1947 Mercury hood hinges-upgrade

[RalphM]

I’m going to help a friend out with the hood hinges on a 47 mercury coupe. It belongs to a widow and the hood needs to be put back on. I have a couple of questions.

Are the Mercury hinges identical to the Ford hinges?

And has anyone put an upgrade kit in to use telescoping shocks as on modern cars?
Apparently the previous owner took the hood off to upgrade to the shocks.
I have never seen this upgrade.

 

[tubman]

I’m going to help a friend out with the hood hinges on a 47 mercury coupe. It belongs to a widow and the hood needs to be put back on. I have a couple of questions.

Are the Mercury hinges identical to the Ford hinges?

And has anyone put an upgrade kit in to use telescoping shocks as on modern cars?
Apparently the previous owner took the hood off to upgrade to the shocks.
I have never seen this upgrade.

I just did this on my '51 Ford club coupe. It took head-scratchin' and trial and error, but I finally have a setup that works perfectly. I have arthritis in my shoulders that will not allow me to raise my left arm above shoulder level, and this has made it possible for me to raise the hood with one hand. I am planning on putting a video together showing how I did this along with a parts list. It probably will not be exactly what you need for a '47 Merc, but it should give you a start.

 

[RalphM]

Tubman,
Thank you! Looking forward to the video. I believe he was having issues with the hood being too heavy as well. I have replaced 47 ford hood hinges before, but never upgraded.

Ralph

 

[rich b]

I put a kit from Speedway on my '47 Ford.

Mercury hood is longer, so if hinges and mounting are the same the weight of the longer hood may effect operation.

May be easier to copy the simple mounting with a stronger shock.

 

[petehoovie]

I put a kit from Speedway on my '47 Ford.

Mercury hood is longer, so if hinges and mounting are the same the weight of the longer hood may effect operation.

May be easier to copy the simple mounting with a stronger shock.

 

[tubman]

After looking at a lot of these, I placed my struts so the back end is on the hood hinge and the front on a flange on the side of the hood. I used existing holes on the hinges, so I only had to drill 4 holes in the hood, two on each side.

 

[RalphM]

Good ideas, I’m not sure when we are going to fix it, but all of this will help for sure.

 

[RalphM]

We were able to put the new struts on today. The hood wanted to go very high and was hitting the cowl on the top surface so much that we moved the top mount for the strut back an inch.
We had to pull the entire hinge assy off because he had mistakenly remove the rear support arm. But in R & I the hinges now the hood front seems to be cocked toward the driver side. It will not close fully(guide pin is rearward and offset to driver side.
We tried multiple times to loosen and adjust hinges, but each time it was still off.
If we tried moving the front of the hood to the right to line it up, it would hit the cowl at the rear of hood.
I know there is not much movement at the hinge bolts, so how do we correct this?

 

[petehoovie]

We were able to put the new struts on today. The hood wanted to go very high and was hitting the cowl on the top surface so much that we moved the top mount for the strut back an inch.
We had to pull the entire hinge assy off because he had mistakenly remove the rear support arm. But in R & I the hinges now the hood front seems to be cocked toward the driver side. It will not close fully(guide pin is rearward and offset to driver side.
We tried multiple times to loosen and adjust hinges, but each time it was still off.
If we tried moving the front of the hood to the right to line it up, it would hit the cowl at the rear of hood.
I know there is not much movement at the hinge bolts, so how do we correct this?

 

[tom1948]

I used the speedway kit on my 48 merc coupe but I had to use stronger shocks. I think I had to use 120 pound shocks. I can take pictures if you desire.

 

[69a]

When adjusting the hinge at the cowl it can be confusing. Raising the hinge allows the hood to travel further back and down.
Also if possible fit the struts with the seal facing down, as TUBMAN has. This is to keep oil at the seal and not air.
If you want to have more or less force from the struts the pressure in the struts can be adjusted. You need to remove them and take them to a place that has the equipment to do it. The strut is placed into an airtight vessel that can be pressurized to the new pressure. The equipment has a mechanism that forces the seal away from the front of the cylinder. The original pressure is usually stamped on the strut.

 

[tubman]

I was stumped until Mark in Maine ("flatford8") sent me a picture where the bottom of the struts were affixed to the hinges. I looked at several late models (including my buddy's Mercedes) and they all seemed to be done that way. Ditto on the mounting orientation.

 

[RalphM]

Thanks for the info. We did finally get it set to where it would close. But of course after we closed it, it would not open. The pull cable was stuck and would not budge. Luckily the late owner had installed a makeshift emergency pull. It was safety wire with a washer on the end. After multiple tries we finally got it. We pulled the original cable out to inspected and while trying to free it up it broke in half.
So now a new cable is on the way from C&G.
When we put that on, I will let my friend know we have to swap those cylinders around.