[T3] Stinking hood

[Phil Hof]

On my old Bug, with its flimsy hood, I found that years of no lubrication by POs meant it had developed a pair of burrs on parts of the latching mechanism.  I took both parts apart and smoothed them with a file.  The mechanism is assembled a little loose by design, but mine was too loose and this contributed to the binding also.  Once smoothed, bent right, and lubed I adjusted it (having strung up an extra wire to pop it loose in case I adjusted the pin too tightly) and it has worked flawlessly ever since.  Being a lat remodel, it has the secondary latch but I've never had to depend on it..

As has been posted, I imagine backing off the rubber snubbers will let you hit the "barely loose" latching position, and then take up the slack/rattle with the snubbers.  This was not an option with my Bug.

Make sure your hood seal is affixed correctly, as this can also put some weird strains on the latch.