Hood Alignment Issues

[BoldUlysses]

Hi all.  I'm hoping you guys can help save me a trip back to the bodyshop for this.

So I'm reassembling a 240Z with a restored body.  During the painting process, the body guys installed and aligned the hood with the fenders and cowl BUT without the torsion springs in place.

Now that I've got the torsion springs back in, they preload the front of the hood and pop it 3/8" or so above the line of the fenders.  See attached image.

Front-to-back and side-to-side alignment are perfect.

The hinges are slid as far down as they can go using the 3 bolts.  And the fenders and headlight buckets are pulled up as far as they can go in their bolt slots.

Is there anything else I can do to adjust?

Thanks for any and all help!

[Pop's Z]

Try loosening the hinges, push the hood down, and re-tighten. It worked for me. Good luck.

Cheers, Mike

[Patcon]

What Mike said ^^

[grannyknot]

Sometimes there is slop in hinge itself from age and wear, if what Pop's advises doesn't work you'll have to take the hood off, hinges off and grind or drill the 6 mounting holes larger.  The cutting should be the top area of each hole so when tightened the hinges sit lower, that should take up the slack.  But try the pushing down on the hood with loosened bolts first. 

[siteunseen]

4th that. Barely loosen the nuts and push down until it sits right. Carefully raise the hood and tighten them back down. Don't raise it all the way, just enough to get to the nuts. All the way up seems to "kick it out" a little on my cars when replacing the hood.

Mine a outlined now with a scribe scratch although the hood will never be off again hopefully. ?

[BoldUlysses]

Thanks folks.  I tried the technique and the passenger side is now aligned perfectly, but the driver's side is still 1/4" or so up.  Bugs the fire out of me.  I even tried gently sitting on the corner of the hood while reaching under to tighten the bolts (the grille and bumper haven't been installed yet, which helps access).

Will keep trying.  I really don't want to have to enlarge the slots in the driver's side bracket, especially now that I've got the passenger side locked down.  Ugh.

Thanks again.

Edited December 27, 2019 by BoldUlysses

[87mj]

I experienced the same problem.  My hood lined up perfectly until it was removed and reinstalled.  So I doubt in my case there are any problems with the hinges.  Here is how I was able to change mine from "sloppy" to "not bad".

Loosen the hinges.
With both hands and on each side, press on the hood.  Be careful to only do this directly over the hinges where the hinge brackets are welded.  You are dealing with thin sheet metal. Then while you are pressing, ask someone else tighten the hinge bolts.

Don't be afraid to allow the hood to go lower than the fenders.  After it is tightened up, it will still come up a little.

Another tip: Both me and my attendant had a bud lite before starting this.  It gave us both a little more patience than we normally would have.  :)

 

 

[BoldUlysses]

I worked on it some more earlier.  When I press down on the corner of the hood (over the hinge, natch), it will drop 1/4" or so below the level of the headlight bucket edge.  I tighten the front two bolts (can't reach the rear one) while pressing down, and the hood edge still pops back up 1/4" above where it's supposed to be... 

It's better than it was, but still not quite there.  I'm going to circle back around to it though; I don't want to waste half a day messing with the hinge when I need to keep up reassembly momentum with the rest of the car.

Thanks again for all the great input.  Will let you know if I get it resolved.

[Namerow]

I wonder if the problem here is that the downward force you've applied to the hood has generated not just displacement of the hinge plate but also a slight 'wind-up' (rotational displacement) of the hood torsion bars.  After you tighten down the hinge bolts, the torsion rods unwind and the hood edge pops up again.  Just a theory.  Someone with more panel installation experience can either verify or offer a more accurate explanation -- along with (hopefully) a remedy.

[jfa.series1]

15 hours ago, BoldUlysses said:

I worked on it some more earlier.  When I press down on the corner of the hood (over the hinge, natch), it will drop 1/4" or so below the level of the headlight bucket edge.  I tighten the front two bolts (can't reach the rear one) while pressing down, and the hood edge still pops back up 1/4" above where it's supposed to be... 

It's better than it was, but still not quite there.  I'm going to circle back around to it though; I don't want to waste half a day messing with the hinge when I need to keep up reassembly momentum with the rest of the car.

Thanks again for all the great input.  Will let you know if I get it resolved.

I went thru the same problem after my resto.  Barring worn hinges as a root cause, keep trying the push-down procedure as you have been doing.  I do recommend you pull the grill (only five screws) to be able to get to all the mounting bolts easily from the front as you or a buddy apply pressure to the leading edge of the hood.  I kept the torsion rods in place when doing mine.

[charliekwin]

I had similar problems with mine due to worn hinges. Replacing the bad hinge helped, but it still had alignment problems. In the end, I just took out the torsion rods (guess that's why the PO had removed them). That might not be an option for you, but it worked for me.

[87mj]

On ‎12‎/‎26‎/‎2019 at 8:22 PM, BoldUlysses said:

Thanks folks.  I tried the technique and the passenger side is now aligned perfectly, but the driver's side is still 1/4" or so up.  Bugs the fire out of me.  I even tried gently sitting on the corner of the hood while reaching under to tighten the bolts (the grille and bumper haven't been installed yet, which helps access).

Will keep trying.  I really don't want to have to enlarge the slots in the driver's side bracket, especially now that I've got the passenger side locked down.  Ugh.

Thanks again.

The exact same symptoms and results I experienced.