Hood Alignment

F

Ford guy 2

Member
Sure need help with this one, my hood is off of alignment with the hood latch all four of them, the hood needs to move to the rear of the car and there is no room to move it because the rear hinge on the fire wall can not go back,The car is 31 four door slant window 166B . What do I do. Your help is sure Appreciated, Pete
 
Here is a pic of the hood image.jpg
 
If you have a large gap at the bottom rear of the hood, then you have frame sag, and this usually happens at the rear motor mounts.

It can be fixed by securing the frame ends and jacking up the frame near the rear motor mounts. Also check the frame for cracks, as they sometimes crack in the same area.
 
Did this just happen or are you assembling the car during a restoration or recent service? Also, the hood may need to "swing up", as in raise the rear slightly or "swing down" as in lower the front. Lowering the front means pulling the radiator down which may not be possible.
 
Looking from the side, does the gap at the cowl get big near the bottom? As a test, you could loosen the rear retainer and temporarily set a spacer under it. It's possible that the body or radiator are too low or too high. Front to back would be more radiator than body, but this assumes the rear tires are in the center of the fender openings, and also that moving the whole coachwork fore and aft isn't a real option since there's little to no room for error there. Just throwing some things out there to consider...
 
Yes looking at the bottom side of the hood the gap is bigger, I have no shims on the cowl and the doors line up ok
 
Last edited:
Ford guy 2 said:
Yes I did a frame off restoration and before I did the hood was in alignment
Click to expand...

With this consideration, could it be that the body needs some shims under the front of it? Or could it have been that there were shims under it before the restoration and it does have a sagged frame?
 
If I'm following you correctly, the hood needs to be either lower in the front or higher in the back. Rather than move front or rear it needs to "rotate" in a side view, and likely "clockwise" when viewed from the pass side.
 
I just would like thank all of you for the great help that you have given me,I put shims under the cowl about a little over a 1/8 of shims and the hood is right in the middle of the latch ,now the hood is even all the way around the cowl looks great, Thanks Pete
 
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