47-55.1 Hood Issues

[joedoh]

your third picture is what makes me say it, you can see the hood is "Over shut", and the front edge is sticking out further than the grille. this is what makes me think its not lined up. hood gap is not a good way to tell, the hinges arent hinges like door hinges with a single pivot, they are two pivots, so the hood gap will look normal at several heights because the hood shuts while moving almost straight down as an assembly for the last few inches.

also disconnect your hood springs when adjusting, and if the back just wont come down you may need replacements. hood springs need to be compressed for storage or they get lazy about compressing and pop the back of the hood up. sitting in a box uncompressed, or in a field for 50 years with the hood up is a great way to have the springs get sprung. no way to fix them I have found yet, except replacing.

the human eye can see 1/16th misalignment, so thats why I said stand back and look at it, you might be able to spot the front end pointing down, because the fender style line should be parallel to the running boards and the front face of the fender should be perpendicular to the running board. if its leaning forward at all, thats your problem.


hope you find it!

[J48chevy]

Originally Posted by joedoh

your third picture is what makes me say it, you can see the hood is "Over shut", and the front edge is sticking out further than the grille. this is what makes me think its not lined up. hood gap is not a good way to tell, the hinges arent hinges like door hinges with a single pivot, they are two pivots, so the hood gap will look normal at several heights because the hood shuts while moving almost straight down as an assembly for the last few inches.

also disconnect your hood springs when adjusting, and if the back just wont come down you may need replacements. hood springs need to be compressed for storage or they get lazy about compressing and pop the back of the hood up. sitting in a box uncompressed, or in a field for 50 years with the hood up is a great way to have the springs get sprung. no way to fix them I have found yet, except replacing.

the human eye can see 1/16th misalignment, so thats why I said stand back and look at it, you might be able to spot the front end pointing down, because the fender style line should be parallel to the running boards and the front face of the fender should be perpendicular to the running board. if its leaning forward at all, thats your problem.


hope you find it!

Thanks will do as you say. I did disconnect the hood hinges and just set the hood down on cowl and everything lines up perfect except I have about 1/4” gap at back of fenders on each side to hood. Now the hood sitting all the way down one the cowl and cannot go down any further so I was thinking I need to adjust the fenders up a little at the firewall? I will also try to raise the front some to check but it sure looks like my fenders are level with running boards on both sides. I did order new springs also as mine are the original and just had them powder coated. I know hoods are not fun and truthfully this is the part I was dreading the most. Once I get this done then off to paint. That is if this don’t take me months.

[J48chevy]

Here are pics with hood sitting on truck and not hooked up to hinges. So hood cannot go down anymore than this. I am thinking the fenders need to come up in rear to close the gap. 1st 2 pics are passenger side the other 2 are drivers side. Hood sits fine at front and is not off. Lines up good.

[J48chevy]

Ok jacked front clip up about an inch. Hood still on without any hinges. Passenger side is lined up pretty good. Pic makes it look like it is off but actually is not bad. Drivers side just seems like I need to move rear of ended up a little. But raising the front is exactly what I needed. May go up a tick more to close the gap.

Now my big question is for the hinges. Do I need to make holes in cab bigger to allow hinges to come down and back so hood sits like it does without them hooked up?

[dsraven]

love the wheels by the way.