Hood Alignment

[ggunder]

My "free" 240Z ('72) did not come with a hood although the hood hinges were still on the car. I found a nice used hood for a reasonable price and it bolted right up. Unfortunately the front is too high by about 3/8 inch compared to the headlight buckets. I found a lot of advice on the forum on how to address this, but first I need to figure out how to align the hood left to right. It appears to be just barely hitting a bolt on the drivers side which I am sure may be contributing to the height problem. Any advice on this?

Thanks so much,

Gary

[pjoe]

I used a couple washer between the hood mount and hinge to move mine over a little. My car apparently had a minor accident before so the front was slightly bent. The hood hinge can be moved up or down a little by loosening the 3 bolts on each side of the hinge too.

Brian

[Walter Moore]

Both the hood, and the hinges have slots on one portion. You will need to loosen the mounting bolts for the hinges and lower the hinge to get the height to align properly.

You didn't say if the hood is off center the whole way, or only at the top. My car had been in a small accident at some point, and I have to elongate the mounting slots in the hood to get sufficient movement to fully align the hood.

Take your time and record your steps to keep from going into a "death spiral", but it is possible to make the hood fit properly.

[Ray Martin]

As above ( ^^^ ) but maybe you could also move the fenders slightly up or down to get the best fit after aligning from the hinges?

Ray

[Zup]

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/s...ood+adjustment

[ggunder]

The hinges look like they could adjust further but are hitting the brackets that the grill attaches to. The hinges are not hitting the bumper brackets which are installed correctly after having installed them incorrectly previously. There has been minor damage to the front, which is why the hood was missing when I got the car. I will keep on trying when I get a second set of hands available from some lucky family member. Thanks for your help on this common problem with probably many variations.

[Lazeum]

The link above does not work

To lower the hood, you have to tilt the hood.

Get the hood wide open, loosen the 2x 2 bolts between the hinges & the hood.

Then push gently with your knee on the bottom side, where the emblem is, and pull towards you the top. Clamp the bolts.

That will create a rotation motion of the hood that will lower the front while it will be closed. Try to close it gently since hood might still rub against the fenders.

To center it, you have to play with top/bottom position with a translation, still with the same bolts. If it is too far on the left, you have to lower the right side & to rise left side.

I know how it works, I still fight each time I want to put everything back together.

Good luck!

Edited October 14, 2012 by Lazeum

[ggunder]

Wow, Paris, France via Troy, MI! I get great advice from all over the world! I have a roadster that Nissanman in Australia provides advice for too.

I will try this when I have some help, hopefully Monday (W. coast, that is).

Thanks again! I will report on progress.

[ggunder]

With some help from another set of hands, the hood rotation described by Lazeum above worked great! It only took two tries to get the hood to drop down in the front and still close properly. You have to make sure the hood rotates and at the same time adjust it vertically so it will close. Thanks to all for the advice, my Craigslist hood now looks 100% better!

Gary

[Lazeum]

glad it went well