Using Ricks pictures as a guide I made another working model, again, my models pivot is close to but not to the inch where Ricks low pivot is, and as he stated his is off left to right,
Between my model and Ricks account his beak hits proves what I was believing already.
My point is in the case of the Mako low isn't the best while what FF was saying is true in some cases, to work on the Mako the point of the beak would have to be the pivot to keep the beak from hitting the ground as rick says his does,

Here is my mock ups of Ricks low mount,


As you see the beak comes way down when open,

Here is my high mount for comparisons,

What I like about where my pivot is located is note how basically the beak is no lower than were the bottom of the chin is and that of course is clearing the ground,
The only limit to how far it opens is what the chin hits as it swings under

...We Are The Music Makers & We Are the Dreamers Of The Dreams...
Cheers,
P.

In your working model, if it had tires on it, the low point still seems to clear where the ground would be; hard to tell exactly. Again, for sure it would require some playing around.

There are fairly compact electro-hydraulic rams specifically designed to lift boat sundeck/engine covers that would be perfect to open a hood automaticallly. With a pivot system, even if the hydraulic system wasn't used, there are mini-struts as used in hatchback cars which would dampen the opening and closing so that it would operate smoothly, stay in the upright position (potentially), and close without free-falling.

Lots of good options here. I'm almost this far on mine so this is of great interest to me. I was simply thinking caged needle- or roller bearing assemblies (like an axle bearing) frame-mounted (location to be determined), and two removable brackets with properly-sized rod stock welded. If they both had some side-to-side play (maybe an inch or more each), the hood could be installed and removed by loosening and sliding these in or out, depending upon how they're mounted. I think this is better than the full-lenth bar because it wouldn't interfere with anything else in its' plane of operation. Basically these would just supplant/repace the hinges in essentially their same (altered) locations.

Bro' FF

...We Are The Music Makers & We Are the Dreamers Of The Dreams...
Cheers,
P.

Skip

Skip,
I hear so much about your car I am aching to see pictures,

So much time is spent on hinges, well, again I would love to see pictures of yours in action,
What people have learned is hinges off cars and trucks wear out and or break, they don't really open very wide and have all kinds of other issues,

If we didn't strive to find better ways to build our cars we really wouldn't be car crafters now would we,
If your hinges work great for you that is super,
Again, why not post some pictures of yours doing it's thing, words only go so far,

If you can't figure out how to post pictures I can walk you thru that or email me your pictures I will host and post them for you, The13bats@aol.com
If you don't know how to send pictures in emails, how about I send you a digital camera, you fill it with pictures of your car and mail it back then I can post all the pictures,

...We Are The Music Makers & We Are the Dreamers Of The Dreams...
Cheers,
P.

Those bearing blocks are exactly what I was referring to; nice job. You've got images of virtually everything, don't you?!

Skip, those regular hinges will bend on you if they haven't yet, they rock side-to-side, and usually don't close all the way without a little help. Mine worked "alright" but they're just stamped steel, and one of the weak links on almost all vehicles... can't tell you how many stamped steel hood hinges I've bent on cars over the years.

There's a thread here somewhere with a link to some billet "regular" hinges with hydraulic dampers built in... very nice, but big money. That would solve the problem, too. All that said, I'm glad yours are still working for you.

Bro' FF

I got involved in building kits and customs very young, did my first really radical car a Camaro at 15,
All thru the years people talk about this or talk about that and it's good but I am a visual oriented person, It comes in part for several things, my other obsession cyrptozooloy and the study of some related paranormal subjects,
In that world a person says "I saw Bigfoot" or whatever weird creature, that's wonderful, but show me a picture and it takes on a new life, yes, 95% of the pictures are fakes or known animals,

So with cars it was almost a result of the type person I am I do what I do here on countless other car forums, not so much any more but in my early days on the net I would talk about this or that car I owned and or worked on and some wise apple would call me out, and I had to post pictures, so I collect pictures, I have at least 50K car related,
Granted like in the case of "bearing blocks" I didn't have a picture so I googled it but it showed you in an instance what I was talking about,
It would have been a lot harder to explain what a bearing block looked like with no image,
Pictures made me go from hating to liking round headlights,
Like in the other thread, how would one ever explain an L-88 scoop to a person who never saw one, it's cumbersome and almost impossible,

When I got deeper involved with kit cars I would hear a lot of people talking how well their car was built, ( fact, most kit cars are hack jobs ) In the early days of the internet you know any time a post was made about this or that someone would chime in that theirs was this way or that way but always better built,
I would day dream about all these wonderful built kits out there,
Then when I started hitting people up for pictures I would get to see the real deal.

It's like this, if I had my Laser 917 up for sale and you wanted one and I told you mine was a show car perfect in every way, would you send me the $$$ with never seeing a picture of the car or the car in person? NO WAY!

Back to hood hinges,
I have never heard anything good about using factory car hinges on the Makos,
I believe they fail for many reasons,
Like you say they rock side to side a fault with the Mako clip not being very ridged on the car, when you open the clip from one side you do place some uneven stress on things, over time that adds up,
Plus I can't prove it, but I believe that the way they are mounted on a Mako stressed them all different to how they are mounted on whatever car they came on,

Bottom line a factory hinge isn't made to do that and we have learned it wont do it for very long,

Late yesterday afternoon I was moving some of my yard art around out back, a fellow bought one of my Kellison bodies and I have to dig it out for his pick up,
I went to move the mid engine chassis, and the dammed slave cylinder popped,
So not to just get all frustrated I started messing with the Mako clips,
I was off a lot on my model of my pivot point, I didn't do the pictures like before but the red dot is where my pivot really is, right where that style line where a bumper would go starts to fade out,
A fair amount lower and I will have to say afteraying with my model I believe this to be the best all things considered for the pivot point if a single pivot is what a person desires,
The bar is right there but headlight would still fit in the grill

...We Are The Music Makers & We Are the Dreamers Of The Dreams...
Cheers,
P.

I could use that, wish it had came with the clip....

...We Are The Music Makers & We Are the Dreamers Of The Dreams...
Cheers,
P.