Hopefully you all will find this funny! When I went to get a photo of my fuse box for DJHellfire's thread, I had a heck of a time getting my hood to latch and completely close the hood! I'm only 5'3" tall! So, I had to pull my Durango into the garage with the hood facing the steps going into the house. Then stand on the steps so I could get the leverage I needed to make the darn hood latch! I swore something was broken (and I was getting a touch annoyed) until I was able to move the latch for the hood with my hand. That's when I realized... oh ya.... I'm too short ... for yet another task that requires a little more height than I have!

 

Step stools rule!

 

Just a hint my wife showed me (she's vertically limited): the Durango hood props that hold the hood open are perfectly matched to the weight of the hood. All she does is walk up to the lower corner of the hood by the windshield and pushes down from there; the slightest amount of force overcomes the hood props and the hood lowers to where she can properly latch it. Check it out.

 

That wasn't my issue, a little jump and I was able to grab the hood and pull it down. It was the giving it a nice push once it was lowered so it would latch that I had the issue with.

 

Believe it or not I just opened the hood for the first time after having the vehicle for almost a week. I noticed that the latch was missing paint already. Is this pretty normal for everyone?

 

Someone's gotta chime in on this please? Do I need to worry about rust on the hood hook that secures to the latch? Or is it made of a non rusting material like aluminum?

 

Are you talking about the hood 'catch'? The part of the locking mechanism on the underside of the hood? I'm not sure what it's made of, but you shouldn't have to worry about it getting wet; the water would have to flow uphill on the underside of a closed hood to cause any issue.

It's painted as part of the entire hood, but is bound to have the paint come off since it is a locking mechanism.

 

Yeah I'm curious as well, what are u concerned will rust?

 

SadaraS,
Be carefull if you are pushing the hood down to latch it, they are very easy to dent these days (found out the hard way). I just let it fall from about half way open now, that way it latches without needing to be pushed on.

Trace

 

My hood catch was chipped after my inital opening and shutting of the hood. Sucks to have something chipped when the cars brand new.