Hood Alignment

dsarge390

dsarge390

Member
I am making progress with the pick-up. The fuel tank and lacing are in, and the radiator shell is on. Time to line up the hood, then the doors. A fellow barn-er said to start from the hood, then work back. I have things lined up well, except that the hood latches pull the hood away from the body line. If I leave the hood un-latched on the rear, and hold the hood to the lacing, the gap is nice. When I re-hook the latch, it pulls the hood to far from the firewall/cowl. I am using the mounting holes in the fender, do i need to relocate them closer to the firewall? :confused:
thanks for any imput.
 
Is the cowl/fuel tank bolted in correctly on the frame? Is this only on one side? Did you straighten the frame? If not that would cause the hood to be out (forward and back) at the bottom by the cowl.

Like mentioned before on this forum, if you do not straighten the frame it tends to bend down at the rear motor mounts. You could have checked this when the body was off by a string from the front to the back of the frame. But now with, is sounds like everything on, maybe the thing to do is talk to a body shop and see what they think.

Good luck and I am sure someone on this site may have better ideas than I do.
 
It does sound like the frame needs to be straightened. This is the common cause for the hood not to fit.
 
When you say that the frame should be checked when the body is off, what should you be looking for with the string? Is it the top surface of the frame that should be perfectly flat? I am about to remove the body of a 31 Cabriolet and I am not sure if I do have a problem. Ed
 
Ed in Maine said:
When you say that the frame should be checked when the body is off, what should you be looking for with the string? Is it the top surface of the frame that should be perfectly flat? I am about to remove the body of a 31 Cabriolet and I am not sure if I do have a problem. Ed
Click to expand...

Ed just run a string from the front part of the frame(where the radiator bolts on) and run it back to the back cross member. There should be no sag in the frame. The sag would be where the rear motor mounts are. Or you could use a straight edge (if you have one that long) putting it at the same points mentioned above.

I had mine straigntened by a body shop. If I remember they charged $200. But there are people here on the Barn that have other ways that you could do it yourself. Maybe they will join in. This is kind of a common question on the Barn.
 
I straightened my frame years ago with the instructions from the pdf above. I recently checked it out again as I am in the process of lining up the cab on my pickup. Here's a photo -
frame01.jpg
 
Thank you for your information. I would not have thought to check the frame this way. It looks indestructible as long as it hasn't been in an accident. Ed
 
Pictures of hood alignment with or without bent frame.

This is how it should look-more or less. (Notice neighbor's cat scratches)

IMG_2220a.jpg



This is how it looks with a bent frame. Also notice where the hood hook ends up

IMG_2219a.jpg
 
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