Sorry If I am asking this Question again.
I seem to have a problem with my hood on my 72 chevelle. It is a functioning Cowl Induction Hood that it steel. I have tried to take out the spring to see if the spring were to tight for the hood but did not seem to make much difference in the amount it was sitting up. it Sits up about a 1/4 - 3/8 of an inch on the drivers side and a 1/8 inch on the passengers side the hood seems to fit the fenders and light bezels just fine. I have also tried hollowing out the holes were it bolts to the fenders and that didn't seem to make much difference. I also took out the stops that are screwed in above the fire wall, those don't seem to be stopping it. HELP please any Ideas. Do the OEM hinges seem to work better? not sure if that is what I have, They seem to have the correct part numbers on them but after the part# is a (R&H) minus the brackets. not sure if these are repo's or originals this would help to if anyone has any info on this.. Thanks In advance Chad C.

If you installed a new cowl seal,it could be holding it up? I had the same problem with my 69,you opened up the holes at the back hinge bolt?
Mike

Common problem. Lube the hinges very good with WD40. Then loosen the hinge bolts,and push the hood up toward the sky,like your opening it and tighten the bolts.Isn't aligning sheetmetal fun?

I just bought a new cowl induction seal for my '70 from NPD. It is so stiff and tall there is no way the hood will close without really putting alot of stress on the hinges and hood. Did you just install a new seal? If so, this may well be your problem as well. I know there are other brands of seals out there that are softer and possibly a little less tall. Yearone has 2 seals offered. One GM and one repro. They say the repro is softer and folds over easier but Yearone's prices are...well, Yearone prices. Anybody else who has had this problem find a good cowl induction seal that they can suggest and a place to purchase it reasonably? I bet this is both of our problems. Thanks

I tried closing my hood without the cowl seal on and I still had the same probem. the seal seems to hit the hood pretty hard, but the hood seems to take care of colapsing it down. I did what Boomhaur said and that seems to help alot.. the passanger side is now even with the fender, and the drivers side is only up about a 1/8 or so.. thanks for the help.... I had to re adjust the hood front to back afterwords. I did read a Letter someone else wrote on aligning hoods and It help also I might try the washer in the front bolt trick.. Thanks Chad PS here is the letter if you are interested...


Hood alignment: Let’s start with raising and lowering the rear of the hood. If the car you are working on has a hinge that sits on top of the cowl, your only options are to shim or bend the hinge. Bending the hinge slightly is one way to move it. If you need to come up in the rear you can put a small block of wood or other item on the hinge, to bend it. When you close the hood down (NOT ALL THE WAY) it will get in the way of the hood closing and bend the rear or the hinge up. If you need to bend it down, the only option may be to remove it and bend it a little. You can also shim the bolts between the hood and the hinge, more on this later.
If you have a hood where the hinge mounts on the side of the fender or the side of the cowl like with an older car or truck, you want to "rotate" the hinge on the fender. Just pushing the hinge up and down will give you very little movement on the top of the hood.
This is the strange little trick that you have to remember, if you raise the back of the hood on the hinge or raise the back of the hinge on the fender the hood will go up. If you raise the "front" of the back of the hood ON THE HINGE or the hinge to the fender it will go down. What you have to remember is you are working with a pivot point in the hinge, not a stationary part.
If you loosen the FRONT bolt on the hood (where it bolts to the hinge) and put a shim, or washer between the hood and hinge, this will LOWER the hood on that side. If you put that same washer under the rear bolt it will RAISE the rear of the hood on that side.
So, if you loosen the bolts from the hinge to fender and close the hood, the hinge will rotate on down in the front right? This will raise the REAR of the hood like putting a shim in the back bolt between the hinge and hood!
What you need to do to lower the back the hood is to loosen the bolts (only slightly) and PUSH UP on the front of the hood. This rotates the hinges back, thus raising the front of the hinge and lowering the hood in the back.
If the hinges are warn out it won’t change how high the hood sits when the wear, not by more than a fraction of an inch. And I have never seen a car with these style hinges that you couldn't put the hood a half inch LOWER than the fenders if you wanted to. The adjustment is HUGE on these cars. That is one of the things that is easy to do on them is align panels.
I recommend you remove the striker or latch from the hood so that you can move it up and down without worrying about the latch grabbing the hood. After you have aligned the hood, take a piece of dumb-dumb or clay or something similar and put it on the latch. This way you can see exactly where it hits when you do install the latch. You bring the hood down till you just tap this dumb-dumb but DON'T LATCH IT. Just so the hood makes an indentation in the clay/dumb-dumb. This tells you where you have to move the latch.
I do this at work everyday, by my self so if you can't get help this is the trick. Always leave one bolt on the hinge tight. If you want to rotate it back, leave the front bolt tight. If you want to rotate it forward, leave the rear bolt tight. When you move the hood forward or back on the hinge, leave the bolts snug enough that you have to tap on the edge of the hood to get it to move. Or if it needs to go back, leave the bolts a little snug, and wiggle the hood up and down and the weight of the hood will make it slide down. Remember it only needs a 1/16" or so to make a 3/16" or more change at the front. To pull the hood forward on the hinge loosen them so they are still a little snug so you have to pull up on the back of the hood to make it slide that little bit. If you loosen it up so it moves anywhere you want it, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW HOW MUCH YOU MOVED IT AND YOU WILL MOVE IT TOO MUCH, GUARANTEED.
Get the hood laying flat first, then move the hood forward or back on each side to make the hood fit the hole between the fenders. If the gap is large on the front right and small on the front left, then the hood needs to me moved back on the right side. As you move the hood back on a side it will close up the gap in the front of that side and open it at the rear of that side.
You may need to move fenders too. Just do each change slowly, move it VERY LITTLE. Look at the bolt and washer as you move the panel, you will see where the washer used to be, the amount is much easier to control if you watch the washer movement.
If you need to move the hood up or down at the front, you have a few ways to do it. First, on each side there are the “bumpers”. The hood bumpers are located at each front corner and look like a bolt with a rubber pad on top. Just unlock the jam nut and raise or lower the “bolt” so it holds the hood at the height you need to match the fender. You may find that the hood won’t go low enough even with the bumper down far enough. The latch may not be down far enough. When you close the hood, you shouldn’t be able to pull up on the hood or push it down. The latch should be tight enough to hold it against the bumpers tight, but not too tight. If you have to apply too much force to open the hood or it opens with a loud POP, the latch is probably too tight. If it is at the right height but you can lift it up some, then the latch needs to be moved down.

Shim between the hinge mount and hood at the FRONT mounting hole on each side. This will actually LOWER the rear edge.