Ok. I pulled the grill off this morning.

I pulled some measurements as well. As it turns out, I have had a few sticks of powder coated 1/2" diameter square tubing from a Con-Ferr rack I installed on my ZJ... didnt need the floor kit.

Anyway. With the hood latched tight, there is right at 1/2" between the latch and the bottom of the upper radiator support. Soooo... with 2" of the 1/2" tubing in hand, about 2.15" poly tubing and two zipties....















No road test just yet... but I dont see why. there is no room for lifting.
As for durability, I ran some urethane vacuum tubing through the tube to prevent chafing of the zipties. This is a temprary test.. i am ofcourse hesitant to hack or drill on my JK.

Keep the pressure on DCX for a Manufacturer fix... but in the meantime, I got mine... and it cost me... I dunno... $.02 considering all this stuff has been laying around.

The way this works, guys, it fits snug. After releasing the hood bungies, I only have to give a slight press down on the front of the hood to relieve tension from the hood spring. Then I reach up in the center slat right under "JEEP" and slip the latch over and it pops up like normal.

You guys can come up with whatever ideas you want, but instead of fuming and worrying... I made mine.

stay safe!

 

Well done. I have not had an issue that I noticed with mine, but if I do, your solution is simple.

 

is there still enough room to put your hand in between the hood and the grill to unlatch the inner latch between the grill and the hood... i did the grill mod and no longer would be able to reach through the slots on the grill.

 

Not bad......Not bad at all. Let us know the results of the road test! BTW, the reason I've not been working on my own Jeep (and the reason I live on this forum) is that I'm currently recovering from spinal fusion surgery. Its tough to bend over to put socks on......can't imagine working on the ride right now Thanks for the help!

 

Looks like a non-invasive, quick fix.

Where can i get some square tubing?

Thanks.

 

You should be able to find some at home depot, lowes, tractor supply, or you local hardware stoe, i.e. Ace or True value etc.

 

think of this as a two-stage latch, now. When fully closed with the hood secured by the bungies, you are looking at the bottom two pics. When you reach inside the center slat and "pop it", it goes up to the normal position when you release the bungies. Then, you slip your hand under the hood as usual.

skibum, keep on recovering my friend. The Jeep will be there when you're ready. Hell if you were near, I'd do it for ya. (anything to shut you up )

j/k... i thought about it all night at work. I remember looking at it when I had the grill off a few weeks ago. Just had to wait till I got home to take it apart.

 

Thought about this fix some more......takes awhile these days..........painkillers are wonderful but the mind is clouded........better living through chemistry. Anyway, since we all seem to agree that the rubberbands are stretching, what happens if they stretch and the secondary latch remains fixed? Don't want to see anybody bend their hood! Possibility maybe........I dunno Hate to have somebody pi$$ed at me cuz they bent their Jeep trying to solve my problem.

 

First of all, really nice work there-- I'm interested in seeing the on-road results!

With that said, I just wonder if there was play built into the original design for a reason... I mean, they did design the latches to be stretchy rubber. Makes me think of the principal that is used to design earthquake safe high-rises by allowing them to sway in the wind rather than making them stiff, which could cause them to buckle. Mother Nature used the same design for Palm trees-- if they didn't sway in the wind, they'd just break and fall. When you watch a high-rise in an Earthquake or a Palm Tree in high wind (sorry, you non-SoCal folks will just have to use your imagination ), you would swear they're about to fall over. But, in reality it's the flexibility that keeps them standing.

Of course, all other vehicles have hoods that are tightly latched with no play... but since the Jeep hood is a completely different design than most, I just wonder if the bounce is intended....

Any thoughts on that? Or am I nuts?

 

[QUOTE=b1pig;67467]think of this as a two-stage latch, now. When fully closed with the hood secured by the bungies, you are looking at the bottom two pics. When you reach inside the center slat and "pop it", it goes up to the normal position when you release the bungies. Then, you slip your hand under the hood as usual. QUOTE]

Gotcha, that makes sense, it seems then that it wont work after having done the grill mod as there is no longer the abilty to get the fingers/hand into the grill slats to release the 1st stage. Hmm.. i'll have to keep thinking of my own fix then. great idea though. it seems like it would look great. Maybe i'll have to cut a finger hole in my grill mesh like the good ol' YJs used to have on there mesh grill covers.