Help! Hood Alignment

[berry1133@bellsouth.net]

Hello L81 owners. My hood as been a little off alignment since I bought it a few months back. After looking at the repair manual, it stated that you can shim the hinges and strikers to align. Well I decide to take a look at it and noticed that there were two shims under the left striker. After playing around with it, it even more out of alignment. Any suggestions on how to align? I am contemplating taking it to a body shop.

Thanks,
BBerry

 

[Yoda]

BBerry,

It sounds like the hood alignment issue is with the top of the hood aligning up with the fenders and where the hood locks down?? Is that correct? It is not alignment with the gap of the hood being uneven from front to back?

From the factory the hood adjustment alignment to the level of the fenders is done with Rubber Bumpers. If you look at the sill on the fenders where the hood fits down into you may notice a few of little square cleaner spots than the surrounding area. Most likely the Rubber Bumpers are missing.

There is no specific placement of these Bumpers, just where needed to adjust the hood.

I bought a package of Spring Rubber Spacers and cut them down and moved them around until I found the best alignment, then clued them in place. As for the Rear of the Hood, I didn't need to make any further adjustments once I got the hood leveled...

Bud

 

[6880 Mike]

Define "out of alignment." Too high in front or back; too low? Low or high on corners? Not even with the fenders? Not even in the opening?

If you tweaked it a little and it looks worse, undo the changes you made.

 

[berry1133@bellsouth.net]

Just to clarify, my alignment problem is left to right. I have a huge gap between the left fender and hood and the hood is rubbing up against the right fender.

Thanks
BBerry

 

[Yoda]

Just to clarify, my alignment problem is left to right. I have a huge gap between the left fender and hood and the hood is rubbing up against the right fender.

Thanks
BBerry

An adjustment you need can be very tricky... it requires more than one person and a great deal of patience.

I adjusted a 74 hood years ago and got it about as good as I could. I finally came to the conclusion the front it had been hit and it was not repaired properly to allow alignment of equal distance between hood front to back left to right..

I don't really feel comfortable trying to describe all the loosening of nuts and hinge points and moving the hood around to look right then slowly tightening up the hinge mounts as well as the locking points at the top (windshield) of the hood.

Don't know what it would cost now days, but you might want to have you car put on a frame machine and spec checked before trying to align anything on the car...

Good Luck

Bud

NOTE: The reason I am not comfortable is ... anytime you move something one way it affects the other 3 sides of the fit.. move the hood from right to left and it affects the bottom fit as well as the top fit.. The top of the hood lines up with the door body seam and I've seen one side 3/4" or more too high with gap at the bottom above the headlights not even... GOOD LUCK!

 

[berry1133@bellsouth.net]

Thanks Bud. I may end up taking it to a body shop to see if they can do anything.