hood/headlight bucket alignment

[emccallum]

I have been looking a several cars that sold online, including the 21k mile $300k on BAT. I am noticing that the hood is slightly elevated compared to the headlight on almost every car. I am putting on my body panels and having the same issue, although mine is a bit more pronounced. Maybe its normal to not be even? 

Here is an example from a BAT car that just sold:

 

[Yarb]

My experience is having one guy pushing downward as far as you can and the other tightening the bolts.

[Tirnipgreen]

When I reassembled my car, I regretted not starting with the inspection lids first. It just seemed like the best place to start as I had to go back and adjust the fenders afterward. MTC

[grannyknot]

24 minutes ago, Yarb said:

My experience is having one guy pushing downward as far as you can and the other tightening the bolts.

This.

If your hinges are kind of worn, pushing down on the front of the hood while tightening is the only way to fix that problem.

[emccallum]

2 hours ago, grannyknot said:

This.

If your hinges are kind of worn, pushing down on the front of the hood while tightening is the only way to fix that problem.

I think that may be part of the problem. I can push down on the hood and the tension rods push it back up. Not enough adjustment on the mounting bolts to to compensate. I will have to look more closely to see if I can work around it. 

[kcpope]

I had the same issue. One side was acceptable, maybe 1/4 inch proud. The other side was like 3/4 inch proud. Hinges were not worn and had very little slop, and I was maxed out on the adjustment holes. I tried everything.

I noticed that without the tension rods installed, it sat perfect, so I opted to just leave the tension rods out and use a wooden hood prop when I’m tooling around in there.

Not sure if you’re willing to do that, but it worked for me and seemed to be a better solution than elongating the hinge mounting holes, etc.


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[grannyknot]

1 hour ago, emccallum said:

I think that may be part of the problem. I can push down on the hood and the tension rods push it back up. Not enough adjustment on the mounting bolts to to compensate. I will have to look more closely to see if I can work around it. 

I had one 240 where I had to dremel out the adjustment holes on the hinges so they would sit low enough when being tightened down.

[Patcon]

If I remember right, the hinges really need to rotate a little bit not just go straight down. I do agree though, loosen them slightly have someone force the hood down as far as it'll go .  Extra if you have it and tighten them up while reaching through the grill opening

[Mark Maras]

 I had a friend sit on each front corner as I tightened the bolts.