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Went to pop the hood on the 68 a few days ago, pulled back the hood release handle, no resistance..and nothing happened. Hood lockout. After 50 years I finally got bit by this this problem. On the 68 and 69, you can open the hood from underneath the car. For the 70, 71, 72 remove the egg crate louver assembly on the driver's side and reach up your hand to open the hood. To get the hood to open, you have to push this little lever arm....push it toward the front of the car. If you have a 70, 71, 72, remove the egg crate louver assembly in the front driver's side quarter panel, stick your hand up and trigger the hood release lever. There's a lot of room here to move your hand around. (You don;t see it, but my vacuum power brake cannister has been removed and replaced with a Hydroboost. You can see the SSBC master cylinder.} From the underneath of the 68, remove these two panels. I think the one on the right is part of the heat insulation system for the 68. The panel on the left is a splash shield..l think common to all C3's. I have the factory OEM 1969 sidemount exhaust system on my 68, so I had to remove the driver's side exhaust shield to remove the left panel splash shield. Now from underneath the car. you can get your hand up there to feel around for that little lever arm. Since you can see neither your fingers nor what surrounding your fingers, I find that it's a good idea to just close your eyes. What your eyes are seeing, underneath the car, has nothing to do with what your fingers are trying to feel/find, so anything your eyes are seeing is just a 100% distraction. Not seen in the photo is the PB vacuum canister. This was a big concern when I first reached up into the 68 from underneath since i was concerned it'd be in the way. Fortunately not. That's a Be-Cool radiator. The engine is a ZZ4. The alternator is a high amperage unit that is included with the GM Performance Parts catalog serpentine belt system. The driver's side door was shightly opened when this photo was taken, so that''s why you see a big door/body gap.
My apologies to any NCRS guys, who reading this post, have gone into catatonic shock with this restomod 68. Actually I'm a NCRS member. With the hood down, only someone very familiar with a 68 would notice differences from stock. The shift console still has the stock 4 speed manual shift pattern diagram, even though the tranny is a 5 speed Tremac.
If you have a hood lockout problem with a 73 and up, there are Youtube videos to help, For 73 and up, the firewall has about 1 inch grommets that you can push out and access from the hood opening between the hood and the windshield. I've watched these Youtube videos. The idea is to take a stiff wire, bend a hook on the end and fish it into the firewall hole to try to hit the release......I think the later year C3's may have a different hood hold down system.
Anyhow, if you have a C3 hood lockout problem, the luckiest C3 owners are the ones with 70, 71, and 72's. These guys are laughing with their removable egg crate grill louvers!
Last edited by 68/70Vette; Aug 18, 2020 at 10:06 PM.
68 Hood Lockout
