My fiberglass hood is a teardrop Thunderbolt copy manufactured by Crites Restoration Products. Being fiberglass it probably weighs less than half what the stock hood weighs. Whoever installed the hood removed all of the hood latch hardware and installed hood pins to hold it down. While it'd be nice to still have the factory latch the it's still recommended to add the hood pins to keep the lightweight hood from flexing at speed.
Here you can see my old hardware along with the replacement pieces. The old plates were very scratched up while the clips were rusty and very hard to get on and off. I didn't really like the old hairpin clips since you had to twist them while pulling, which made it all too easy to scratch the paint when the clip suddenly released. The new hood pin kit, Allstar Performance ALL18500 Silver 1/2" Aluminum Hood Pin Kit, cost lest than $15 from Amazon. I needed a 4" pin and these were just barely long enough. The included plates were just plain aluminum discs and they didn't even come with screws. I didn't like the way the screws look plus they snag when waxing the car so I looked for an alternative. ICT Billet makes these cool plates, Billet Aluminum Hood Pin Plate Kit Replacement Plates 551444, that come with countersunk hex-head screws for only $11. I was a little worried that the finish would look too dull but 5 minutes with some Semichrome polish made a huge improvement.
While it's not exactly a mirror polished finish you can still see the reflection of the pin. My fiberglass hood, much like the factory steel hood, is made from two pieces sandwiched together. Where the pins go through the hood is around 1.5" thick. The hole where the pin goes through the underside of the hood is oversized for clearance and is about 1". I was hoping I would be able to reach through the hole with my finger to thread the nuts on the backside of the machine screws.
Whoever installed the old plates didn't align them very well. One was parallel with the side edge of the hood while the other was parallel with the front edge. Either alignment is fine as long as they were the same, instead they were about 10 degrees different. Since the new machine screws needed a bigger hole than the old sheet metal screws this gave me the opportunity to fix the alignment without drilling a new set of holes. I took my time lining up the plates and using a small drill bit I "dragged" the hole to the center. Then, when I used the larger bit it went where I wanted instead of where the old screw used to be.
The new billet plates were flat while the hood has a slight bend. The front and rear edge of the plate ended up being about 0.5mm above the hood. No good. I grabbed two pieces of scrap wood and placed them on the floor about 2" apart and placed the plate across the gap. I then laid a long socket extension on top of the plate to spread the load and gave it a few taps with a 5 lb. hammer. You could barely tell the plate was bent and when placed on the hood it sat flush all around. I balanced the nuts on my fingertip and reached up through the hole to line them up the screw holes. I didn't lose a single one inside the hood.
Tada! The torsion clips are so much easier to get on and off. For now I reused my old lanyards but they're a little discolored from age. Someday I might remove the plates and try to polish them some more but for now it looks pretty nice.
UPDATE: August 2017
Crites recommends that you don't use the factory hood springs since they put too much stress on the hood. My springs appear to be smaller, weaker springs that are designed for lighter hoods. However, with the springs in place you can see that the hood doesn't sit as flush on the sides as it does without any springs. So I've gotten into the habit of removing the springs when the car sits in the garage. This was a little inconvenient and I was worried about leaving the springs behind when I went to a show or cruise-in so I needed a new solution.
I picked up some 5/16" chain from the local hardware store and attached it to the back of the hinge with a quick link. When I want to lower the hood I hook onto the end link.