Hood Alignment

C4engr

C4engr

Senior Member
I am trying to align the hood on a 1931 4dr Slant Window. My question is when I attempt to put rubber shims under cowl do I REMOVE ALL BODY BOLTS AND RAISE BODY? What is best way to raise body to install shims?

Any help would be appreciated..

Rog
 
I have seen the barnyard web post. That does not answer my question "Do I need to remove all the body bolts before adding the shims and what is the best way to raise the body?"
By the way I do have the donut shims I got from Snyders..

Rog
 
If you don't loosen all the body mounting bolts you will most likely be stressing the body structure. Yes you could do what your suggesting but why loosen the body parts and have all those squeaks etc. Ed
 
I'm assuming that your problem is that you have a wide gap at the bottom of the cowl and it's close at the top. If that's your problem, then shims aren't the cure. Your frame is sagged (Very common). The Apex of the sag is in the vicinity of the motor mounts. I would check this out with a straight edge. The cure is to jack the car up, just behind the motor mounts and heat it up, at the apex of the curve with a propane torch. when the metal turns blue, quench it with a rag full of cold water. Do it on both sides until the straight edge no longer rocks. This is known as "Shrinking" and will straighten the frame. Do it only to the bottom and the lower side, not the top of the frame. Some times you must do it several times before any effect is noticed.
Terry
 
I am in the process of installing a Victoria body onto the frame. With all of the body bolts in place and loose, there is little to no wiggle room to shift the body on a horizontal plane. The body can be bent vertically by shimming, but this should be a last resort.

Start with an equal amount of shims at all of the body bolts, including at the front of the cowl. I find that the original Ford body shims equal two of the repro rubber shims, so I started with two rubber shims at each body bolt.

The shims at the front of the cowl may be loose, but resist adding more or clamping the gap down because it will upset the front door fits. Get the doors to fit correctly first.

The relationship between the grille shell and the radiator is important because it affects the front hood hinge location and hood alignment. If the grille shell is forced onto a repro radiator, hood alignment will suffer. Elongate the holes in the radiator brackets to make the grille shell fit without strain.

Once the doors are fit and the grille shell fits properly, add shims at the radiator to frame attachments and at the rear hood hinge support to align the hood. It may be necessary to readjust the body shims, but do this as a last resort.

Another problem I ran into is that the rear bumper arms connect to the frame and the body, and there will likely be gaps at the connections to the body. Disconnect the bumper arms from the body for the alignment process. After all is aligned to your satisfaction, reattach the bumper arms to the body with shims to close the gaps.
 
i dont recall who first offered me this tip (belated Thank You!) but it works well. instead of having to remove bolts each time, cut a "U" notch in the shim material and simply loosed the nut, slip the shim in/out and retighten. If you are OC inclined once you have it the way you want, you can replace with non-slotted shims ..
 

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I have made the hood alignment..

I want to thank all those who had input. I could not have been successful without the Fordbarn input...

Thanks again..
 
Bob Bidonde said:
I am in the process of installing a Victoria body onto the frame. With all of the body bolts in place and loose, there is little to no wiggle room to shift the body on a horizontal plane. The body can be bent vertically by shimming, but this should be a last resort.

Start with an equal amount of shims at all of the body bolts, including at the front of the cowl. I find that the original Ford body shims equal two of the repro rubber shims, so I started with two rubber shims at each body bolt.

The shims at the front of the cowl may be loose, but resist adding more or clamping the gap down because it will upset the front door fits. Get the doors to fit correctly first.




The relationship between the grille shell and the radiator is important because it affects the front hood hinge location and hood alignment. If the grille shell is forced onto a repro radiator, hood alignment will suffer. Elongate the holes in the radiator brackets to make the grille shell fit without strain.

Once the doors are fit and the grille shell fits properly, add shims at the radiator to frame attachments and at the rear hood hinge support to align the hood. It may be necessary to readjust the body shims, but do this as a last resort.

Another problem I ran into is that the rear bumper arms connect to the frame and the body, and there will likely be gaps at the connections to the body. Disconnect the bumper arms from the body for the alignment process. After all is aligned to your satisfaction, reattach the bumper arms to the body with shims to close the gaps.
Click to expand...


Thank you Bob. I appreciate these tips on alignment. I will be trying it soon.
 
I think I'd loosen all the body mounting bolts, here's why: Vermin's cowl HAS been shimmed in the past, with some red rubber pads. At the top rear corners of the door opening, the roof metal is slightly CRINKLED, & I suspect that it was done from jacking up the cowl, with the rest of the body bolts still TIGHT!! Vermin's cowl HAS been replaced in his mysterious past.
Bill W.
 
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