47-55.1 Hood Issues

[J48chevy]

So I have searched and read most posts about the fun of hood alignment issues. Here is my dilemma. Stock frame and cab, stock hinges, aftermarket fenders and 1 piece hood. As you can see by pics the drivers side is not far off. Thinking if I make holes in cab a little bigger I can get the hood hinge down and back enough to close the gap. The passenger side is another story. As you see in pics this is about an inch off. No way I can move the hinge that much. I have adjusted both using the 4” block in the front and pushing down on the back. This is as close as I can get it. Any suggestions on what to do?

[mongocanfly]

I'm sure during your searches you've seen the many many issues with repop body parts....this is probably your biggest issue...
If you cant get the hood to fit the cowl with the fenders out of the way,then the rest may never work...

[joedoh]

it looks like your front clip is pointing down in relation to the cab. this is my guess because there is a gap at the back of the hood and the hood is overhanging the front of the fender. I set up a lot of front clips and this is always the result when the front clip is pointing down.

take your core support loose at the BOTTOM ONLY, where it attaches to the frame and jack the whole front of the clip up an inch or so, I bet it fixes your misalignment.

how this can happen on a stock frame is: replacing the floor/ front body mounts without bracing the cab, or sagging rear body mounts, or anything that makes the cab sit crooked (firewall slightly pointing up). it could also be the front of the stock frame has the frame rails bent down, either from 70 years of use or from the MII install. take a picture straight from the side standing back a ways, you will be able to see if the cab is pointing up or the front is pointing down. use the bed/running boards as a witness, the gap between the cab and running board should be even front to back, and all horizontal lines (door window bottom edge, style lines on the front and rear fenders, bed top edge, running boards, bottom of cab) should be PARALLEL.

[J48chevy]

Originally Posted by joedoh

it looks like your front clip is pointing down in relation to the cab. this is my guess because there is a gap at the back of the hood and the hood is overhanging the front of the fender. I set up a lot of front clips and this is always the result when the front clip is pointing down.

take your core support loose at the BOTTOM ONLY, where it attaches to the frame and jack the whole front of the clip up an inch or so, I bet it fixes your misalignment.

how this can happen on a stock frame is: replacing the floor/ front body mounts without bracing the cab, or sagging rear body mounts, or anything that makes the cab sit crooked (firewall slightly pointing up). it could also be the front of the stock frame has the frame rails bent down, either from 70 years of use or from the MII install. take a picture straight from the side standing back a ways, you will be able to see if the cab is pointing up or the front is pointing down. use the bed/running boards as a witness, the gap between the cab and running board should be even front to back, and all horizontal lines (door window bottom edge, style lines on the front and rear fenders, bed top edge, running boards, bottom of cab) should be PARALLEL.

Will give this a try. Seems pretty level from front to back on hood gap. The entire hood needs to move back about 1” and down about the same. Cab seems to be lined up good with gap to running boards as well. I have a few more pics showing the hinges and gaps on both sides. Just didn’t know if I needed to reem out holes for hinges to slide down and back a little or not.

[dsraven]

assuming the frame is straight and not sagged, first check cab mounts and the space between cab and frame, front and rear of cab, to ensure this is the correct dimension according to the assembly manual, then check/adjust the rad support. you gotta start with the basics first,if the foundation is not right then everything else also will be out of whack a corresponding amount, exaggerated by the distance it is from the source problem.
imagine a surveyor messes up the angles on an intersection.not really noticeable at the intersection but a mile away the road could be 100 ft to one side or the other.
joedoh makes good points. he does this all the time because the frame under his projects is not stock so he needs to line things up "in space" and make the mounts under/between the parts so they fit the curves of the new frame. if he says do this and that then it is pretty bang on that eventually you will need to do this and that eventually. makes sense to check the cab to frame dimensions first though I think. if you think about it like a pile of cadboard boxes stacked together you could figure out which box needs to be moved and in what direction. if you have the old fenders you could try sticking them on for ****es and goggles.

