riggzola

GNOSEZ, When will those new full length frame rails be ready?

ZSaint, I worked on the alignment of the headlight buckets a little. I do believe that I have other front end problems because I noticed that one had some hairline cracks near the top back corner where they meet with the fender and the hood. I'm still suspecting that maybe one or both of the supports is bent. I'm going to hold off on working on it for awhile because 1) I don't want to crack those buckets anymore and 2) I'm probably going to repaint next year sometime. If I repaint I'll be able to disassemble the whole front end and start over. I believe that if you loosen the bolts on the buckets and fenders that you'll get the alignment you want. Check out EScanlon's directions below. Yes the headlight buckets are often called sugar scoops. Definitely let me know what you find out.

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.

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.

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.

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.