hood alignment

[P. Gannon]

Good evening all:


My 1975 vette's hood does not align from front to back. When the hood is aligned with the fenders toward the windshield the front of the hood sticks up about the thickness of the fiberglass above the lip at the front of the nose. It appears that the hood has been worked on and may have had the body work done incorrectly. In any event, is this common? Is there any way to measure the opening so that I can determine if a new hood would fix this problem without having to fork out severel hundred sheckles to find out it doesnt' make any improvement?


I appreciate your imput. (PG)

[Wayne W.]

Re: hood alignment

Does it have any of the rubber blocks on the ledges of the hood surround? These hoods were bad for fit down the sides and the blocks were used to align them.

[Bob Booth]

Re: hood alignment

I don't know how common it is but my '72 coupe was exactly the same way! I bought it with an aftermarket LT-1 hood that wasn't even close to fitting. He also gave me the stock hood and it was better but had the problem you mentioned. It stuck up about 3/8" to 1/2" at the front edge. I suspected that the nose had been worked on as there was evidence of damage to it but not the hood. As there was no way to adjust it without ruining the alignment on the rest of the hood I took a drastic step and cut a series of slots through the front of the hood widthwise (approx. 10"-12" long through the bump in the hood)with a die grinder/cutoff wheel. This made the front part of the hood flexible enough that I could bend the front of the hood down to meet the nose while the rest of the gaps stayed the same. Then I took some flat stock and bent it to the required shape and screwed to the hood to hold the bend while I removed the hood, flipped it over and glassed the underside. Then I flipped it back over and repaired the top side and voila!, it fit perfect! The only problem with this is you really need to do the glass work properly or it will come back to haunt you. I used Vette Bond to fill the slots on the top side and while they say it's almost exactly like glass, it expands and contracts at a different rate than glass, and under certain temperature conditions, if you look hard, you you can see very slight "ghosts" where I cut the slots. Many people have looked very closely at this car and didn't notice them but I know they're there. If I had to do it again I would probably just glass the underside as I did and instead of filling the slots with Vette Bond, I'd just grind the glass down to obliterate the slots and re-glass over it. That way I think it's less likely to move around. I'm not saying that you should take this drastic step (I'm really picky when it comes to stuff like that). It may be that the hood was butchered at one time instead of the nose. Look under the nose and see if there is any evidence of past damage or replacement. If not, then a new hood is probably in order if you don't want to go through the trouble of fixing your old one. I would try to borrow another hood from someone first to test fit. This way you don't spend a mint on a new hood just to find out you have the same problem.


Good Luck, Bob Booth

[Bob Booth]

Re: Wayne's right, but.....

....only to a degree will the rubber blocks help. I use them on mine and found that they are good just for fine adjustment, maybe 1/8" or 3/16" max. Any more than that and you are really going to stress the hood. If his was the same as mine, the problem is that the front of the hood doesn't slope down as much as the nose and therefore is too "flat". But hey, might as well try the easy fix first!


Bob Booth

[P. Gannon]

Re: Wayne's right, but.....

Bob:


After reading your description this seems to match exactly to my problem. When looking at the front of the hood it almost appears as if the front starts to turn up just a little bit. This aslo seems to lend to the illusion that the very front lip of the hood looks thicker than the side.


I have examined the rubber stops and there does not appear to be enough adjustment to resolve the problem. Additionally, the hood does not line up quite right with the back downslope of the highest part of the fender.


In examining the joint between the doors and the front fenders it appears as if the gap at the top of the door is wider than that at the bottom. Is it possible that previous body work on the front of this car could have lowered the front end of the front clip? I have never noticed if there are shims or other adjustment devices for the fenders and nose.

[Wayne W.]

Re: Wayne's right, but.....

I use the method bob used sometimes to fit a hood as a last resort for a very bad one, but I use fiberglass and resin to repair the cuts made. It`s hard to correct this type of problem without major surgery if bad body work is the culprit. Wider gaps at the top of the door are not always an indication of bad body work as I have seen some very uneven gaps from the factory. They are typically some wider at the top. There is a good chance it is the result of work though. You may be able to raise the nose a little by adjusting the support bracket that is under the very center of the front nose. Or if you are not concerned with originality you can install a home made a bracket from the front frame to the header bar in the center of the nose to hold it up. The header bar is bolted to a bracket on the inner fenders that could be shimmed up also.

[Stewart L.]

Re: hood alignment

The problem you discribed could be caused by the front frame horns being down a bit.This will make the surround panel sit a bit lower than the hood at the front. The frame has to be correct before you start messing with the fiberglass. Hoods do vary from hood to hood, but proably not enough to help your problem unless the old one was damaged. Once you have decided the frame and hood are good, the front surround may need to be broken loose at the inner aprons and reglued up a bit. Some of the front brackets would need to be realigned also. Probably your best bet would be to find a body shop that does alot of Corvette work and they could look at the car and probably let you know what needs to be done.