Hood fit

[riggzola]

I've been having some trouble with the fit of my hood since I replaced it with another one from another car. The front edge of the hood sits about 1/4"-3/8" higher than the fender on either side. The back of the hood fits fine as well as the front to back fit. I've adjusted the hood hinges down as far as they will go and the fenders are already as high as they will go. What gives?

One thing I noticed is that if I remove the torsion bars from the hood hinges it helps a little. Anyone have any idea what's going on? As I said the old hood fit fine before I replaced it. I did take the hinges off when I replaced the hood to repaint them.

[loy]

Umm wondering if the replacement hood had any repair on it. If you put oure old hood back on does it fit? Umm u've adjusted where the hood meets the hinge and where the hinge meet the car?

[beandip]

I just went through this . there are adjustments on the hinge to body and hinge to hood as well. You just need to keep working with it . Best to remove the grill so you can access from the front . Gary

[EScanlon]

I've been having some trouble with the fit of my hood since I replaced it with another one from another car. The front edge of the hood sits about 1/4"-3/8" higher than the fender on either side. The back of the hood fits fine as well as the front to back fit. I've adjusted the hood hinges down as far as they will go and the fenders are already as high as they will go. What gives?

One thing I noticed is that if I remove the torsion bars from the hood hinges it helps a little. Anyone have any idea what's going on? As I said the old hood fit fine before I replaced it. I did take the hinges off when I replaced the hood to repaint them.

Hoods are such a critical part of the whole front end, that they're what ties the look of the front of the car ALL together.

Each hood is essentially two pieces of metal that are crimped and welded together. That the curve of one differs by 3/8" of an inch over another over the length that you describe is not anything to worry about. Each hood is essentially uniquely adjusted to the car it was installed on originally. That it doesn't "fit" another vehicle is not a problem.

It's not unusual for these differences to crop up.

Check to see if in fact it's ONLY at the very front that the hood and fender do not match. Be extremely critical in determining this. Look at the panels from the sides, compare not only edges but also the general SHAPE of the two as you sight down the separation.

What you are looking for is that the side view look of the fender to hood transition is smooth and not wavy. Imagine that if you were to put a piece of masking tape hiding the seam, you would think the tape was on solid metal and not hiding a dented piece of metal. Another way is to imagine or actually roll a marble down the seam and watch to see if it wobbles. (This is one of the hardest tests to pass.) If the marble rolls gently without any wobble, that's a PERFECT alignment. Get the picture?

By adjusting the hinges at the fender support, or the hood on the hinges,

you might be able to eliminate the difference in height at the front, only to now have it be a difference in the middle of the fender, or now at the back. Or worse yet, a wobble which will literally de-rail that marble.

Adjust the hood on the hinges and the hinges on the inner support until you've achieved the best possible alignment overall or your "fun-meter" tops out. Keep an eye on making sure that the hood and fenders are level with each other.

If at this point it still is ONLY the front end that doesn't align then the only thing that you need to do is adjust the Sugar-Scoops to the hood, not the other way around.

Loosen the screws holding the sugar-scoops to the inner fender support and also the first 1-2 that hold the fender. Loosen them enough that you can shift the scoops, but there's still enough friction to hold them in place.

Now, GENTLY raise / lower the front edge of the sugar-scoops to align with the hood. Keep looking at the "groove" that the marble would roll on to make sure it stays even and constant from front to back.

We just finished doing this on Beandip's car.

Hope this helps.

Enrique

[riggzola]

Thanks for all the help. I took some time today to look at it. First of all the very front of the old hood was damaged and I discarded it before I realized this one didn't fit well. Also, as I said all of the adjustments are all the way up (or down).

One thing that baffles me is that if I remove the torsion bars from the hood it fits almost perfectly. Hence the reason why I assumed the hood fit correctly when I discarded the old one. Once I put the bars back in the hood raises back to it's incorrect fit.

I'm going to spend some more time loosening all of the bolts and work with it until it's perfect. I'm a little reluctant because I keep thinking of all the paint I'll be scraping away!

I'll let you guys know how it goes. I'm going to figure this one out.

[loy]

you said the first one was damaged.... maybe the hinges might be damage also causing the misalignment

[Mr Camouflage]

You've tried lossening the hinges and pusing them down as far as they go, but have you tried loosening where the bonnet bolts to the hinges and seeing if they is any adjustmet to be had there?

[riggzola]

I had actually thought about the hinges being bent. The original hood was damaged on the very tip but was not bent anywhere near the edges of the hood next to the headlight buckets. I'm pretty sure because of that that the hinges are ok.

I've also tried the bolts that attach the hinges to the hood. Now that I think of it maybe I should elongate the holes on the hood mounts to allow it to drop ~1/4" or so. I'm not going to be able to look at it further until later this week, but I'll let you know how it goes.

[EScanlon]

Was it something I said that is causing you to totally ignore my post?

Go ahead, do it the WRONG way .... elongate the holes. When you get done doing that then you'll really have problems

E

[GunnerRob]

I'm a little reluctant because I keep thinking of all the paint I'll be scraping away!

Try taping the areas that may be scratched during the adjustment process and leave a "twisted tail" that you can get to too pull the tape off after you're finished.

You might also acknowledge and respond to offers such as Enriques (Escanlon). He's a sharp cookie!

[valanon6]

I dont know if it will help much but I had that exact same problem when I put a 280 hood on my 240. It stuck up right at the front about 1/2 inch with the rods but when I took them off it sat fine. I tried changing hinges and everything with no success. What it ended up being is that the mounts behind the headlight bucket were all messed up from an accident that someone didn't fix right. Cant really help with a solution though, I just left the bars off

[riggzola]

My appoligies to Escanlon. I didn't mean to ignore you. However I did read the post and found myself thinking the same thing ... "did he read my post?". As I mentioned in the first post, "The back of the hood fits fine as well as the front to back fit. I've adjusted the hood hinges down as far as they will go and the fenders are already as high as they will go." So there is no more room for movement down on the hood or up on the fenders. The hood is not bent and the transistion from the back of the hood to the front compared to the fenders is smooth (no bumps or waves). It opens and closes fine. I'll let you know how it goes this week when I'm able to look at it.

GunnerRob ... I'll try the tape so I don't scratch anything. Thanks for your help.