Chevelle SS Hood Pins: Why?

First off, I love Chevelle’s in a very bad way, especially the front end of a 1970, and the back of a 71-72.  Combining those two aspects together would make the ideal A-Body in my mind.  But anywho, that’s not the topic at hand.  I want to know why the heck GM decided that the SS packages so desperately needed hood pins?  Was there really a chance of a hood flying up?  The Chevelle hood weighs in at just less than 400,000 lbs, do you really think it’s going to fly away?  Maybe the latch just wasn’t able to handle the job alone?  Or maybe it was done strictly for the mean muscle car look?  I don’t know, I’m probably alone here, but I just think the hood pins take away from the clean Chevelle hood lines, and they make it look like a factory installed hack job.  Hey, just my 2 cents.

Somebody please school me.

Oh yeah, here are some pictures of an absolutely mint ’70 SS with a 582 cubic inch engine, pushing out ~750hp, through a 5 speed manual transmission at the 1A Auto car show. MMMMMM,

Jeremy Nutt

Hi, I'm Jeremy.

6 thoughts to “Chevelle SS Hood Pins: Why?”

  1. Hood-pins are weight-saving measure for drag and race cars, as they weight less than a full latch system.

    On a production car they are just to give an aggressive look, seeing as there are many other weight-saving opportunities forgone in the interest of comfort.

  2. I remember seeing ‘falsies’ that stuck on for looks…they go along with the falsie Dbl Overhead Cam rocker covers. Gotta luv the 1980’s aftermarket!

  3. While necessary for many aftermarket fiberglass or aluminum hoods, I agree pins aren’t needed for a stock hood but I love the look and the HiPo message they send (70’s slang for high performance).

    Also, I’ve always felt as you do about the ’70 front and the ’71-’72 rear on the Chevelle!

    Nice pics but that front plate needs to go badly.

  4. I had a 1969 SS396 Chevelle that would pop the hood and catch on the safety catch when you took it over 120 MPH, very scary. It did it a few times so I put the pins on mine.

  5. I am a newby to the Chevelle owners club. Three weeks ago I purchased a 1970 SS396. Me personally, I like the hood pins I believe they definately add to the personallity of the bad boy look

  6. I have a 1971 Chevelle SS and I was going up and down my road to check out my Transmission and left my hood pins off and my hood flew up and bent in half. The latch had a crack in it and failed.

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