Aligning the hood on a model A

D

denver9

Member
Would appreciate suggestions/tricks etc for installing and aligning the hood on my 1931 Model A Ford Coupe.
I cannot seem to get the hood on straight. The gap between the cowling trim and the hood is about 1/2 inch on the driver's side and is almost an inch on the other.
It would seem to me that the cowling bracket that holds the center rod of the hood and it's corresponding bracket on the radiator shroud should be adjustable but mine are fixed in place.
I have had one suggestion of raising the radiator mounting pad on one side to tilt the assembly in the direction needed to even out the gaps I mentioned earlier, but there is not much room to do that.

HELP!! What do you suggest? I doubt this is a unique problem.
Thanks in advance,
-Denver
 
The body could be out of alignment. I had to loosen the cab bolts on my 31 pick up and give the body just a little tweek. You can also loosen the radiator and move it a bit.
 
Radiator slides left and right. Can also add/subtract rubber donuts under the cowl at number 1 body bolt. Like James said, the body might need to be shifted around some on the frame. You can also the screw the nuts on the radiator support rods in and out some to tweak things. Good luck. It's a nasty job
 
Is the frame straight?
If it sags near the right rear motor mount (sagging by engine mounts is common) that could give you the gap problem you have.
 
Depending on the condition of the door gaps, you might consider small changes in the shims at the bottom of the cowl. A sagging frame will affect both the door gap as well as the hood fit. All of Arlens ideas are worthy of consideration as well.
 
Denver , I was doing some research on frames and recall a web site that had some good illustrations on shimming to close the gaps to align it all to fit .

I looked for the site , but caint find it .

Maybe someone knows which site it is ??????????
 
2X Rockhillwill When I did my last Tudor I had this problem. It just needed shimming. Doesn't take long to fix. Have you taken a measurement to see if the frame is bent or twisted?
 
Ck Marco's site, I believe there are detailed inst starting at the radiator and working back on how to adj/shim/
Paul in CT
 
I am going with Tom's question - Is the frame straight?

With that much gap, I would say that it most likely is not.

Fix the problem, don't just bandaid it with washers under the body.
 
You have to start from the Front Cowl bolt. Get your hood lenght first. Then shift the cowl side to side to get the width. Then shim the cowl for the height to get the side even. Then work back from there. I finished shimming the 30 Coupe I've been working on today, I had a total of 8 hrs. in it to get everything lined up again. I had fit it all before I took the body off the frame to paint it. Yes it takes time, patience and alot of doing things up and loosing again until you get it.

The Old Tinbasher
 
I had a similar issue on my 31 Town Sedan and discovered, when I pulled the engine and transmission for winter maintenance, that the radiator had not been installed properly. Not much fore/aft adjustment but there is a little bit of room to get the radiator more properly "squared off" with the body and takes two people to accomplish. I also found that the hood had shifted slightly forward on the hood rod so I moved it back about 1/4 inch and put a few very small washers on the front of the hood rod to try to prevent this from happening again. The end result was much improved with a more even gap on both sides of the hood at the radiator and the cowl.
 
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