How to tell if my hood catches / latches are original or repro?

[Brian E.]

Regarding the female hood catch / latch (part numbers and example pictures below) for a 1967 Corvette, can someone please tell me how to differentiate between an original vs a repro?

I'm just trying to learn if the hood catches / latches that are currently on my car are originals or repros. If they're repro's then I'd like to replace them with originals, but before I go shopping I need to know how to tell if a hood latch / catch is original. Thanks.

3841438: 1965-1967 Corvette Female Hood Lock (passenger side)
3841437: 1965-1967 Corvette Female Hood Lock (driver side)

1496.jpg

[Richard M.]

Re: How to tell if my hood catches / latches are original or repro?

Brian, I seem to recall originals will have a manufacturers mark of some kind. May be a single character, or one in a circle, or some unique stamp.

You'd have to remove one and look very carefully.

Repros may also have a mark based on who makes them. Paragon makes many repro metal parts. They typically stamp theirs with their full name.

I found a few photos of original '67 latches. Note the number stamped under the large rivet on this one.
P1270088.jpg

Here is another to compare to that repro photo you posted. You may be able to see some discernable features.
P1270048.jpg


Rich

[Gary B.]

[Richard M.]

Re: How to tell if my hood catches / latches are original or repro?

Gary yes you're right. IIRC some of their markings are that PR inside a diamond, or a triangle.

Rich

[Brian E.]

Re: How to tell if my hood catches / latches are original or repro?

Brian, I seem to recall originals will have a manufacturers mark of some kind. May be a single character, or one in a circle, or some unique stamp. You'd have to remove one and look very carefully.

I removed the 2 female hood latches for closer examination/inspection and discovered that mine have some unique manufacturer's marks - the "91" stamped in the head of the rivet(s) and the diamond shaped stamp in the hood release arm of the drivers side.
PXL_20221029_210635392.jpg


I don't know if repro latches have these marks or not. Heck, I don't even know if these marks are exclusively unique to OEM originals. Maybe they're repro???

Another potential distinguishing difference may be how the tail of the rivet is flared. Mine have an X-shaped stamp to deform the tail; kinda looks like the tip of a philips screw driver.
PXL_20221029_210658921.jpg


I'm still looking for someone to teach me or share with me how to definitively discern between an OEM original vs a repro vs perhaps a GM service replacement. Maybe some repro manufacturers include the marks in the photos above and maybe mine are repro's or GM service replacements??? So hard to tell.

I also understand that the "care" factor is probably very low on hood latches; meaning I'm sure most people probably don't "care" too much about the originality of such a relatively unimportant part (compared to other more significant parts on a car). I'm not doing a complete car restoration. I'd probably lose my sanity if I tried that right now but every part that I do touch in my car's suspension/chassis restoration is indeed getting the full press; meaning that in my limited restoration project, with every part I touch I try to determine if the part is original or a repro, and if it's a repro part I replace it with an original part if possible. That's the motive behind my post - to determine if these latches are repros or originals. Any assistance in this matter from you experienced members is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Gary B.]

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[Richard M.]

Re: How to tell if my hood catches / latches are original or repro?

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Gary, What about your driver side? The arm that goes to the handle release cable?

Rich

[Leif A.]

Re: How to tell if my hood catches / latches are original or repro?

Gary, What about your driver side? The arm that goes to the handle release cable?

Rich

On my '67 both driver and passenger side have the number 91 embossed into the head of the underside of the large rivet. The large rivet holding the arm for the handle release cable, also, has the number 91 embossed into the head. The top side of my rivets have the distinctive "X". No other distinguishing marks that I could see...no "diamonds".

[Gary B.]

[Ed S.]

Re: How to tell if my hood catches / latches are original or repro?

For what it is worth - my '64 latches. The driver side mechanism has two "arms", each secured by a rivet, each rivet has the 91 on it. The passenger side latch only has one "arm" and one rivet - it has the 91 on it. The second arm on the driver side latch is the one that the cable running from inside the car connects to - if I look on the fender side of that second arm I see the diamond stamp in it, identical to Brian's latch mechanism. For Gary - take a look at the left latch - specifically at the fender side of the long vertical arm - do you see that diamond shaped mark? Just curious.

