2005 Mustang V6 Shelby Hood Pin Install

well, i was waiting patiently ( yea right) for the grill to get here, and the scoop to get done, to install the hood pins. but, i just had to work on something. i pulled the hood blanket off and removed the rad. cover. the shelby brackets are sweet and bolt right into the holes for the radiator bracket.

while i was that far, i decided to pull out the grill and paint the frt core support in the center black, cause that red showed through the grill and really bothered me. this is where i went across the grain( usual move for me it seems). shelby has nice instructions and even a pattern to use to make the cutout in the rad cover.

i chose to lay the cover on top of the pin brackets and mark the bolt holes. then i drilled a 3/4 in hole in the plastic with a paddle bit with the cover held solid on a pc of wood, and notched up the back and made a slot to go over the bracket with my die grinder. it looks alot nicer than the gaping hole in the cover per pattern, however the draw back is if you ever want to remove the rad cover, you`ll have to unscrew the pins. ( which i`ll have to do this week to change the grill) :so

Part 2

with the radiator cover in place, there is just enough space under the pin bracket to hold the bottom nut with a mini pair of channel locks and screw the pin in. once its close, 2 end wrenches work good to tighten. i put a pc of 2" blue painters tape under the hood in the pin areas, and painted the top frt half of each pin with my touch up paint and lowered the hood. when you open the hood you`ll see that the mark on the tape is just up into the brace curve, and you`ll see the mark left on the pin is about 3/16" to the frt of the center of the pin. i added for that and used a automatic punch to mark the spot on the tape and drilled a small hole up through the hood. the pin comes through the hood on the curve, so i used the uni-bit to drill down through the hood and a little from the bottom on the angle the pin will be coming through the hood.( note: its not at a 90* from the hood surface)

Part 3

with the hood closed,and the pins adjusted for height somewhat, i centered the gaskets and top trim plates, and pre drilled the 4 holes for each plate. because the hood slopes off in the frt, the lock pins went sideways to fit best. i fished the cables and screwed them to the core support.