hood ornament 1947

[Gary Bakeslee]

Could someone help me out?  I am trying to reassemble the latch on the hood ornament for a 1947 Cadillac.  It's the part on the bottom with the three rivets and a wire spring.  Mine is all apart and the spring is broke, not sure where the spring hooks to or the direction of the latch.  All help would be appreciated.                                   Thank You    Gary

[Glen]

The picture below is from the parts book and is labeled 1946 typical of 1947; 48-75, 76; 49-75. 

I hope that will help you some. 

[Bill Ingler #7799]

Hi Gary: Here are a couple of pictures which might help you. Picture #1 shows the spring with the saftey catch in the open position. Picture # 2 shows what the saftey catch would look like in the closed position or when the hood ornament is closed. When the hood ornament is closed over the latching cross bar on the radiator schrowd, that push the long part of the spring to the left which in turn pulls the saftey catch into the closed position. When you pull up on the ornament to open the hood, then as the latching cross bar moves away from the locked position, the long piece of the spring moves right which lets the saftey catch move down and away. So like I thought once that my saftey catch spring was broken, that was not the case as I did not have the spring installed correctly. Hope this helps.     Bill

[TonyZappone #2624]

Bill:   You might recall that I asked about the safety catch a short time ago, mine became twisted and distorted.  Someone (maybe you) showed me how it should work, etc.  I then found a parts ornament I had, with no safety catch.  That whole area where the catch pivots was filled in with a filler piece.   Not wanting to attempt to repair mine, I removed the ornament and removed the safety catch to match the beforementioned one.   Hopefully I won't need the catch, and the factory one without the catch was a later replacement  denoting the catch is not needed.