.

[cdushane]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking but wasn't sure if anyone has had this issue in the past and what if anything they did to over come it.

[fesler]

You can remove a little material from the latch but don’t interfere with the bolt holes or you will have alignment issues. you can reshape it to fit your close out panel just take your time. If we could get a close out panel in here we could make it fit perfect but need the part.

If anyone has one that we can borrow for a few days we could do this.

[Steve1968LS2]

Originally Posted by cdushane

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking but wasn't sure if anyone has had this issue in the past and what if anything they did to over come it.

You could countersink the holes on the latch to get the bolts lower.. and go with buttonhead fasteners.

The DSE closeout works best with the stock hood latch and even then (with buttonhead bolts) it's real close. in fact my stock latch with buttons just BARELY touch the DSE part.

I don't know how you could modify the DSE part and still have it look good, but I suppose anything is possible when it comes to metal working.

[96z28ss]

I was looking at getting the DSE closeout. Until I saw a bunch of camaros that had them and they looked like they were rubbing and that was with a stock latch. I also saw a couple with the anvil close out that had some rubbing issues. I think the pocket that the latch goes down into needs to be wider.
Steve, I think I remember seeing your closeout panel from Autorad at RTTC2 and its rubbing also.

[cdushane]

Originally Posted by fesler

You can remove a little material from the latch but don’t interfere with the bolt holes or you will have alignment issues. you can reshape it to fit your close out panel just take your time. If we could get a close out panel in here we could make it fit perfect but need the part.

If anyone has one that we can borrow for a few days we could do this.

Let me know if you can get your hands on one and I'll send back the latch so that you could get it to fit. If not let me know and maybe i'll just send my core support to you, whatever it takes. Thanks

[Steve1968LS2]

Originally Posted by 96z28ss

I was looking at getting the DSE closeout. Until I saw a bunch of camaros that had them and they looked like they were rubbing and that was with a stock latch. I also saw a couple with the anvil close out that had some rubbing issues. I think the pocket that the latch goes down into needs to be wider.
Steve, I think I remember seeing your closeout panel from Autorad at RTTC2 and its rubbing also.

Right now I'm not running it with the Autorad.. the core support has a diff shape and it will have to be heavily modded to work.

But when I was running it it "almost" rubbed with the stock latch and button head allens.. but it didn't.

There is just not much wiggle room in that area.. if the closeout was wider like you suggest that would help, or if it had divets of some sort.

I really like the look of the DSE closeout, so I will be running one on Track Rat and I will most likely mod the one for Penny.