The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop hood reinstall with limited help

I"m ready to reinstall the hood on a 53 half ton, and I don't have much in the way of help. I"m just curious if any of you have tried blocking up the rear of the hood on the cowl, while proping up the front, to insert attach the hinge arms to the hood, using the shoulder bolts. This may be a dumb idea, but it's all I could think of. It seems to me that reinstalling the hood would ideally take 3 people, but I rarely have more than 2 total. So, if any of you have tried this, or something else, I'd be very interested in hearing about it. thanks !!!

Mike, I may be in the same position as you are, but can probably recruit additional help.

When I was working the dents out of my hood, I was wondering about the circular gap between the hood halves roughly midway back. Was that a balanced lifting point? If so, an eyebolt thru there (without the filler strip on of course) could be used along with a hoist to position the hood for installation. Just a thought. I would think that the factory would want to make hood installation easy, and they had lots of hoist capabilities on the assembly line.

I think that carefully placed blocking would work, or maybe a shipping blanket (free or real cheap ones occasionally offered at Harbor Freight) thrown over the cowl, and some sort of prop at the front to hold the hood up so you can get the hinge bolts installed.

Just getting the hood placed is definitely a 2 person job, IMO, but a third as a spotter would be good.

Strap or rope around it front to back and side to side like a x mas present. Hoist up and lower slowly until you can tilt and bolt into place.

I just put a moving blanket on the cowl, grab the hood by the front in a bear hug and lower it in place. I am 65 years old, medium sized, ridden hard and put away wet for most of my life. Your mileage may vary.
Make sure that the rear bolts of the fenders and inner fenders are loose so that you can lower the rear ends of the fenders so that the hood can't touch them.

I recently replaced the hood hinges on my 49 with no help.

I opened the hood in the garage and took a plumb bob and marked the location of three pickup points on the ceiling

None fell where there were any rafters, so I took some old garage opener support pieces I had and tied each piece to a rafter or straddled the rafter

I used some HF ratchet straps to connect the hood to the ceiling, To hook the ratchet straps to the hood I used some loops of paracord on the hood.

Put a little tension in the ratchet straps and loosened the shoulder bolts on the hinges, then did the R and R on the hinges.

I don't see when you couldn't put the hood on the floor and project some pickup points on the ceiling and do the same thing, then hoist the hood up and drive the truck underneath it.

I used an engine hoist with rope. I looped it around the two front corner braces and around the back or the hood crossing the two ropes over the hook so I could tilt it in one direction or the other. I don’t remember the exact way I did it, but it worker like a charm.

I got a friend to help me place the hood on the truck, blanket on the cowl. On my own, I used a length of 2x4 to prop the hood open. Attached the hinges. The hard part was the spring arms. I had done it in the past and I'm sure there is a procedure written somewhere. After struggling awhile, I finally attached the spring arms to the hood. Placed a drift through the lower bracket hole and into the cowl mounting hole. hammered the bracket along the drift until it was against the cowl, then attached the upper bracket bolt. Get that cowl to hood seal in place before attaching the hood( don't ask me how I know that).

I put moving blankets on the cowl, place the point of the hood against my rock hard abs just above my belt, and lift the hood with natural born, brute strength until its high enough to clear the cowl and ease it down.
It would be a lot easier if I had any friends, but given movie star good looks and Adonis-like physique, a guy can't expect to have everything...

Posted 9/12/23.
Today
Been working out a bit Carl? Sounds like you've made good progress.

Use the Force.

Truth be told, as I have aged, I have realized the futility in attempting to be humble. It gets in the way of greatness.

Finally found these pics from the tv show Full Custom Garage. Ian, the host, is a pretty big guy. Probably could've lifted one like this in my younger days but now I'll let the engine hoist do the work.

I just turned 76 and could probably do that, but the question is why would I when I can either get help or use a hoist?

Put a many a hood on solo over the years. 70 Monte Carlo was fun 😵‍💫😵‍💫

Nowdays I have 2 soninlaws that are bigger than me and in their mid 30s. I just say grab that and they do 👍🇺🇸😉

The 70-72 Monte Carlo had the longest hood of any Chevy ever built.

I just put my hood back on. Me & my 2 sons and that moving blanket. I’m sure it could be done using a hoist and ropes or other straps to position it alone. It’s much faster with human assistance.
By the way, I need one of those bolts to replace the wrong bolt someone put on it. Anyone know the name of it & size? Thanks!

The’re special shoulder bolts not found at your local hardware store.

You can buy them from most of the vendors. Here is some from
Classic Parts.