I have just reasembled the front end sheet metal on my car and have hit an odd problem.

When I install the rubber trim ring for the top of the air cleaner it will not allow the hood to close. The rubber looks like it is in close to the right spot, but the hood just will not close and seems to need about 1.5 inches more to close. This is a new Rubber from Year One and the air cleaner is mounted on a spacer from Year One. The hood appears to be a the right level, all the sheet metal lines up. And the rubber seems to be at the right level.

Any thoughts on where the problem is? How much should the rubber seal "give" when shutting the hood? I am very confused at this point.....any thoughts would be much appreciated....

Thanks

Are you using the stock intake and carb? I had the same problem, but was running an aftermarket Edlebrock intake that sat higher than stock. If you have an aftermarket high rise, I think you could remove the spacer and be pretty close.

I had a problem with the air cleaner hitting the electric choke when I removed the spacer, but the electric choke been removed now :D . Now I just have the intake, carb, and air cleaner/rubber and the hood closes fine and mates to the rubber seal.

Scot

I totally agree. If you have an aftermarket hi-rise manifold, then is is likely that the manifold plus the spacer between the carb and air cleaner is tooooooooooooo much. Remove the spacer and that should correct the problem.
Not even the LS-6 had a hi-rise manifold. I have an early Chev alum hi-rise manifold on my 70 and the spacer cannot be used.
If removing the spacer corrects the problem, everything should work just fine without a spacer.

You cannot run the carb/to air cleaner spacer as pointed out with anything other than the factory low rise cast iron or aluminum intakes.
I run an RPM intake on my car with the factory cowl aircleaner and seal,and its a little tight but the hood closes fine.I previously used a Peformer,which was a hair shorter than the RPM

I am running a stock setup on my engine, intake, holley, and spacer. Any thoughts?

Take the spacer out and see how it fits. If the seal fits and the hood closes and everything works fine, you're done!