SOS! Need help with my FFR MkII - hood hinges?

[NorthStr99]

Hello everyone -

I've got a nice MkII I bought about a year ago, totally unaware of the Cobra replica world. Talk about a fast education (no pun intended)! Anyway, the MkII's suffered from a very poor FFR hood hinge design, with the hood attached by two cheesy little hinge brackets at the front lip of the hood, which were apparently made out of weak 3/8" tube steel from what I could tell, judging from the subsequent breaks and even poor-er quality repair job made by someone who must have had a buddy with a welder in his garage.

Anyway, the crappy repair welds broke, so I took them to a local machine shop and asked them to reconstruct the hinges with solid bar instead of the aforementioned tube steel, while keeping the original geometry. The hinges were rebuilt, but the new geometry was not identical to the original, and hence the hood will now NOT fit properly on the car again, no matter how I shim or adjust the hinges. Unfortunately some of the original parts were used in the rebuilt ones, so the originals no longer exist to compare.

FFR is being monumentally unhelpful in helping me solve the problem, short of suggesting that I buy a MkIII hood with a much-superior hinge config. I had planned to sell the car and so do not want to sink another $1500-2000 into it just because the damned hood hinges were too cheesy for words. Does anyone know where I can get some original MkI or MkII hood hinges, or at least the specs for them? FFR wouldn’t even give me the orginal specs so I could have new ones made. I’m pretty disgusted with them, to say the least, and have lost faith in their supposed dedication to customer service.

On another note, does anyone know where or even if the MkII’s have any identifying chassis numbers/marks anywhere on them? I am the third owner and do not have the original mfr’s certificate of origin.

Anyway, thanks folks, I hope someone out there can help!

[Calicoco]

Pm sent

[wrench87]

Try Mark Reynolds at Breeze automotive he is a vendor on the FFR site he sells a hood hinge of that design. He is located in massachusetts.

[JoeT]

I agree with wrench....Mark makes the best product for what you're looking for.
Breeze Automotive Factory Five Racing
other guys swear by the Ken Pike (street rod painter on this forum) system. I haven't seen them in person, but I hear great things


most likely the hinges you have probably made by someone at home anyways


oh, and your chassis number will be found on the 2x3 cross-frame behind the cockpit or then they moved it to the 2x2 just to the left of the bearing mount for the steering whee


for all things FFR, may I suggest the ffcars.com site....guys there will help you with any issue you have

[NorthStr99]

Thanks Wrench, Calicoco and Joe, I appreciate your help. I'll try Breeze and again to get hold of Ken Pike (the number on his website isn't working right for some reason). I'd like to just simply put the original style hinges, crappy as they are, back on the car as I need to sell her and don't want to sink any more $$ into her than I need to, plus I need to get her on the market ASAP. Ahhhh life..... that's just how it rolls most days, isn't it? LOL

Cheers all!

[1985 CCX]

Acton Custom

[bobcowan]

The original design for the MI and MII were to use 4 pins and a lift off hood. The hinge was optional.

When I was building my MII, it was pretty obvious that the hinge was a POS. I spent 3-4 days redesigning the hinge to make it adjustable. It came out pretty well. Not great, pretty good.

About a month or so later, FFR announced their newly re-designed hood hinge kit. After looking at it, I immediately pitched mine in the trash, and ordered the new one.