machina

..what is the point of these things?

basketballord

Some people do it for looks. To my knowledge, the functionality behind REAL hood pins was from back in the muscle car era when you didn't have hood releases...it was to keep people from getting under your hood and messing up your engine.

kirax105strike

^ yep

today mainly for looks

Slacker584

So is it safe to say that if you see someone driving a Mustang like one of ours, except that there arehood pins on it, that they serve no purpose and are a weak attempt at a cosmetic mod? I say weak because hood pins were never really my thing.

GidyupGo

Looks, peace of mind if you worry that the shaking hood will fly open on you during high speeds. I have read where one actually came loose on a s197 but the safety catch did it's job.

basketballord

I guess so, yeah. I kind of think it makes a car look more muscley, but that's because I associate them with classic 60's muscle cars. Really no need for them now with hood releases, except for maybe an extra measure of safety for the uber-paranoid.

28HopUp

The stick-on fake hood pins are simply for looks. Functional hood pins like the ones on the Shelby GT are reminiscent of 60's Muscle Cars.

An interesting sideline regarding hood pins. I went and looked at a new Shelby GT that hadn't been dealer prepped yet. There was a dash tag that clearly stated that in order to prevent damaging your hood you must remove the hood pins before pulling the latch inside the car. There's a big oops waiting to happen!

jdphillips73

I personally like them...They were one of the first mods ive done on my car.... and even though ive spent 5k on mods, i get the most comments on the hood pins "hey, man what you got under there, i see the pins..." or "what have you done to the car, i see the hood pins.."

TechJunky

I have a friend who used to have an old fox-body mustang (88 or 89, can't remember which) back in high school, and he put a cowl hood on it that would shake something awful (wasn't an installation problem, it was just a cheaper fiberglass hood I believe. It was quite flimsy). He put hood pins to hold it down, which did the trick. In that instance they actually served a useful purpose. I don't know if an aftermarket hood for one of our cars would do the same thing and require hood pins or not, but on a stock hood, there's no need.

Buckman

Personally I would never put hood pins on unless I actually needed it.
Having gone to the aftermarket Steeda Race Cowl, I felt the need was there, so they are on. Last thing I need is to be doing 130+ at the strip and having a close encounter with my hood.
If I would have stuck with the stock hood, I would not have done it.