The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Hood Springs AD-UPDATE

Some of you may remember that not long ago I put the hood on my panel. I've NEVER been able to get the hood down at the back. I"ve read the tech tip, but there's onlyu so much adjusting you can do. I even had a bolter on the phone for about and hour trying to "talk me through it" and the darn thing just will not lay down.

The other day I decided to just pull the springs off to see what would happen. Well, wouldn't you know, I shut the hood and it layed down just fine.

I know this subject has been beat to death and each report seems to be different. So, just how do you tell if the springs are bad?? They seem OK to me?

Any suggestions, ideas?

Alvin,

Chevs of the 40s has reproduction hood hinge sets. They cost $44 per side. It would be nice to hear from someone who has installed them before considering purchasing them.

I have the same problem as you, my hood fit good till i restored my truck lol.with the springs on, the back is high after doing the adjustments, but with the springs off it lays nice and flat. I think mine is due to replacing the cowl sides, the heat might have afected the enlongated holes. My plan is when i can get help to take the hood off im going to file it down some and put on the new hod hinge kit. The past owner decided to cut the stopper off on the hinge so you have to be careful when you raise it up.

I guess my only question is, if the hood fit before, then why shouldn't it fit after. It only seems logical to me that the problem is all in the adjustment. If it were worn out springs or worn out hinges then the problem would have been present before the restoration.
Of course if you've replace the cowl sectiong where the hood bolted to or replaced the hinges with reproduction off shore hinges that's a different story.
I've read dozens of thread about how dificult it is to align the doors. But with the help of my young daughter holding up one end of the doors and me making a few adjustments mine went back on with only a few tries at adjustment. I see no need for alignment holes drilled thru the hinges and such. If the panel is to far left or up then move it right or down. If all the panels are straight then after a few tries it should fit.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I don't know about the earlier series, but the 55-59 hood hinges can stand proud of the cowl because the pins in the hinges are worn - not a problem until you take things apart and disturb [clean] the crud and corrosion build up and lube them up nice .... new springs on old hinges worsen the problem, new hinges with the original or new springs fix it right up

Bill

I think alot of the problems lies with the repops and the age of our trucks. The orginal parts being 60+ years old thats alot of sitting out side in the heat and cold plus the rain and rust, the metal expanding and retracting but as long as its bolt on its ok. I think its after we take them apart and they sit while being rework thats when they warp a little without the tension holding them in their shape. There is also the replacing parts, the repops dont fit like it should and we do our best to make them fit but it will show up somewhere. For me, I replaced the fenders, firewall, cowl sides, toe board and floorboard. Thats alot of welding and the heat can make stuff warp, and also the bolt on repops, so at some point some stuff might need adjustments made to get the alignment where it needs to be.

Thanks Joe but Victoria volunteered to cut her broom into and let me have the handle.....over the head!!

OK guys, I hear you Denny, Squeeze and 49chevtrcknIN.
Driver side I replaced the inner panel, repaired inner to outer and also replaced "most" of the outer cowl... not much done to the passenger side. The hinge and hood holes were not replaced.

AND the front end had been taken apart by the PO. He simply bolted the fenders back on for transporting it so I don't know the condition of the fender/hood prior to purchasing it except to know it was banged up about what you'd expect from a delivery truck.
YES, I cleaned, bead blasted, primed and painted and put a little lube on the right places.

I know this subject has been beat to death but there just has to be a commor thread somewhere for us to have all this problem.

I "suspect" its the springs not acting right. I compare it to a pocket knife. At a 90 degree angle it stays put. If you start to close it then it will automatically snap shut..... if at 90 degree's and you start to open it then it will automatically snap open. (if its lubed correctly!)

I "wonder" if the springs, after being off the panel for sometime have lost some of the needed tension??? You know, when you close it is there a "spot" where it should remain "down" but doesn't... and when you open it up it will stay up. All due to the direction of the spring tension.

Can you at least see what I'm trying to say??? There has to be something that "pushes" the hood up at the back because without the springs it stays down.... which means it has to be in the sprngs.

The hood HINGE has ONE bolt that is not adjustable so the factory must have known something or they would not have put that unjustable bolt in there and would have had trouble with at least some of them at the factory which, after all the thousands they made surely they would have corrected it. (This hinge may "tilt" a litle front or backwards but thats about it)

I'm guessing its the springs. I have a set offered to me by a bolter but by the time I pay shipping ect they may not be good either.

Tim, Chev's of the 40's is $44 per side, JimCarter is $37 and Classic Parts is $35... .oh, and LMC is dang near $70 per side.

I'm sleeping on it and will post when I get things "done up".

