Hood Alignment Issues

[bartsscooterservice]

I have the same problem, found the problem to be in worn hinges ( pivot points ). I have send them away for rebuild to a guy in the states. Will post results in my topic when they are back on the car. Hope it works.

If you have to push down on the hood you are allready confirming the problem to be in the hinges.

[cgsheen1]

Try this: It will require a helper. Loosen the four hood bolts to snug - you don't want the hood to drop or move by itself but you want to be able to force movement. With the hood up and the bolts loosened - using both hands, one on the front edge of the hood and the other towards the back of the hood (one hand down, one hand up on the side of the hood each man (or woman)) - push the front of the hood back and the rear of the hood forward as much as it will go. So, down hand aft, upper hand forward. The bolts should have been loose enough that the bottom bolts will move as far as they can towards the rear of the car and the top bolts will move as far as they can towards the front of the car. 

You don't want them to move up or down, that would spoil your hood-to-cowl fitment. May help, but if it doesn't you'll have to repair, modify, or replace the hinge as suggested above. This is a simple and quick thing to try to get the nose of the hood down. It has worked for me on several of the Z's we've had in the shop. Some just had to much wear in the hinges to be able to get the hood to stay where it belonged.

If the hood sits properly when the torsion rods are out and pushes up when the torsion rods are in place, the hinges are too worn.

Please keep in mind that these cars were built in a different era and fitment back then was nothing like the sheet metal fitment of modern vehicles. When we were putting Z cars back together after paint we usually tried to get fitment that was as "visually pleasing" as possible, not perfect alignment of all the parts and seams... (The factory certainly did not take the time to shim and correct body panels for perfect alignment.) 

[Diseazd]

2 hours ago, bartsscooterservice said:

I have the same problem, found the problem to be in worn hinges ( pivot points ). I have send them away for rebuild to a guy in the states. Will post results in my topic when they are back on the car. Hope it works.

If you have to push down on the hood you are allready confirming the problem to be in the hinges.

Bart........Curious where you sent your hinges to be rebuilt? Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks

Guy

[bartsscooterservice]

14 hours ago, Diseazd said:

Bart........Curious where you sent your hinges to be rebuilt? Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks

Guy

http://www.hoodhingerepair.com/ 

[Patcon]

3 hours ago, bartsscooterservice said:

http://www.hoodhingerepair.com/ 

Post up when they get back. It will be interesting to see the finished result

@Diseazd

Looks like it might be an hour or so from you

Edited December 30, 2019 by Patcon

[87mj]

I can appreciate everyone's point that the hinges may be worn.   The reason I am skeptical in my case and possibly BoldU's  case is that the hood closed properly before it was removed.  I would think if the hinges are worn, it would not have closed previously. Anyone disagree?

[grannyknot]

1 hour ago, 87mj said:

I can appreciate everyone's point that the hinges may be worn.   The reason I am skeptical in my case and possibly BoldU's  case is that the hood closed properly before it was removed.  I would think if the hinges are worn, it would not have closed previously. Anyone disagree?

Then perhaps the fenders/sugar scoops were sitting higher?

[bartsscooterservice]

That could be you can try that also.

But if the hood doesn't fall down on itself, but instead you have to push it down, then the hinges are worn...

[87mj]

1 hour ago, grannyknot said:

Then perhaps the fenders/sugar scoops were sitting higher?

I hoped that was the case but there is no adjustment to the front of fender.  This is the right front.  Either it is bolted to the subframe or it isn't.   Also, the long horizontal stamping just above it prevents the fender from moving up and down.  (Ignore the hood height in this pic. It isn't closed or latched. btw).

[Patcon]

There is a small amount of adjustment in most of the front end pieces because of the size of the holes in the panels. May not be enough. Is your grill removed?

I would loosen the hood bolts and the hinge bolts and try pushing the hood down and retightening it again. If it fit before, it should fit now. You can also look at the way the hinges shift when pushed down. Then you could adjust them more in that direction with the hood up. The hood may be stopping against the fender before you get the hinge where it needs to be.

[BoldUlysses]

Thanks again for all the input.  As far as I remember, the hood lined up before it was removed for the body resto.  At the very least, it didn't stand out to me that it was misaligned, and I notice that kind of stuff...

The grille and bumper have been removed for better hinge bolt access.  I'm not going to remove the torsion bars b/c they preload the hinges and will help keep it from clunking around on the road.

As mentioned previously, I'd like to keep up momentum with the project, so I'm working on the rest of the stuff forward of the firewall right now and I'll circle back to the hood in a bit.  I just don't want to stall out on it for 2-3 days.

Edited January 1, 2020 by BoldUlysses

[bartsscooterservice]

On 12/30/2019 at 1:54 PM, Patcon said:

Post up when they get back. It will be interesting to see the finished result

@Diseazd

Looks like it might be an hour or so from you

They are on the way back now, cost me 500 euro incl shipping, then again i will most likely be taxed again by our greedy goverment , so i think a total of 570 or so.

Hope it was worth it..