Hood Fit Questions.

[Eddie 70]

This evening while everyone was over for dinner, I conned two people to go out to put my hood on my car. I was sorely disappointed when I found out that the hood appears to be too wide for the opening. What can I do about this? Anyone have any ideas what is going on here. Where do I put the shims at?
Thanks for any help.
_______

 

[Tom Bryant]

eddie,

Is this the original hood ar a replacement? Some replacement hoods need to be "fitted" by removing some material off of the edges prior to painting.

Tom

 

[Eddie 70]

Tom, this is a hood that came off of a car already. I thought that it should just drop right in. The assemble manual shows some shims between the radiator support and its mounting points. Would this help?

 

[Tom Bryant]

Eddie,

I would think that those shims would be to adjust the height of the front of the hood so it is even with the headlight surround panel when closed. The top hood surround panel is originally one piece and I can't see where the width would vary enough to cause a problem with another GM hood. They didn't have time to hand fit each hood to it's opening on the assembly line so they all had to be within certain specs.

Is it possible that your car has had fender repair which may have resulted in the opening being narrowed slightly? Your old hood may have been sanded on the edges for fit.

Tom

 

[Eddie 70]

The shims I am talking about go down between the radiator support and its mounting points. I am gonna go out and measure the width of the two hoods and see what the difference is in the two. If you can think of anything else please don`t hesitate to chime in.

 

[Tom Bryant]

Sorry. I misunderstood. Those align the front fiberglass and effect door gap.

Tom

 

[Eddie 70]

Do you think this could affect hood fitment?

 

[Tom Bryant]

It's possible, I suppose. Where is your hood too wide at? Across the front, rear, or in the middle? Did you get your comparison measurements yet between the 2 hoods?

I'll send Chris a PM and see if he will get involved in this discussion. He has much more experience in assembling the front fiberglass on a Shark than I do.

Tom

 

[Tom Bryant]

Check out this thread that Chris just posted. It will give you some more insight as to what you are dealing with.

Front Clip Install

 

[Eddie 70]

Tom, I went out and made some measurements and they all came up nearly the same. Off by a few 16 ths. The hoods are essentially the same. So I decided to just bolt it on loosely and let it set all the way down to see how close it would be. Much to my amazement, it went very well. I jockeyed the hood around and it aligns very well. I guess I was a little too worried to begin with and did not want to damage the my hood. So far I am pretty proud of all my handy work and this one is gonna be most visible so I didn`t want to screw it totally up.
Right now I am gonna leave the hood on the car and try to make a few more adjustments to the gaps around the edge. If everything turns out ok, it will stay on until the repaint. A white car with a red hood. :s :confused :crazy

 

[Tom Bryant]

Here's wavin' back at you. Nice looking hood. I'm glad it turned out ok.

Tom

 

[69MyWay]

Those hoods can be buggers. I just put a long style L88 hood on TZracer's car today. I spent two hours taking the dremel to the hood hinge bolts to get it to go together.

Glad you got it to work!