'51 passenger car hood hinges, advice?

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Big A

Junior Member
The hood hinges on a my '51 sedan don't work worth a damn. They were off the car for 4 years while I worked on other things, and now that they are back on I'm having a heck of a time trying to get them lined up or to function properly. I have 2 sets, but they both seem to be about the same, and it just seems like they are not very well designed or engineered.

Even when I first bought the car I replaced the shoulder bolts, and managed to shear one just by opening and closing the hood. I'm also having trouble with the trailing edge of the hood hitting the cowl and fender tops.

Are there any tips or tricks to getting these hinges to work better? Any way to adjust them? Has anyone modified them in any way to improve their design (I'm not worried with stock appearance on my car).

Thanks for your help.
 
Looked up images of the hinges, look similar to other ford hinges. Hoods and doors can be tricky to align, if you are not good at it might be worth while to see if a body man can help. A good body and door guy should be able to check it out and adjust it in minutes.
 
I guess I'm going to start by pulling everything off the car and replacing every nut, bolt and spring, and re-tapping every thread. Put it all back together again and see if it makes a difference.
 
Well, that sounds like a good plan, but it will shill have to be adjusted. Might make it a little easier to adjust, but the adjustments are still a bit on the tricky side, at least for me. You often have to make adjustment in a different direction that you would think at first look.
 
Problems with hinges usually fall into several things: worn or stuck pivots and weak springs, or wrong bolts. Be sure the bolts are the correct shoulder kind. They are 3110A, 5/16-24, with a 7/16" shoulder for your '51. $2.25 each at C&G. They should have a "wavy" washer to maintain clearance. Any slop in these hinges will make alignment with the hood difficult or impossible.
 
Hinges on the early 50s Fords & Mercs can be a bear to make work, especially if they have ever been stressed by accidents or the hood accidentally coming open while driving. A sprung hood can be a real problem. They depend on the inner fender positioning of some cars plus the general positioning of the frontal sheet metal as a whole and that stuff can be out of kilter after years of use and abuse. The cowl mountings are pretty stable so there is less worry there. Other important things to consider are the rubber cowl seal and the bumpers. These are all part of the design and aid in proper positioning of the hood when it's fully seated and locked.
 
Thanks for the info gents. I'm going to order new shoulder bolts and springs from Macs and replace everything I can. The entire front end was off the car so I'll measure everything to see if I can determine if something other than the hood is off kilter too (seems pretty likely).
 
The hoods on nearly all cars seat on the cowl by the linkage going "over center" just as the hood is closed. As the front clip was off your car, it is a good bet that is the root of the problem. On a flat surface, carefully measure the position of the fenders, and the placement of the hinges on the firewall to be sure they are identical side-to-side. The only sure thing about adjusting the hood is that you will increase your vocabulary, as each adjustment affects all the others.
 
With this car, it's probably a good thing I work in the garage by myself. I've increased my vocabulary so much I'm now inventing entire new languages. :D
 
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