People add the two rear ones to keep the hood vibration down. I've never needed them on mine.

It is a pretty common period mod so I don't think anyone will give you a hard time.. Do your underhood reenforcements look solid or are they breaking spot welds? Normally the one piece brace at the back of the 3A style hood does a good job holding the hood together, unlike the earlier multipiece ones..

1955CJ-5 wrote on 02/02/13 at 03:09:11:


I would throw out a caution flag at this point.  I just need some clarification.  You say that when the front is latched, there is a pretty good gap at the back.  I'm not sure that putting more latches on will solve that.  The gap between the hood and fender should be a constant 3/8 - 1/2 inch all along the fender, if it varies front to back its most likely that your fenders are not on straight, I would start there and make sure that they are straight.

Next question is what problem are we solving for now?  Is the hood flapping, rubbing, or is there a deep vibration sound at a specific idle.  I thought I needed a second set of latches, after I fixed the fenders I found that the hood didn't make noise anymore and the  rubbing went away. I did have a deep vibration sound that turned out to be the baffle in the fuel tank, vibrations at a harmonic, I added some isolators to move the tank off of the floor and that went away as we'll.

If you need a nice set of stainless steel polished hood latches let me know, I have a set to sell.
Todd

I went out and latched the hood and measured the gap. It is very consistent at just under 1/2"...

I guess the gap I was looking at was between the curved part of the hood and cowl. but if that were pulled down then the hood to fender gap would be off.  

I'll leave it as is for now..

Randy

That had crossed my mind....I was reading somewhere about radiator shrouds and someone mentioned that the L-head was sort of prone to overheating on warm days....any little bit of ventilation would help.

Speaking of hoods, after 11 months, I finally got mine back this week. I can't say that I'm real happy with the fit. I guess this is what happens when the hood is being repaired and reshaped while the rest of the Willys is 40 miles away. I'm not sure there is much I can do with it except keep my eyes open for a replacement. My hood was pretty rough when I first got the Jeep. It has now been beaten, braced, and bondo'd every way possible and this is how it turned out. The gap between the edge of the hood and the top of the fenders is a pretty consistent 1".  I think the problem lies in the hood but is there any way to tell for sure if it's the fenders and tub that are off instead? I'd hate to reconfigure or replace this hood only to have the new version look exactly the same.

Ryan, Look at the hinge area of the hood and the cowl where the hinge bolts on. Something there is not right. You shouldn't be able to see under the back of the hood. It almost looks like the hood is also too far back. If you can get a picture of the cowl, with the hood removed we might be able to see something there.

I would try some spacers behind the hinge and attempt to slide the hinge downward as much as possible. Hopefully it is not a new hinge welded on incorrectly or a damaged cowl.

You may be able to raise the fenders some to close the gap somewhat.

You are right, it would be  ashame to mess up that nice bodywork to get the gaps right.. It would be worth puttng a few layers of masking tap on the edges and fender tops while you get it right, just don't leave it on so long it dries out and gets impossible to remove.