I'm planning to use the stock hood prop bracket for the hood attachment point. I have included a pic that shows it temporarily installed. The pic was taken looking backward toward the firewall and up into the open hood. Not sure what to do with lower attach point, but I have a bracket on-hand that I can probably use. The metal fixture mounted right on the engine is very stout and I'll figure out a way to attach the lower bracket to that fixture.
One concern I have is with the stock hood prop bracket-- it is affixed to the hood with (I assume) Very-High Bond (VHB) adhesive tape. This should be fine when the force is at right angles ("normal" to the hood surface) as when the hood is open. But when the hood is closed and the max force is on the bracket, the force is more like 45 degrees to "normal." There's a chance that after a long time under stress or when hot/cold the adhesive or tape itself might fail and rip the bracket off the hood.
Another concern I have is with the stock hood prop-- I want to still be able to use it as a safety catch to hold the hood up during simple maintenance. I might need to shorten the hood prop in order to get it to work like that. I would cut it in half, remove an inch or two, cut threads in both cut ends, and use a coupling nut and jam nuts to rejoin it and have it be adjustable for that perfect fit.
Last concern (so far) is that the hood-close latch might spring open during tractor operations. I'm using a single 50 lbf gas spring, which is almost perfect to balance against the weight of the hood. It feels like it wants to pop that latch. I might have a way around this though.
