The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop ’41 Grill & Hood

Just about done with the bed and rear fenders on my ’41 and I’m beginning to think seriously about the front fenders (inner and outer), hood and the grill. I have noticed that the front portion of my hood does not sit flat on top of the upper grill. There is about a ¾” gap. The hood sits very squarely on the fenders and the small panels that close the area just behind the; upper grill, the fenders, and the hood. What I don’t understand is if the upper grill is bolted to these panels and the hood sits correctly on them, why is there a gap between the hood and the upper grill??

Kip, This is a tough one to visualize without a picture, but if I read you right your problem is at the front of the hood where it meets the upper grill.

It seems like if the sides of the hood fit the fenders and the filler pannel that perhaps the very front of your hood is tweeked. With the hood closed can you push on the front corner next to the front hinge support bracket and bring it closer to the top of the grill.

My 46 has about 1/4" gap between the upper grill and the front edge of the hood. Check out my pictures in the gallery. You can see how my hood fits.

Hope this helps
George Wells

Kip,
I'm nearing that era now in starting to put stuff back together. Maybe you can adjust the radiator support up from the bottom. I placed 4 each 1/8 inch rubber shims I cut from vinyl baseboard under mine to raise up. I haven't imstalled fenders but will deal with that at that time.
Dan

Or adjust metal v-rod support to cab to pull back which may raise the nose of the front hood support
Dan

There is about a 1/4 inch gap in mine. I never could get it to sit on the grille. I wonder if it should.

Guys, there is supposed to be several rubber bumpers along the upper edge of the grill/filler panel where the hood rests. These are about 1/4" thick so your gap is going to be at least that. 3/4" is too much.

George

OK Guys…………..First try at this. This old dog is trying to learn a new trick, Posting Photos.

If this works there should be 2 photos showing the side of my hood and the upper grill. You should quickly see that the grill bars are not even close to being parallel to the hood line


http://community.webshots.com/user/Kips41

Kip,

Did this grill panel fit before or is it a replacement?

Mine had some of the same issues due to a front end collision sometime in my trucks past. I took the grill panel and used a dinging hammer to straighten out some of the bend. With that much bow/bend, something is either installed wrong or damaged.

Also, I can't tell from the pics, but is the "chevrolet" bottom bar hanging out over the bottom grill panel? If so, something is wrong with the top section. It should line up nicely.

I am having trouble getting the passenger side of my hood to fit like the driver side. I need to bring the radiator support up a little to start, but lining all of this stuff up is a pain in the rump.

Kip,

First congratulations on making the leap into digital pix sharing -- great ain't it? We love pix here.

Something appears seriously out of kilter with your front end is about all I can contribute, but you already knew that. My '41 is starting to come together right now also, and hopefully in the next week or so we'll be fitting up the grill and hood. I'll post some progress shots when they are available and perhaps we can solve your problem. You might send Barry Weeks an email with your pix, [email protected] He may very well know the answer right off the bat.

Don

46, Thanks for the tips. I'm sure the grill did fit at one time, but as you pointed out who knows what has happened over the past 66 years. The only thing that I have had apart so far was the upper grill for some minor clean up. Yes the very front of the bottom bar is sticking out about 1/2" forward of the lower grill. Where is it supposed to be?? even or some distance behind the lower grill/

Kip,

My top panel hanges less than a 1/4 inch over the bottom panel. The folder marked my public shoe box in my webshots account has one that shows my grill afer re-install.

I see that the hood bracket is attached to the upper grill panel in your photo. If that thing is attached and hanging down that far,take a look to see if it is bent too. mine had one kink in it due to damage.

I agree with the others. It looks like you have some damage to your upper grill. Your second picture shows it pretty well. The upper bar of your grill should be parallel with the filler pannel. (the one between the fender and the radiator support)

Your hood looks like it fits the rest of the truck pretty well. I think you need to check out the upper grill and the front hood bracket.

Good Luck
George

In agreement looks like the upper grill is slightly bend downward on each crossing (hood looks like it sits fine).

WOW…Thanks to everyone for all the advice. Looks like all agree that the upper grill bars should be parallel to the top of the filler panel (or whatever the piece between the hood and fenders is called). This ought to be a real challenge. As I said above I have not had the front end sheetmetal apart. Each time I go out to the garage I take another close look at it and every time It looks the same; all of the parts, fenders, inner fenders, filler panels, grill, upper grill, inner fender extensions, that dished pan below the rad. and grill are all bolted or in some cases tack welded together. All of the lines and joints look to be in proper alignment except, of course that pesky upper grill. It is obvious that the truck has rattled down about 90,000 miles of dirt roads and several of the front end sheetmetal items have cracked and been repaired. I’m guessing that each of the joints are/ were provided with oversized or slotted holes and once apart the right combination of slot positions will provide the correct alignment. We’ll see ??? All of that may wait till this fall as I want to play with the truck over the summer. And yes Down2sea, as my kids would say they are still trying to get me into the 20th century, then they will try for this one.

In the third post of this thread “Chev4t6” indicates that he has raised his radiator support frame up ½”. Currently mine is bolted quite securely directly to the truck frame’s front cross member. Is there supposed to be some kind of spacer in between the truck frame and the radiator support frame ??

yes I ordered mine from Jim Carters, Two pieces 1/4" thick

James