Hood release cable broken on 1957 bird--Help!

[DeanLinAZ]

I pulled the hood release today on my 1957 T-bird, and the cable broke. How do I get it open without using a can opener?

The 1957 T-bird Shop Manual talks about removing a plug in the firewall near or under the left air vent(?), but I have not located that yet. Can I get to it from underneath the car? Will work at it tomorrow, but any advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

DeanLinAZ
1957 Coral Sand/White convertible.

 

[gbhrps]

Been there, done that, and it was a pretty simple fix.

Get the car in the air either on jack stands or a hoist. From under the driver's side use a crow bar or a long pry bar (2 and a half to 3 foot long) to pry the lever on the actuating rod ( the chrome 3 inch long lever that hangs down from the long rod that crosses the firewall to the 2 latches) of the unlock mechanism towards the firewall. It'll take a while for you to get the crow bar end onto the lever and then find someplace on the frame or the exhaust to lever against.

As I recall, its not hard to do, just frustrating to find a levering point that the pry bar won't slip off of. When you do find a place, the hood will pop up fairly easily.

When you get a new pull cable, either install 2 cable locks on it or do as the factory did, put on the cable lock and then kink the cable right after it to prevent the cable lock slipping when you pull the hood latch. Good luck!