I recently picked my '63 nova up from the body shop. The shop straightened the frame in order to get the rear of my hood to line-up with the cowl. However, my right front corner sits a little high. I've tried to adjust this, but can't seem to elimate the problem. If I press the corner down, it will line-up until I let go. I can't get it to do this by adjusting the hinges. Does anyone have any suggestions? Could this be caused by a bad hinge? I'm not particularly happy with the shop, and would like to fix this myself rather than dealing with them again. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance,

Wes

I find it odd that the shop says they straigtend the frame ??? to get the rear of the hood to meet the cowl correctly. Very odd, indeed. I think they're feeding you BS.
Even the 63 Nova (alias Chevy II) had a subframe, right?


Does the hood fit well everyplace else? You may just have a tweaked hood. Or you may have to compromise the fit in other places to get that corner fit to something desirable.

There are lots of bodymen on this site. I am no body man but have spent countless hours adjusting hood(s) on my 67 Chevelle. You must loose much of your common sense in geomotry before starting because what your brain tells you shouldn't work, will. (Body men, please don't take offense)

I would first take a scribe & mark where the hinges are now. Then loosen them & have at it on a Saturday morning. If all else fails, return the hinges to where they were originally.

BTW, beer does not make this easier or go faster.

Phil

------------------
Phil Wise
67 SS Convertible
(now on the down slope of the resto curve)
Check out the photos of a work in progress
Photos of a work in progress (http://users.starpower.net/pwise/chevelle)

Shim the hoodhinge between the hood and hinge.
I did this on my deck lid and hood and they both line up real nice now.
I don't remember if you shim the front bolt or the rear bolt of the hinge to lower.
One will raise the other will lower, easy fix though.If you want I can look to see where I put my shims.
------------
Brett
'67
SS396
clone

If I'm reading your post correctly you stated that the front corner is high. If so you need to lower the pin in the center to drop the hood down further. This should take care of it. If not you might need to raise the rubber stopper on the opposite front corner to tilt the high side down. This is no guarentee fix cause the hood might just be out of wack. But try this first it should help if not fix it. When the hood is high at the cowl area, you can open the bolt slot further with a carbide bit to lower the hinge on the fender. Hope it fixes. RandyB...

Hi,

I'd like to thank all who replied. My car was hit in the front driver's side prior to my owning it. The rear passenger side and to a lesser degree the driver side hung-up on the cowl area, and couldn't be adjusted down. During my last alignment, the shop measured the subframe at different points and told me it was out of alignment. The alignment shop I used was very reputable, and only does alignment work; in hindsight, I should have let them straighten-out my subframe... So, when I took my car to the bodyshop in June, I had them straighten the frame, as they were doing the other repairs. The right front sits probably 3/8 - 1/2" higher than the driver's side. If I press down on the corner and hold it, it lines up nice... hopefully this is a good sign.

I'll try the front latch and hood stop adjustments first and if that fails, I'll shim the hinge. Hopefully this will work, as I don't want to deal with the body shop anymore.

Thanks again Phil, Red2rider, and BB67 H-D. Your help is really appreciated.

Wes

QUOTE]Originally posted by Phil Wise:
I find it odd that the shop says they straigtend the frame ??? to get the rear of the hood to meet the cowl correctly. Very odd, indeed. I think they're feeding you BS.
Even the 63 Nova (alias Chevy II) had a subframe, right?


Does the hood fit well everyplace else? You may just have a tweaked hood. Or you may have to compromise the fit in other places to get that corner fit to something desirable.

There are lots of bodymen on this site. I am no body man but have spent countless hours adjusting hood(s) on my 67 Chevelle. You must loose much of your common sense in geomotry before starting because what your brain tells you shouldn't work, will. (Body men, please don't take offense)

I would first take a scribe & mark where the hinges are now. Then loosen them & have at it on a Saturday morning. If all else fails, return the hinges to where they were originally.

BTW, beer does not make this easier or go faster.

Phil

[/QUOTE]