Here is what I did for my hood latches. I took mine apart because some of them were rusted solid or the springs were broken and they were useless anyway. They are very simple and east to fix.
Hope this helps.
Henry
hold it tight, but be careful not to crush the tube. It is pretty thin.
heat it up a little with a torch. it does not need to be glowing red, just enough to loosen things up. I got a little carried away on this one because it was stubborn.
Unscrew the top. Once it moved a little I let it cool down some before continuing so I did not gall the threads.
When you get the top off you will see that there is a pin holding a washer over the spring.
Remove the pin. Be careful the threads are very thin and if you are not careful and hit wrong or too hard you can damage the threads or deform the tube. It is best if you can hold the shaft against a support before pounding on the pin. I wrecked a couple tubes myself, luckily I had spares.
These are all the parts of the latch. I got new springs from the local hardware store. They should also be available from McMaster-carr.
Then sandblasted the parts and ready to reassemble.
