What are these holes?

[thrashingcows]

I've been trying to figure out what these holes in the cowl area are for/from?

Can't be the horns since they are mounted in the front area to either side of the rad. Not the wiper pivots I don't think. Anyone?

[Plymouthy Adams]

butterfly hood spring/latch brackets mounting holes..the device that hold the hood halfs up when open..remember..I am not familar with the DeSoto that much but I think it also had the one piece hood, but they shared the bodies amoung the larger three..so the holes would be there on the cowl for whatever assembly line it eventually made it to..

I just looked in my folder and I do not show a clear pic of these..just one in the upper of one shot and if you did not know what it was..you would probably not recognize it even when pointed out..just not that clear of a shot..

Edited February 8, 2011 by Tim Adams

[1940plymouth]

Yupper, Tim is right, here is a photo of the latches for the butterfly hood on my 1940 Plymouth, they are in the same spot as your car

[Frank Elder]

Which tells us the firewall is the same on the desoto 1 piece hood as the dodge butterfly hood models.

[Gary Manes]

Which tells us the sheet metal in the passenger compartments on Dodge, Desoto and Windsors are virtually identical.

There are just minor differences in how the hoods attach, seats attach, and I recall there is a piece of metal sticking out from the sides of the coupe trunk opening with a rubber bumper which are not on the Desoto (or vice versa). This also includes the rear fenders which do have the holes for the bumper braces in different places, but are identical in size/shape.

Now, maybe some people will be helped doing their restorations with this knowledge.

Get out there and restore!!

[thrashingcows]

Thanks guys. So now I know what they are for and why they are there, but why would they even be used on my Desoto? You can plainly see, up close, that there were bolts/nuts fastened to those holes.

So since the desoto did not have the butterfly hood should there not be a plug, or no hole drilled, just a dimple in that location?

[Plymouthy Adams]

not being the original owner of the car who knows or could even guess as to what a PO may or may not have tried to mount there of the life of the vehicle...as my three larger bodied cars are Dodges and MUST have the brackets due to butterfly hood...I am not sure if the holes were originally stamped with the metal still in place similar to a handy box knock out in electrical work..or if they were buttoned with push in spring tab buttons and those are missing or even if for some reason they may hve been used to hold insulation on the inner firewall or heater hose mounts etc for it looks like you may have dual heaters

[Frank Elder]

PM Alan. I'll bet he would take a peek at his for you.

http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/member.php?u=4053

[Gary Manes]

My '48 Desoto coupe is thirty miles away at a garage or I could run out and take a peek to see what my firewall looks looks like--as to knock outs, etc.

It is entirely possible in earlier life the original hood may have been damaged, and someone cobbled up a Dodge hood. In high schooll, a friend who was already in college, purchased a 1934 Chevy coupe which a had a 1935 hood which did not exactly fit, but it kept the rain off. He drove it for some time, but never bothered to find the correct hood.

We had a great junk yard about thirty miles away which probably had many. I know because I bought a 1931 Chevy coupe in order to get a running gear out of the rearend, and whatever other spare parts I could scavenge.