56 hood snafu

[56sedandelivery]

So I am stating to put the car back together and hit a snag with the hood. Got the hood on and all the gaps close but the hood seems to be bowed in the center at the cowl. Been so long I do not remember if it was like this when I removed it or not. The center of the hood is 3/8 inch higher then the cowl. Even if I could get the center down without screwing up the hood then the hood to fender gaps would be wrong and the mounting would not be correct. Any ideas?

 

[frank long island]

you could block the corners and press down on the center to reverse the bow did you have it on a stand while doing your work depending how it was situated could have bowed it

 

[KULTULZ]

Maybe the hinges are adjusted too low? Are the stop bumpers installed on the cowl to keep the hood ears up? There are also bumpers along the fender edges. Are they there and in good condition?

Before attempting to press on the actual skin, is the hood reinforcement (frame) bent also?

If it were me ... ... and before attempting to straighten the hood, I would lay it on the fenders without the hinges and latch and check the contour again with the correct and in good condition bumpers.

EDIT- (as usual)

Sorry about the ILL size. Maybe you can print them out and re-size them?

The cowl bumper(s) is BPN 19763 and FDR bumpers are BPN 16126 on the ILL.

 

[56sedandelivery]

Frank:

It was standing up leaning against some crates except when I primered it.



Kultulz:

OK Pulled the hinges and laid it on new DC hood rummer. No change. The outer corners are now a bit low and the center is still high. I may just leave it until I take it back to the shop for some more metal work they did not do last time. I would be afraid of trying to bend the center because even when I put some pressure on it it does not change anything. So back to putting hinges back on.

 

[Daves55Sedan]

Based solely upon the photos you provided, it looks to me like the hood is tightened down to the hinges too far forward. Doing so would reduce the gap between hood and fenders at the sides.
Check the following:
At the top rear of the fenders, there should be a 1/16" pad inserted between fender and cowl as was originally. If that pad is left out and the fender is mounted closer to the cowl, it reduces the amount of space between the sides.
Check to make sure there are no obstructions along the top of cowl to prevent hood from going all the way down.
Is there an even amount of height in the middle with the sides? If so, hood hinge height needs to be adjusted, but fix the gap at the rear first as follows;
Remove the front hood latch. Loosen all three mounting bolts under each hood hinge and place a cardboard carton spacers along the top of the cowl. Lower the hood (with bolts still loose) and push the front of the hood back so that it crushes the cardboard spacers. Lift the hood and tighten hinge bolts.
On my '55 Courier, I had to make my hood out of TWO hoods. The rear structure section had to be welded on, but there was too much curve at the rear flange which was held by spot welding the inner flange to the outer. So, it sticks up a little in the middle. If any structural repairs like this was done to your hood, you may have the same problem. To fix it, grind off the spot welds underneath and make a jig representative of the fall between middle and edges of the cowl. Clamp hood down to jig and spot weld your flanges all over again.

 

[Daves55Sedan]

If all else fails, do not attempt to bend hood down in the middle without first grinding out the factory resistance welds on the underside of the hood structure (that part that the hood hinges mount to). Attempting to bend both pieces down while they are welded together will result in distressing damage to the back of the hood and it will no longer be stable. See last paragraph of my above post.

 

[56sedandelivery]

View attachment 502247Thanks Dave.. Will check the cowl to hood gaps from underneath tomorrow. If it is necessary to go deeper I will just let the shop do it as it is beyond my ability. Fender to hood gaps appear to be good.


Edit
Found a pic of the car when I bought it back in the 80,s. It shows the hood level in the middle but low on the drivers side. If the drivers side were raised level to the fender then the middle would be high as it is now.

 

[KULTULZ]

Found a pic of the car when I bought it back in the 80,s. It shows the hood level in the middle but low on the drivers side. If the drivers side were raised level to the fender then the middle would be high as it is now.

It seems (to me) that the ears were drawn down at that point.

Good Luck with it as it will be the crowning touch to the front end ...

 

[56sedandelivery]

Looked at the gap from beneath and it also looks to be a bigger gap in the drivers center side.

 

[KULTULZ]

She's warped (just like my LITTLE THUMBSCREW) ...

 

[frank long island]

yes the middle has to come down i would fit the sides to the fenders find a good beam and use a porta power to ease the middle down or get a couple of hefty friends possibly walking along the cowl and hood edge will move it but put a 2x4 or larger to keep from leaving footprints in the metal the hood was bent when you got it judging from the corner as you stated if raised the center is off

 

[56sedandelivery]

By lowering it wont the push the edges out? There is not much space between the fender and hood as it is now. Think i will just leave it to someone who knows what they are doing. Would hate to screw up the hood permanently.

 

[Daves55Sedan]

Look at the resistance welds at the back of the under-hood structural support where it meets with the upper part of the hood. They should already be stressed due to the bowing condition. Any of these welds that are not broken should be ground out with a Dremel tool. You may be able to leave the ones that have already been wrinkled and hope that the pressure to restore the hood height in the middle straightens them out.
Place a straight 2x4 across the top of the cowl and measure the distance at both corners. In case the board wasn't completely level, add the two measurements and divide by two. That will give you the averaqe of both, which is equal to the height in the middle. I'd place a shim(s) that high under the middle of the back of the hood laying upwards on a level floor. Try to press the middle down carefully (making sure that you are not bending the hood flanges at the edges in contact with the floor.
If the middle won't give, it will be necessary to grind out and separate all the resistance welds at the back. Then it surely will give, but you will need to hold it in place somehow to mig weld the under-hood structure back on to the top. Once those welds are done, you are stuck there.

 

[56sedandelivery]

Cannot really see where the welds are damaged. But where the rear most bolt goes in on both sides has been repaired at some point. As far as what you are suggesting to do waaaay beyond my ability. Lol

 

[KULTULZ]

I think a '55 hood would look nicer ...

 

[Daves55Sedan]

I think a '55 hood would look nicer ...

I think that is a '55 Hood. Maybe the whole car is a 55. The '56 models did not have the belt moulding all around the bottom of the windows, but all '55 models had it, even the Mainline models. Pic doesn't show the grille, but that would be a dead giveaway.
Here's a fun fact not everyone knows; the '55 hood had the hood under-structure piece stamped with metal flange all the way to the back of the hood (like his has). On the '56 models, the factory cut off the metal behind the main structure and left that flat part out (and the mating flange for the back of the hood).
So, if he had a '56 hood, there would be no problem with the resistance welds on that mating flange, because it wouldn't be there. Only one layer of metal.
The only other differences in the '55 & '56 hoods are the '56 hood has cutout at the front for the partially recessed hood ornament.
The early 55 hoods did NOT have the front under-structure piece bumped down for the '56 hood ornament, but at some point, they started stamping the '56 pieces during the '55 model year and started putting them on '55 hoods even though the bump-down was not needed.
Also, the '56 hoods did not have the rectangular shaped holes for the stainless nose trim piece in front because the larger '56 grille was bolted to the front air deflector and the front of the hood fit down below the top of the '56 grille.
If data plate shows U5MS; it is a '55 Mainline series sedan delivery. If it shows U6MS; it is a '56, but someone added the belt trim later.

 

[KULTULZ]

!!! !!!

You know your stuff Dave ...​

 

[56sedandelivery]

Lols, got me a frankinford. This is not the only thing screwed up on the car. Rear door is also off as the license plate holder is not the same as a 56 and rear glass does not line up correctly. Pic of car when I bought it and the data plate. You can see in thep ic that the hood was cockeyed even then.