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TR2/3/3A TR-3 Hood Dzus Will Not Release

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SWFTR3

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Our 1958 TR-3 was restored about six years ago. The hood and dzus fasteners worked fine since then. However, closing and fastening the hood the other day one dzus fastener had trouble catching, then felt funny when I tightened it. Now it will not release. I can get it to turn, but it is tight on the spring I believe, and won't release. Thanks for any help on how to get it to release so I can open the hood.
 
Sounds like the spring may have broken and is turning with the fastener. Just a guess, but I would get where I could look from the underside of the fender and with a light see if the spring appears to be turning. If so you might be able to hold or wedge it in place with something while someone else turns the fastener from above. Good luck.
 
Quite the conundrum!

If there is a way to see it from under, I can't think of it. Perhaps one of those fancy snake cameras...

I can think of 2 options...neither of which is very pleasant. Before doing anything, I'd likely shake and rattle that sucker for at least an hour before I resort to either of the following options.

1) Remove the bonnet hinges from under the scuttle/behind the instrument panel. That will allow you to lift the rear of the bonnet and "may" give you enough room to reach the back side of the dzeus fastener.

2) Tape and protect the bonnet around the fastener and then drill it out. Start at the center with a small bit and gradually work larger. The hard part will be preventing the bit from skipping onto the bonnet paint...but it will get the fastener out...100% guaranteed.
 
Sometimes longer bolts are used to fasten the spring side to the fender side of the dzus. If so, try and turn the tip of bolt from under of the car to see if some pressure will release. If not, I probably would undo/ take apart the cage the nuts that hold system of the spring from under the car to have access to the nuts then remove them with vise grips and a wrench. If no luck, I would grin off the cage nuts completely from the underside. But like suggested I would fettle with the duzu on top by applying pressure use
 
In all the TR3s I've had the "spring" side bracket bolts to the fender apron. There is a third, larger hole in the apron at the center of the spring bracket which is visible from underneath the inside of the wheel well. That is where I'm talking about checking to see if the spring "wire" itself is detached from the bracket and is turning with the chrome fastener.That spring is just tack welded to the bracket. A small screw driver or something similar could be pushed up from underneath and wedge it from turning if, in fact that is where the failure occurred. If so, It should be possible to wedge something inside the bracket from the underside to hold the spring from turning while the fastener is turned. The hole is between the two caged nuts that sp53 mentions. I'm thinking removing the hinge bolts and lifting the hood will stand a good chance of giving you a bent hood and drilling the top off the fastener might be possible but, the fastener most likely will spin with the drill. The same would likely be required to hold it from turning when drilling as would be require to turn it with the key.
 
In all the TR3s I've had the "spring" side bracket bolts to the fender apron. There is a third, larger hole in the apron at the center of the spring bracket which is visible from underneath the inside of the wheel well. That is where I'm talking about checking to see if the spring "wire" itself is detached from the bracket and is turning with the chrome fastener.That spring is just tack welded to the bracket. A small screw driver or something similar could be pushed up from underneath and wedge it from turning if, in fact that is where the failure occurred. If so, It should be possible to wedge something inside the bracket from the underside to hold the spring from turning while the fastener is turned. The hole is between the two caged nuts that sp53 mentions. I'm thinking removing the hinge bolts and lifting the hood will stand a good chance of giving you a bent hood and drilling the top off the fastener might be possible but, the fastener most likely will spin with the drill. The same would likely be required to hold it from turning when drilling as would be require to turn it with the key.
 
Good call, I forgot about that hole in the center. Might be able to grab whatever the problem is with some small vise grips before he busts open the cages. This is his first post, so he might not be familiar with the layout of the dzus assembly, so I suggest looking on line or a Moss motors on line catalog to envision what he is up against also.
 
Interesting...my 2 cars have no larger "third" hole. I wonder if that was added for just this situation? I can only reach the caged nuts from the wheel well.
 
Thought I was remembering wrong...but this pic even shows otherwise. That makes all 3 of my cars not having a 3rd hole under the dzeus bracket...



Unless your arms are like Stretch Armstrong's I can think of no way to access the fastener from under the car.
 
Another idea after looking at John's picture, you could probably drill a hole from the bottom of the fender making it large enough to get to the Dzus fastener.
 
One of my cars did that years ago. The dzus screw was hanging on side of cage. I pushed the hood sideways with piece of plywood between fender and hood. Popped right open. I reajusted the cage to center it under dzus screw. No more problem.

Marv
 
I see what you're talking about John. Mine have all been '59 or later and he does say his is '58, so he might not have the extra hole. Maybe he'll chime back in and let us know how he got it. Mine can be a little figity sometimes but I can just shake the hood a little and it pops right up. I like the idea of getting to the caged nuts, but there wouldn't be anyway to get the head of the bolt to hold it while turning the nut...unless you had those really long skinny arms and fingers you're talking about.
 
I would try driving around the block, up driveways with a hill to flex the car a little with the latches unlocked and see if it pops up by itself.
 
Die grinder with cutoff wheel and split the dzus head? You may scuff some paint but what are the options? Keep us posted.
 
SUCCESS!! Thanks to everyone. I had time to just keep playing with the hood fastener Sunday night and it finally released. The problem ... I had left a screwdriver on the edge of the engine bay, near the fastener corner, so when I pushed down on the hood corner to release the fastener it actually didn't have enough freedom to release from the spring.
Let that be a warning to you!!!
Actually, thank you very much for everyone who took the time to contribute ideas. I really appreciate it.
Now for the generator issue I still have .....
 
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