[joedoh]

your third picture is what makes me say it, you can see the hood is "Over shut", and the front edge is sticking out further than the grille. this is what makes me think its not lined up. hood gap is not a good way to tell, the hinges arent hinges like door hinges with a single pivot, they are two pivots, so the hood gap will look normal at several heights because the hood shuts while moving almost straight down as an assembly for the last few inches.

also disconnect your hood springs when adjusting, and if the back just wont come down you may need replacements. hood springs need to be compressed for storage or they get lazy about compressing and pop the back of the hood up. sitting in a box uncompressed, or in a field for 50 years with the hood up is a great way to have the springs get sprung. no way to fix them I have found yet, except replacing.

the human eye can see 1/16th misalignment, so thats why I said stand back and look at it, you might be able to spot the front end pointing down, because the fender style line should be parallel to the running boards and the front face of the fender should be perpendicular to the running board. if its leaning forward at all, thats your problem.


hope you find it!

[J48chevy]

Originally Posted by joedoh

your third picture is what makes me say it, you can see the hood is "Over shut", and the front edge is sticking out further than the grille. this is what makes me think its not lined up. hood gap is not a good way to tell, the hinges arent hinges like door hinges with a single pivot, they are two pivots, so the hood gap will look normal at several heights because the hood shuts while moving almost straight down as an assembly for the last few inches.

also disconnect your hood springs when adjusting, and if the back just wont come down you may need replacements. hood springs need to be compressed for storage or they get lazy about compressing and pop the back of the hood up. sitting in a box uncompressed, or in a field for 50 years with the hood up is a great way to have the springs get sprung. no way to fix them I have found yet, except replacing.

the human eye can see 1/16th misalignment, so thats why I said stand back and look at it, you might be able to spot the front end pointing down, because the fender style line should be parallel to the running boards and the front face of the fender should be perpendicular to the running board. if its leaning forward at all, thats your problem.


hope you find it!

Thanks will do as you say. I did disconnect the hood hinges and just set the hood down on cowl and everything lines up perfect except I have about 1/4” gap at back of fenders on each side to hood. Now the hood sitting all the way down one the cowl and cannot go down any further so I was thinking I need to adjust the fenders up a little at the firewall? I will also try to raise the front some to check but it sure looks like my fenders are level with running boards on both sides. I did order new springs also as mine are the original and just had them powder coated. I know hoods are not fun and truthfully this is the part I was dreading the most. Once I get this done then off to paint. That is if this don’t take me months.

[J48chevy]

Here are pics with hood sitting on truck and not hooked up to hinges. So hood cannot go down anymore than this. I am thinking the fenders need to come up in rear to close the gap. 1st 2 pics are passenger side the other 2 are drivers side. Hood sits fine at front and is not off. Lines up good.

[J48chevy]

Ok jacked front clip up about an inch. Hood still on without any hinges. Passenger side is lined up pretty good. Pic makes it look like it is off but actually is not bad. Drivers side just seems like I need to move rear of ended up a little. But raising the front is exactly what I needed. May go up a tick more to close the gap.

Now my big question is for the hinges. Do I need to make holes in cab bigger to allow hinges to come down and back so hood sits like it does without them hooked up?

[dsraven]

good point on the hood springs.
can you slot the holes possibly?? been awhile since I did an AD hood.
still, take a look at the cab to frame dimensions at all 4 corners. think of it like a bunch of boxes stacked on a table top with blocks under each box to space them off the table. if the blocks aren't the right height the boxes will not line up. so if, per chance, the rear cab mounts are less than adequate for height then the front of the cab would sit at the wrong angle and the rad support would need to be raised to accommodate the difference. make sense? if you raise the rad support then you will cause issues with the bumper fitment. if the cab is at the wrong angle to the frame due to sagged mounts then the box may look weird when it is installed. like joedoh says, the human eye can see a slight angle change. anyway, just a thought. don't think too much into it and you will figure it out.

[dsraven]

love the wheels by the way.

[Chopped53]

Try removing the springs from the hinges and connecting the hinges without the springs. Those nasty springs cause havoc. I ended up using a prop rod instead.

[joedoh]

that does look a lot better.

on the hood hinges I have found that the bolt on the outside (has to be there just to let you install them with only one person) doesnt have as long a slot as the two main bolts from the inside, so maybe open that one up? just guessing now. I slotted one set of hinges once and needed to trim the back of it because it hit the cowl before it got all the way back.

[J48chevy]

Originally Posted by Chopped53

Try removing the springs from the hinges and connecting the hinges without the springs. Those nasty springs cause havoc. I ended up using a prop rod instead.