Can ANYONE report on this problem and what/if NEW HINGES or SPRING helped?? I'd love to hear your stories. In the meantime maybe I need to cut the handle off Victoria's broom

On my 48 3100 my hood is about 1 inch high in the front and back. I am not sure if it is the hood or the truck. One is out of whack

Well I pumped it up and down and can't see any way that it could hold the back up. I've seen this on several AD's at car shows so I understand your problem. Just can't see the mechanics in it. This hood isn't supported in the front, it's just hanging on the hinges but it works nice and smooth up and down and seats nice and tight at the cowl: http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/hood
As far as I know this is all original, at least that's what her care giver for the last four decades said.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Hi guys, i removed my hood springs and brackets to clean and paint. After painting I installed them and closed the hood and found the rear of the hood standing high in the back. I tried adjusting them with bad results. After a few colorful sentences I removed the brackets and swapped them to the other side. Closed the hood, looked smiled and called myself some colorful names for not paying attention when I first disassembled the hood brackets.

Joe Trav

Joe -

What color did you paint your hood springs? Do you know what color they were originally from the assembly plant?

Thanks,

I just had all of this plated for a little over a hundred bucks: http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/133951157
If you can't find Cadmium then zinc is real close in appearance
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

If they are a commercial company, who does your plating?

Thanks,

Lonnie, I painted the brackets black and the springs I used Eastwood's detail gray. My truck is not stock so I do what I think looks good versus technicaly correct.

Joe Trav

http://s845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/joetravjr/

Thanks Joe.

Anybody know the original color of '54 hood springs? Hope to be able to paint the visable parts without removing.

I think they were not painted. Didn't see any paint evidence on my 53.

UPDATE: Yipeeeeee, I finally got it.
I spent just about the intire day wrestling with this hood. It is laying flat and tight but for the life of me I cannot tell you exactly what I did that fixed the problem.

Thanks, Denny for the picture. I had the springs on correctly and had marked them but still I figured I could have made a mistake or the PO.
Joe, I got lucky they were not switched but thanks for the idea.

*** I have previously read the tech tip on adjusting the hood that is in the tech tip section. I had even printed it out a good while back and put it in my "notebook".
Fellows, I'll admit the tech tip "threw me" and was a little hard for me to read and follow or keep up with what he was saying. However, I went out and took the SPRINGS completely off. I had left the fenders and such loose just for this. I read the instructions at least SIX times and figured I had a good handle on it. I still went back and read and re-read the tech article to know I was still on track.

The TWO things I THINK solved the problem is this.
First, by having the hood HINGE loose I was able to move the HINGE forward or back just a bit to get the right gap between the edge of the hood and the cowling. One it was set I tigtened them down.
Second thing I believe was the fact that you leave the SPRINGS loose at the firewall. With the hood UP the hood will push down on the SPRINGS and then you tighten the bolts going into the firewall at that point. The SPRINGS will push up on the back of the hood whatever wear is in the hinge rivets.

Anyway, I learned a lot. Just me an "Orange Blossom" by ourselves. When I pulled the hood down and seen it worked they heard me yell all the way to the space shuttle. Yaaaaa HOOOOO

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions and pictures... and for your support. This has been one of the top 3 aggravations on this build.
Atta Boys to all the Stovebolters out there.

Here’s a close up picture of the right side hood hinge from a ‘50, 3600 Lonnie. This is un-restored and factory original except for the western Iowa clay, some over spray and 61 years of wear and tear.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/136380800
You can plainly see that the hinge was Cad plated and the spring was installed on the hinge as it was made, that is “Blued Spring Steel”. When I do the restoration to the hood the hinges will be stripped and re-plated with Cadmium and the springs will be re-blued, with Birchwood Casey gun bluing: http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/136380870/large

Also a lot of discussion has taken place about the under hood finish, this picture also shows the original under side of the hood.

Tim, the Cadmium was done by a commercial plater but it is just a small local shop. I’m sure there are a dozen or more small plating shops in Albany and around your area that do this type of electroplating. They usually shy away from your bringing in one piece to have it plated so I usually try to gather up a batch of parts, which is what I did when I took your radio parts in to be re-plated.

CONGRATS Alvin, yep I heered ya all the way up here, thought you just got lucky last night or maybe pinched our finger in that hood hinge. I’ll bet you know what you did to get that hood down flat, you’re just gonna keep it a trade secret between you and the “Orange Blossom Special”. But really, that’s good news, I know how frustrating those little things can be. Been workin’ on exhaust manifolds for several days now so I can finish up the ’50’s engine. I’m making up drill fixtures with drill bushings so I can drill out the studs that inevitably break off with out ruining the threads in the casting. What should have been a one hour job has now turned into days.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny -

Thanks for the hinge color info. That's exactly what I was looking for. I have a pic of an unrestored '54 that confirms.

I won't remove the hinges. Hope to spiff them up a little beyond the silver-gray paint with lube stains that is on them now.

I'm glad you got it figured out, Alvin.

I will be printing out and saving all this information :-)
I am sure it will come handy in the near future.
Charlie.

Alvin, glad you got 'er done, I could sense your frustration in your posts!

It must've been so annoying for you considering how far your panel has come.

Still,that's another item checked off "The list".

Gratz Alvin on getting the hood springs to work. I printed it out and added it to my folder as i have my own home made service manual.