A friend has given me his 2001 Maxima, but the hood can't lock due to rust on the bottom end of radiator. The hood latch is no longer supported. Just trying to figure out cheap options to keep the hood locked down. This will be short distance A to B car for school.

I'm considering using climbing clips and maybe a chain/steel wire and tie it somewhere to bottom.

 

You can slam it down and it will latch. But you should reinforce/repair the rad support. If it's not totally trashed you could just screw a thick sheet metal/plate across it, then screw the latch support to it as a quick fix. If you know someone that can weld have them fix it up.

 

It real unsafe to drive with the front of the crossmember hanging and not supported.

But if you don't want to fix it then use hoodpins.

 

Hit it with penetrating oil until it latches and then buy this one from ebay for $20. https://www.ebay.com/itm/00-01-02-03...oAAOSwGltastF8 don't f around with broken hood latches, I had a faulty celica hood latch let the hood fly open at 40mph and smash the windshield Tommy Boy style.