The boy went out to start up my 77 last week and no go. Battery was dead. This was not unexpected as it is pinned in behind another non running vehicle. He hit the hood release aaaaaaaaaaaaaannnd, nothing! The spring on the latch broke. Before I had even known of the problem, the boy did the research on the interwebs and found the remedy for this was a wooden wedge and a sharp blow with a hammer. Sure enough, it worked.
Yesterday, we picked up the replacement spring and went to replace it. The boy (16 years old) was bragging to me about how great it was that he could take point on repairs now. So having already had it apart, he quickly did the dis-assembly to get the latch out. He then had to run back into the house to get the spring he forgot. I grabbed some brake clean and worked on cleaning almost 40 year of grime out of the latch. Having cleaned the latch the boy started putting the latch back on the truck. Following his lead, remember he is on point for this, I turned to grab a socket and grabbed the replacement spring to hand to my son.
Now we dis-assemble again. This time the spring goes in and we button it all up. Mission accomplished. Amazing how long a project takes when you can't get out of your own way.