Vehicle hood apparatus

Claim 1

A vehicle hood apparatus which, when a vehicle collides with an obstacle, lifts up by a predetermined amount a rear end portion of a hood provided at a front portion of the vehicle and causes a hood holding mechanism to hold the position of the lifted-up rear end portion and restricts a movement of the lifted-up rear end portion toward the rear of the vehicle, the hood holding mechanism including a bendable link which bends or stretches according to an up or down movement of the hood, and an auxiliary link which restricts movement of the bendable link toward the rear of the vehicle; the bendable link including a lower link rotatably secured at one end to a bracket mounted to a body of the vehicle, an upper link rotatably secured at one end to the hood, and a hinge portion which rotatably connects the other end of the lower link and that of the upper link to each other; the auxiliary link mechanism including two links which are connected between a position offset from and close to the hinge portion and a front portion of the bracket, the two links being connected to each other so that they bend or stretch according to bending or stretching of the bendable link.