Ever since I've owned my car I've had to carry a prop rod for the hood since the mounts were rusted off for the springs. The cavities aren't rusty at all, just the spring mounts, they were full of leaves when I bought the car.
Anyway, I had the hood fall on my head while changing the oil today which made me angry enough to actually fix the problem...

I took these pictures with my phone and they kinda suck, sorry... Shoulda grabbed my camera.

First I removed the arm the spring attaches to, you have to remove this little clip. Pull up on the tab and yank it off with a angled pick (my car isn't rusty, so it might be harder on a rusty one...). I had to tap the pin out with a hammer and punch, had to remove the battery on the passenger side.



Next I used a die grinder with an abrasive pad to clean up the area where the spring mount should be. It's a long way back and really difficult to work in there.


I needed a new loop so I cut a link of chain in half to make some loops, hooks on the springs grab them nicely, they're beefy steel, and already the right shape. Also since I couldn't fit the gas nozzle on my MIG welder in there to weld, I had to use flux core, the large chain link helped to avoid burning through the sheet metal into the car.


Finally I had to play quite the tetris game to hold the link in place to weld. Needle-nose visegrips holding the chain link, regular visegrips holding the needlenose, and my ground clamped to that. I also removed all the interior so I could see the back side of where I was welding in the case of a fire. I only welded for a few seconds, then cooled the area with an air hose before moving on. Don't set your car on fire...



And at long last, my hood stays up on its own


(yes, I need a new hood pad, thanks for noticing)

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1984 300TD -- summer daily driver
Many others that aren't Mercedes...

Finally threw the keys to my photobucket account in the well and changed to imgur... hopefully the pics show up now.

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1984 300TD -- summer daily driver
Many others that aren't Mercedes...

I had better keep those drains clean
Doesn't look like a lot of fun


snapped_bolt

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'81 240D For now, a good place to borrow new parts
'80 300TD Probably will be put back into service!
'79 240D BACK IN SERVICE SINCE 09/16; limited use, oil leak. Guide pin r/sealed/replaced. Still a leak. Front crank seal....