The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Hood Alignment

Well...I'm not certain. When doing this the two inside bolts (9/16 socket on a stubby 1/4 inch ratchet is a handy tool) are what I tighten once the hood is adjusted and tight against the anti-rattle strip. Usually I'll lift the hood 3 or so inches, stick a folded up cloth/towel between the top of the radiator and the hood and press down against the anti-rattle strip. That way when the hood is closed it will sit tight against that strip. When I have it the way I want, I tighten the two inside bolts well, lift the hood, tighten that third bolt (1/2" head) and then I install the spring arms. The spring arms do push up but if your hood is adjusted and the bolts are tight, things should not move on you. Good luck! I hope Carl can help. If you need to contact me off-site, [email protected] will do it.

Had a good conversation tieh Carl52 and spend some time working on the hood again yesterday.

First thing is I had not installed the cowl seal thinking I would save that for after paint. Carl suggested it was important so it is now installed although I still need to determine where to trim the ends as the parts as received are linger than required. As a side note I am getting pretty good at taking the hood off an on given all my practice.

I continued to find it difficult to get the hinge mounting bolts to move in their respective cab holes so I removed all of them and removed any residual sealant that appeared to be gumming up the movement. I also inverted the flat washers that seems to be deformed slightly thinking they may be engaging the cab holes preventing hood movement.

I am not done yet but the results so far indicate I am on the right path with significantly better side to side alignment at the front of the hood. Once I get the hood location firmly established I will move on to the fenders. It would be great if this was the last time for this effort but I do plan to take it apart again for paint so this is still a practice run. Hopefully practice makes perfect (or at least okay) in the end.

I needed to modify the hood latch plate to provide more adjustment toward the front, the latch was catching on the plate where I could not open the hood once closed.

I worked on alignment of the fenders and the driver's side is pretty good but the passenger side seems to flare out as it goes forward. I tried several things to get it to move inward without success. It may be as good as it is going to get for this round of assembly.

Finally getting back to ths hood alignment in hopes of having the hinge locations locked in place prior to painting.

To avoid any influence of the fenders to alignment of the hood I left them off for now. I noted previosuly that part of my problem was that as the hood latch pin engaged the latch mechanism it pushed the front of the hood toward the driver's side. I also noted that as the radiator support is only mounted in the center (bolts are loose) the support can move side to side and fore/aft with only the radiator hoses locating it.

I leveled and plumbed the radiator support with wood blocks to the extent possible and removed the latch plate. With the previous hinge locations my gap at the rear of the hood was a little more than I liked and a little larger on the passenger side. I was able to relocate the passenger side hinge to tighten the gap but to do so I needed to remove the upper most hinge mounting bolt indicating that I would need to enlarge the cab mounting hole toward the rear. The driver's side gap is larger than I want so I may need to do the same there. The front of the hood still seems offset to the passenger side looking at the lock pin location relative to the lock plate mounting surface.

A few things I noticed, the anti rattle seal that I installed has excess material in the center. I cut the new piece received in half and started installation from the outside leaving the excess in the center. It was easy to see where the outer ends needed to be but determining where to cut the excess material on the inner end is not clear. Any pictures or advice on where the inner ends should be would be appreciated.

Any thoughts about what I should look for or attempt adjustment wise before enlarging the cab hinge mounting holes? It does not seem correct that I would need to modify the cab mounting holes as they are originally fairly large to allow for adjustment.

Before you make the hinge holes in the cowl larger, move the radiator support over until it is centered under the hood pin and tighten the lower radiator support bolts at the front crossmember.

52Carl, thank you for the suggestion. I was concerned that the hood hinge adjustment would move the hood latch pin location so I wasn't sure which should be locked in first. With the radiator support blocked into a vertical and level location it does appear to be centered on the chassis but there is a fair amount of "adjustment" in the support mounting holes.

I tried variety of things to move the hood latch to align with the hood latch pin and none apeared to be viable as the radiator support was either offset or angled in a way that I am sure would have created problems with the fenders and/or grille at a minimum.

I went back to re-evaluate the cab position on the frame. It appeared that the front of the cab was 1/4" toward the passenger side so I removed the front mounting bolts, loosened the rear mounting bolts and moved the cab to get equal measurements on both sides.

Now the hood latch pin is much closer to centered in the pin opening in the latch with the radiator support level. The radiator support can still move fore/aft some and will ultimately be located by the fenders.

I tried to remove the top hinge bolt on the driver's side to mimick what I was able to achieve on the passenger side for hood to cowl gap. Everything looked okay until I installed the hood support spring arms and the driver's side shifted. I know I can get it back but I think before I do any more with the hinge adjustment (and potential to enlarge hinge mounting holes in the cab) I will loosely install the fenders such that the radiator support is more securely located.

For anyone else who has rebuilt their cab floor and related mounting holes please pay close attention to the cab location on the frame as small changes at the front of the cab are large changes when you get to the front of the hood. I thought I had done this but clearly it wasn't good enough. Hopefully this will now allow the hood alignment and fender installation sequence to be successful moving forward.

I loosely installed the fenders and the old problem that I had regarding the passenger side fender being too far back resurfaced. Both the front edge of the fender relationship to the hood and the splash panel behind the front bumper indicate that the radiator support must be twisted such that the passenger side is pushed back relative to the driver's side. The only thing I can see holding the support in that position is the lower radiator hose (SBC, aluminum rdaitor) which in theory should have flexability. I plan to devise a means to push the passenger side fender forward and try to lock it in position with the radiatory support mounting bolts (them being on center rather than the spaced side to side version doesn't help.

Once I get the radiator support locked into position I will resume my hood hinge adjustment efforts.

S.

I was able to push the fender forward but locking down the radiator support did not hold it so when I do the final assembly I will need to use the fender connection to the cab to help secure it in place.

I am back to the hood hinge adjustment procedure in hopes that I can get the hinges locked in position. From what I have seen so far it appears that I should be able to get the fenders to align with the hood per the procedure. I don't need to get everything locked down as the fenders will be coming back off for paint but I do want to have a clear path to a decent fit so that once painted I can minimize the potential for damage to the painted parts.