I've read before that the hoods are designed to bend in a crash to prevent the hood from going into the cabin. Looks like it worked in the example below.
CK5
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Bent Hood by design?
- Thread starter wazzabie
- Start date
It's meant to be so by design, yes. There are tons of crash test as well as accident videos on YouTube of vintage K5s and modern Tahoe/Yukon. It is interesting to watch them back-to-back; I'd say the older vehicles looked more likely to be repairable (and still steerable) and had more body damage versus front end component damage. I am not sure of offset crash testing was done back in the day though.
I learned a ton about vehicle construction from some courses I've taken as a firefighter. Seeing and holding cross-sections of A- and B-pillars from different years/makes/models really opens up your eyes to how things are made.
Speaking of which, a fun fact: When they train you to avoid cutting the lifting arms on the back window of an SUV, they mean it. I came close to learning the hard way when cutting the roof off a Cherokee. Lifter piston thing shot out vertically at high velocity. I couldn't see it between the tinted glass and trying to maneuver the cutting tool in the dark.
I learned a ton about vehicle construction from some courses I've taken as a firefighter. Seeing and holding cross-sections of A- and B-pillars from different years/makes/models really opens up your eyes to how things are made.
Speaking of which, a fun fact: When they train you to avoid cutting the lifting arms on the back window of an SUV, they mean it. I came close to learning the hard way when cutting the roof off a Cherokee. Lifter piston thing shot out vertically at high velocity. I couldn't see it between the tinted glass and trying to maneuver the cutting tool in the dark.
That sucks.
They put those metal pins at the firewall that go into the hood for that reason.
They put those metal pins at the firewall that go into the hood for that reason.
Yep
tow truck guys get to see and learn a lot about safety built in to the vehicle . . . . AND how much rust compromises the strength of a vehicle and mostly a uni-body design . . . . 
Iirc, original 73-74 hoods do not have the crumple zone crease in the middle.
I have a rusted '73 pickup hood lying outside--I'll have to peek under it and see..!
I riveted some 1/2" wide "U" channels from shelving on the hood on my '77 GMC hood,that was kinked in the center at one time and started buckling..I bent it back and oiled the hinges,that were bone dry since '77 probably..
I suppose my head may have been sheared off by the hood had I ever had an accident,but in the 8 years I had it I never crashed it or got hit in it..they used to sell "hood stiffeners" years ago,J.C.Whitney had them..
I riveted some 1/2" wide "U" channels from shelving on the hood on my '77 GMC hood,that was kinked in the center at one time and started buckling..I bent it back and oiled the hinges,that were bone dry since '77 probably..
I suppose my head may have been sheared off by the hood had I ever had an accident,but in the 8 years I had it I never crashed it or got hit in it..they used to sell "hood stiffeners" years ago,J.C.Whitney had them..
Billyworld
I now know that i will never finish this truck.
Lol. That's what i thought this thread was about. Lol
