I bought it from Watson's Street Works Watson's StreetWorks
it does have spring loaded pin with a cone shaped tip. The big benefit of this one besides its small size is if your cable breaks it automatically unlocks itself which makes it great for a trunk. For hood use you would have to put a safety latch on it so the hood didn't fly up if your opening cable broke on you. It is originally off of a volkswagen according to the part number on it when I googled it. When I pull it out of the car I will write down the part number for you. The last time I did this I found a hood latch I liked and it ended up also being a volkswagen unit. I was able to find it on line from a VW dealer for $38 where the rod companies were charging over $70 for it. For use on a 32 trunk I had to make a pivot for the top pin since the 32 trunk doesn't come straight down in relation to the body and the pin didn't fall down in the hole in the proper place when it got near to closing. Just a little extra work.