When I picked up my new/old hood a week ago I noticed that there was a lot of wiggle in the trailing edge. I( know that the engineers at Chevrolet back in the early '50s chose to keep the hood skin free of the framework beneath it , although I don't know why. In this particular hood the sheet metal stood about 1/4" clear of the frame . lots of space. As I was traveling down the highway with the hood in the back of my truck I observed a lot of flutter in that trailing edge. I knew that would drive me nuts to observe that thru the windshield of the '54.
I decided to address that situation in the course of prepping the hood for paint. I had polyurethane adhesive on hand , so that is what I used. With the hood belly up , supported in the middle , I laid in a generous bead of the poly. It is partially cured now , and the sheet metal is stabilized.
I doubt that I am the first guy to bring this up. I won't be real surprised if there are some individuals might disagree with my solution , but it is done , and I'm throwing it up here for comment. (after the fact ...)
Originally there was a 2" or so wide strip of tar impregnated material which went it that space. Most of those are long gone from shrinkage and fell out. I don't bother replacing it with anything since the seal which is screwed to the cowl under the rear of the hood supports that floppy section of the hood if the hood is adjusted correctly. I have seen hoods which had damage above that bracket. I am guessing that it was due to two things. Improper hood adjustment, and a gap between the tar impregnated strip. This combination would cause the fluttering hood (unsupported at the cowl due to poor adjustment) to hammer against the tar impregnated strip which has shrunk.
1952 5-window - return to "as built" condition | 1950 3100 with a 235 and a T-5 transmission
52Carl nailed it. In the FAM there's a section showing the " rear reinforcement pad" #6636647, 1- 1/4 "wide x 10" long x 7/32 thick sponge rubber. I found some 1/4 thick stuff and trimmed it to width / length and glued one to each side using weather-strip adhesive. Section 11, sheet 5.
What was left of the original pads was on the rear edge of the reinforcement just like shown in the FAM
There is a section in the Shop Manual that discusses Hood being tight against the hood anti-squeak and provides instructions on adjusting the reinforcement . See Chassis Sheet Metal 11-5 in the shop manual. Paragraph 10 and also Fig. 5 .
Last edited by Dusty53; 06/12/20223:03 AM.
Ron - - Dusty53 1954 Chevy 3604 In the Gallery Forum "You can't dance with the Devil and then wonder why you're still in Hell." "They will forget what you've said, and they will forget what you have done but they will never forget the way you made them feel."
When your truck sits in the hot sun (think at a show) the hood skin will want to expand. The ENTIRE hood skin. The factory strip, being attached on one side only, still allows for expansion. With having glued it down with poly adhesive, it may limit the ability to freely expand in that area, resulting is a noticeable pucker or otherwise distorted while the rest of the hood can expand but the glued area can not. I would get rid of that adhesive before you get to applying paint, replacing it with the original style spacer and glued on one side only, or the modern equivalent used in todays autos is an adhesive such as 3M 04274 NVH Dampening
