The old 1956 Chevy truck had become just part of the landscape as the school bus chugged up the hill to my house every school day of my life. Then one day it was gone. The hole it left in the vacant lot was noticed by every kid on the bus and it was all we could talk about for the next half hour. As the bus rumbled to a stop near my driveway, the mystery was suddenly solved. There, in my yard, was the rusted hulk of that fantastic truck. Over the next few years, my father and I would work nearly every day on that truck and when I graduated from high school, I was the proud owner of a completely restored 1956 Chevrolet 3100 Pickup.
We rebuilt, replaced, polished and perfected nearly every square inch of that old truck. And, we not only made the noticeable parts of the truck into eye-candy, but we also took pride in the details that most people don’t notice. For instance, my Dad decided that the inside of the engine compartment had to look just as shiny and sharp as the outside of the truck. That meant, not only did the engine and other components have to look good (and work good), even the details like the hood hinges had to shine.
One weekend we took the hood completely off the truck, removed the hinges that opened and closed the hood, and went to work making that mechanism the best it could be. The old hinges were made of steel, pressed into shape and held together with rivets, bolts and a spring. They still did a good job of opening and closing the hood, but my Dad and I were now into beauty as well as function. We found exactly what we were looking for at Tuckers Classic Auto Parts. The new hinges were things of beauty! The best (and prettiest) hood hinges we found were polished billet aluminum hood hinges from Eddie Motorsports. Not only functional in every way, it was fun to raise and lower the hood just to feel how smooth they operated and then to look at how shiny and flawless they were still brings smiles to our faces.
The Perfect Parts For Your 1956 Chevy Pickup Truck
Polished billet aluminum hood hinges are machined from one solid piece of aluminum. Actually, because aluminum is a fairly soft metal, billet accessories are machined from an alloy of aluminum and other metals. A billet is simply a bar of metal. Billets can be made of steel or iron or lead or any other type of metal. For car parts, aluminum is often used because it is lightweight and fairly inexpensive compared with other lightweight metals like magnesium or titanium. Because billet aluminum hood hinges start out as blocks of aluminum, the hinges must be carved (or machined) from these blocks. As the CNC machine literally sculpts a hood hinge from a block of aluminum, a lot of the aluminum billet ends up in the recycling bin. Unfortunately, aluminum scraps are worth only pennies on the dollar of the cost of the billet aluminum. For that reason, and the fact that expensive computer controlled machinery is required to precisely cut each hinge, billet aluminum hinges are significantly more expensive than pressed steel hinges. However, for that incredible flawless look and feel, you cannot go wrong with polished aluminum hood hinges.
Hood hinges from Eddie Motorsports are made from solid chunks of 6061-T6 billet aluminum in southern California. They use a stainless steel nitrogen filled strut in place of compression springs to raise and lower the hood. The hinges also have sealed ball bearings at all pivot points to ensure smooth and reliable operation. The polished billet aluminum hood hinges are available from Eddie Motorsports with a raw machined or bright polished finish like the ones my Dad and I installed in our 1956 Chevy truck. You can also buy them in a variety of anodized and fusion coated colors. These hinges are designed as direct fit, bolt-on units; the hinges use the stock mounting holes with elongated slots for easy gap adjustment.
If you are looking for customizing the engine compartment of your Chevy pickup, or just wanting to replace your stamped steel hood hinges with solid billet hinges, these are the ultimate answer.