Hood spring

I hate it when things normally under tension break or pop off because replacement is usually an event.  Well, with me anyway.  When I was taking the hood off my '85 F150 the driver side hood spring when "boing" and now, as I'm about to replace the hood, I'm thinking it'll probably be easier re-seating the spring before replanting the hood.  Am I right?  Safety glasses a must on this one.

study the hinge very well. look at the bends and how much play is in the pin. these don't just pop off. either something is bent, worn out or possibly the spring actually broke. generally if it could have stayed put , it would have .
 I have seen many times where someone pushed the hood up beyond the stops and it either bent the stops and/or wedged them past their stopping points. I see it at the scrap yard a lot and i cringe as it ruins parts that we need. heck you may need one now!

Thanks, Matt, I'll give it all good look.  The spring is still in one piece and not bent, but the arm it goes on is wiggly, so maybe I need to revisit the old pickup boneyard near me and see if I can find a decent one.  Thanks!

just be sure to get the right color

I just went to the junkyard to replace my passenger side hood spring.  I was a dummy several years ago at the beginning of my project and the hood was raised past the stops and it messed up that hood spring.

Anyway I wanted to comment that I couldn't find a Bullnose at my local junkyard but I found a Bricknose and the same hood spring was used on the Bricknose years as an FYI (I double checked in the MPC as well) and I test fit it last night and it looks like it'll work.  Just in case you run into a similar problem...

if they are not the exact same part I would be surprised. I believe 1980 through 1996. 1997 for f250.
but even if there was a minor change, I doubt it's prohibitive.