[Richard M.]

Re: How to tell if my hood catches / latches are original or repro?

Gary, As Ed mentioned, Can you see any stamp on the DS release cable bar? Maybe you could sneak your camera in there without too much difficulty.

Ed, Can you take a closeup photo of the diamond on yours. 64 is a different part # to 65-67 but it may shed some light on the topic.

Brian, I looked more closely at your DS latch photo and the side cable bar where you show the diamond. I zoomed in, and either my eyes are playing tricks on me, not sure, but it sure looks like there's a "P R" in the diamond. The Repros typically don't have the "91" stamp or the cross cut rivet swedge. I'm uncertain what you have there on the Driver side.

Your photo. I rotated and resized.
1967FemaleLatchDriverSideModMag.jpg

[Ed S.]

Re: How to tell if my hood catches / latches are original or repro?

Rich,
This is the best shot I could get. My latch is on the car - a challenge to get a pic that is in focus. If you download the pic to your computer and then enlarge it you can really get a good view of the diamond...... but not good enough to see the P or the R.... if it is there at all. Notice the metal around the diamond on mine is indented some is a circular shape - probably from the dye that they used to apply the diamond. I can't tell what it is but there is some sort of line or feature inside my diamond just like the one in Brian's latch. Looking forward to hearing your analysis.

[Richard M.]

Re: How to tell if my hood catches / latches are original or repro?

Rich,
This is the best shot I could get. My latch is on the car - a challenge to get a pic that is in focus. If you download the pic to your computer and then enlarge it you can really get a good view of the diamond...... but not good enough to see the P or the R.... if it is there at all. Notice the metal around the diamond on mine is indented some is a circular shape - probably from the dye that they used to apply the diamond. I can't tell what it is but there is some sort of line or feature inside my diamond just like the one in Brian's latch. Looking forward to hearing your analysis.

Ed, Any chance you could get a sharper image? Here's what I came up with but unsure what I'm seeing.

1964FemaleLatchDriverSideModMagCrop.jpg

Comparison
1967_1964FemaleLatchDriverSideModMagCrop.jpg

[Brian E.]

Re: How to tell if my hood catches / latches are original or repro?

Here are some panned out photos to show just how small this mark/stamp is; it's incredibly small - only approximately 0.0875" x 0.1055" and it seems difficult to imagine that a manufacturer would intentionally endeavor to include distinguishable features inside such a tiny space.

PXL_20221101_142459296.jpg

PXL_20221101_142515490.jpg

PXL_20221101_142606927.jpg

PXL_20221101_142631306.jpg

[Brian E.]

Re: How to tell if my hood catches / latches are original or repro?

cc.jpg
cc-rivet-tail.jpg
If you go over to corvette central you will find these images for their female hood latch that is in stock. Obviously, their latch is not an OEM original and it's not a GM service replacement. It's an aftermarket reproduction. And as you can see, this reproduction has the same diamond-shaped mark/stamp on the arm, the same 91 stamped on the head of the rivet, BUT the X-shaped deformation in the tail of the rivet is more shallow and does not appear to have the same look as the deformation on the tail of the rivet.
PXL_20221029_210658921.jpg

So, it seems logical to start thinking that perhaps the current repro manufacturer of these hood latches has incorporated from an original hood latch:
- the same 91 stamp in the heads of the rivets
- the same diamond-shaped stamp in the cable release arm
- the same number of spot welds for the male pin guide

but perhaps the current repro manufacturer of these hood latches has not replicated the same X-shaped deformation in the tail of the rivet. Why would the current repro manufacturer of these hood latches has incorporate these features? Perhaps these are identifying features of an OEM original hood latch? Why wouldn't the current repro manufacturer of these hood latches also incorporate the same deformation of the rivet tail? Perhaps it's too costly or doesn't look as nice/neat?


In 2022, I don't know if my question (how to differentiate an OEM original from a repro) can be definitively answered... Even if we found an untouched 67 corvette with an OEM original hood latch on it, couldn't it be possible that there were more than one supplier/vendor to GM for these latches with one vendor stamping the arm with a diamond and the other vendor not stamping the arm with a diamond?

There may be too many loose strings to solve this mystery???