[Marine Blue]

Well the concours didn’t go exactly as planned last weekend but it was not due to preparation and condition. During a concours the judges ask you to open up the car including any storage compartments, engine lid, glove box, frunk etc. so they can inspect everything. When I went to pop the hood the latch was completely slack and the frunk hood would not open. . Unfortunately after many attempts at opening it I decided I didn’t want to risk damage so I ended up losing points for the entire front storage area which was unfortunate. The rest of the car was prepped well and I had minimal deducts so at least what was judged did well including the engine!

The next day I decided to tackle the hood to determine how to open it. After reading several posts online there was one that caught my attention. When pulling the handle inside the car if you reach behind it you can feel the cable. I pulled the plastic cover off the release mechanism and removed the carpet from that area so I could get better access to the cable. The post suggested that you could use a tool to pull down on the cable behind the handle and pulling hard enough could release it. I used a hooked O-Ring removal tool and was able to get it around the cable. Holding my breath I gave it a hard tug and POP the hood released! To say I was relieved is an understatement considering what some had to do to release the hood..

Once open I pulled the plastic trim piece off and could see immediately what the issue was. The housing had popped out of the metal holder so when you pulled the handle inside the cable housing was moving rather than just the inner cable. When cleaning at the concours I do recall my microfiber catching on something in the front but didn’t think anything of it. I reinserted it and noted that it had a slight bend in the holder which allowed the housing to pop out with little resistance. After straightening it out with some pliers I reinserted the cable and then closed up the opening so the cable housing could not pop out. I could see that the latch was moving correctly and with some apprehension I closed the hood. Fortunately the fix worked beautifully and the hood released! �� I decided to tighten up the cable and lubricate it since I had everything open and when done the hood release latch is now working better than ever. No slack, very direct and the handle pops back into position as it should.

Always an adventure with older cars. Fortunately this was an easy fix and no harm done.

Some obligatory pics of the car at the concours and the latch which will hopefully help someone who might run into something similar.