Converting long hood to short-how to do w/hood latch?
 

Okay so I am thinking of converting a pre-'74 coupe to the short hood and fenders 'coz I want to put on a C2 kit. The fenders shouldn't be that hard, as it is all bolt on. The hood itself shouldn't be that hard to swap, but what about the hood latch? I was talking to someone who was parting out a '77 coupe and he informed me that I had to replace the interior structure?!? Just needed to know what parts I need to keep the hood down, and do the later style bumper shocks. Thanks for the help.

But, WHY?

The early cars are fine just the way they are. If you want to do this, find a '74 and later shell to do it to. The early cars are special.

If a C2 is what you want then go out and get one.

You will spend far less money if you get what you want. Body kits are usually cheap and difficult to maintain in the areas of panel gaps, color matching and overall quality. You will paint your car and it will look terrible due to the pressure and stress the body undergoes during performance driving. Cracks in the paint, sagging panels. You will spend a fortune altering the interior.

Buy what you want you'll be happy.

Sincerely,

-JB

P.S.
IF your car has a sunroof I'm going to be sick.

You would have to cut the nose off the chassis and weld on a new front latch panel. The way guys get away with converting later cars to early look is by using race style hood latches since the long hood overlaps the latch panel.

From a financial standpoint you would do better to sell the early car and buy a 76' or 77' . They're cheaper than an early car and are galvanized, they have aluminum trailing arms, so they would make a better starting point for what you want to do.

Bobby

plus your car would not be worth very much...you'd be hard pressed to find a guy to buy it even if it was a awesome job...

while trying to buy parts I met a guy who does only conversions like early -->993
or SC --> 996

I can dig up his contact info...but you should just sell and upgrade...

Don't do it...please!