Yeah I ordered a new set of hood springs. These were original.

[J48chevy]

Originally Posted by joedoh

that does look a lot better.

on the hood hinges I have found that the bolt on the outside (has to be there just to let you install them with only one person) doesnt have as long a slot as the two main bolts from the inside, so maybe open that one up? just guessing now. I slotted one set of hinges once and needed to trim the back of it because it hit the cowl before it got all the way back.

Yes and thank you for the idea of raising the front core support. Would have never guessed that. Ended up being about a piece of 2” piece of square tube. Will fab that up for final but for now gets the right height. I do have to trim both hinges in order to move them back and will slot holes more.

[J48chevy]

Originally Posted by dsraven

good point on the hood springs.
can you slot the holes possibly?? been awhile since I did an AD hood.
still, take a look at the cab to frame dimensions at all 4 corners. think of it like a bunch of boxes stacked on a table top with blocks under each box to space them off the table. if the blocks aren't the right height the boxes will not line up. so if, per chance, the rear cab mounts are less than adequate for height then the front of the cab would sit at the wrong angle and the rad support would need to be raised to accommodate the difference. make sense? if you raise the rad support then you will cause issues with the bumper fitment. if the cab is at the wrong angle to the frame due to sagged mounts then the box may look weird when it is installed. like joedoh says, the human eye can see a slight angle change. anyway, just a thought. don't think too much into it and you will figure it out.

Thanks. Yeah all new cab mounts and cab is pretty square from everything I have checked. Raising the front core support got my gaps really close. Now this is without any hinges so that will be my next task. Going to slot holes a little more to move the hinges back and down some.

[mongocanfly]

When you do get it all together ,and right , drill some 1/8" witness holes in inconspicuous places...itll make reassembly much less painless...

[MiraclePieCo]

Hmm, looks to me like all you really needed to do was the standard hood alignment technique of leaving all the bolts loose, then putting a 2x4 under the hood front at the latch, then pushing down and back on the rear of the hood and tightening the bolts. It's one of those little tricks that sounds too easy to be true but works like magic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye5MY06ZN-4

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by MiraclePieCo

Hmm, looks to me like all you really needed to do was the standard hood alignment technique of leaving all the bolts loose, then putting a 2x4 under the hood front at the latch, then pushing down and back on the rear of the hood and tightening the bolts. It's one of those little tricks that sounds too easy to be true but works like magic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye5MY06ZN-4

its a good tip, and one worth repeating for sure, but its literally in his first post that he already did it.

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by joedoh

its a good tip, and one worth repeating for sure, but its literally in his first post that he already did it.

Uh yeah, I was trying to be diplomatic and get him to watch the video cuz he couldn't have done it right and still have that gap at the rear. His misalignment is just too classic - obviously there's some aspect of the technique he's missing - probably the part about holding the hood down and back while a helper tightens the inner hinge bolts from inside the cowl. Looks like he also may have done it with the hood weatherstrip on the cowl, which interferes with initial fitment. So he needs to try it again properly.

So I guess there goes diplomacy out the window...

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by MiraclePieCo

cuz he couldn't have done it right and still have that gap at the rear.

sure he could, by having the clip pointing down or the cab pointing up. and I knew this because I have had that exact same situation, where the back corner of the hood bottoms out in the recess, gaps at the top rear, and has overhang on the front. thats only possible if the hood is pointing down to latch. raising the core support fixed it every time, and now I actually set up a front clip with a jack under the clip to avoid this.


you could have said all of your second post in your first post without any of the snark and it would have been better received. I suspected you didnt read his first post because you were suggesting he do something he already did. now I suspect you didnt read any of his posts, especially further down where he figured it out, and are just being undiplomatic because... ? I dont know why? we are here to help guys with problems, not to smirk and roundabout get them to try it again the correct way by posting a video and saying you obviously did it wrong. take that kind of stuff to the hamb, they love snarking on and lording over other people there.

[72Mountaineer]

I just went through this with my '53, trying to fit the hood. I messed with it for quite a while, finally just loosened everything on the front clip, left the grille in place (I guess a must) and fit the back of the hood first to the cowl. Then brought the radiator support and fenders up to meet the hood. It isn't show quality, but it works for me.