Hood Alignment

[willow_switch]

I recently purchased a 280z and was happily driving it home from work on the second day when I blew a brake line. I went sliding down the nice wet hill and hit a truck. I have now replaced the fender and the hood but I can't seem to get the hood to sit properly. The inner fender was crused in the impact (where the hood mount goes) and I flattened it out best I could, took careful measurements from the other side and drilled new mounting holes. Not as pretty as I like but it is the best I could do. The front of the hood sits to high though, about a quarter of an inch. What really buggers me about it is that it is even on both sides, both the drivers (crunched) and passengers (non-crunched). I have no idea what to do about it and it is terrible to see my poor z in pain.

[2ManyZs]

I guess there are at least a couple possibilities as to why the hood is sitting too high.

Could the hood be bowed? It may have been pushed back in the accident and it bowed against being pushed back against the hood latch. You didn't say if the hood was hit so this is just a guess. Not sure why you had to drill new mounting holes if you got it fairly straight, but this could also be a contributing factor.

The second thing might be the tension springs. Are they in the hood hinge correctly? They could be putting too much tension on the hinge causing it to not fold up correctly and therefore not let the hood drop down. If you can push the hood down to the correct height with your hands and then it pops back up, this points to the hinge/tension rod.

If neither of these is the problem, perhaps you should take the car to a body shop with a frame machine and have the front snout pulled, it may be buckled around the radiator support where you can't notice it. All they would have to do is clamp on to the area of the hood hinge and do the measurements, probably would not be very expensive as it wouldn't take an experienced frame man more than an hour or two. This might be the best solution, just in case there is hidden damage.

[willow_switch]

Thank you! It is a new hood, the old one got a pretty good grove put in it. The truck just had to be lifted. The springs are fine I think because I went out and pushed on it like you said and it did not do anything. I guess it is to the frame shop I go. Thank you anyway.

[Royce]

Sorry to hear about your crunched Z!

This may in fact be a job for the pros, but I would check one more thing before spending any $$$. The four bolts, two on each side, that mount the hood to the hood hinges have a little room for adjustment. If you loosen them a little, so the hood can move freely, you should be able to press down gently on the hood and see if it is hitting something or if it will in fact go down all the way. If it looks like it could go down all the way than you can adjust it. You can either lift the hood and adjust it by trial which can take some time to get it right. Another way is to have someone gently hold the hood down while you tighten the bolts, works best if you don't have an airdam and you lie under the front of the car. If that doesn't work than take it to your local body shop.

Hope it helps! Have fun!

[kmack]

Royce is correct. There is adjustment in the hood mounts. There is also a little bit of adjustment in the hinges where they mount. Short of that, the only thing you can do is take it to a frame shop.

I had the left front of mine pulled last year. My hood overlapped the fender edge by 1/8" from the radiator support forward, only. But it took ten hours of frame time @ $35/hour to get it perfectly straight. Of course I took my car to someone that restored cars and had an eye for perfection. (I actually had to reshape the edge of my fender!)

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is be prepared for the cost of having the frame pulled. It may seem like it won't take a lot of time, but there is a lot of set-up involved in making sure your car is on the machine right in the first place. Any pulling on a machine is made in small increments. (It's easier to pull a little and keep going, than to pull too much and have to try and put it back!)

Go to different shops (at least 3-5) and make sure you take the car with you. (It doesn't do them or you any good to guess at what you want if they can't see it.) Let them look at it and tell them what you would like them to accomplish. Ask for an estimate. This will give you an idea of the price range you're looking at. From there you can decide if it's worth it to you to have it pulled or if you can live with a little bit of hood height.

If you decide to have it pulled and have made a decision on a shop, then schedule a drop off time for the car, and get them to tell you when it'll be done. If it takes a few day to finish, then call them in a day or so to check progress. They'll be less likely to delay your car if they know you'll check up on them.

Ok, enough of my long windedness....if you have any other questions regarding having this done, PM me.....I could go on and on.....

[willow_switch]

Got out there and got it the barest of a fraction of an inch down. But it is still to high, looks like it is the frame shop for me. Gonna be a while though. Thank you for the help!!!