Father and son project, I have a 1968 chevelle that we are putting back together to do the body work and all of the car lines up great doors and fenders but the hood is not right. I got it sitting down great on the back side and the side gaps are nit bad but the front is off. I’m keep coming with a big gap in the right side of the hood by the nose and the left side is good. I have torn it down to the doors both sides three times and it keeps coming back together the same way. Any help? Also how big should the body gaps be?
body gaps and hood?
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Scott,
Are you using repop sheet metal and or hood hinges? I recently put a repop hood and front right fender with stock hood hinges on a 69 Chevelle and faced a similar problem. I could get the sheet metal to line up decently, but the gap between the header panel and hood was about 3/8" TO 1/2". With a little bit of hood movement toward the front and a different header panel (GM), all the gaps closed up nicely, but the hood is still tough to close. The hood latch, upper and lower are all lined up well, but it still requires quite a bit of effort to get the hood to latch.
The other thing I noticed is that when closing the hood and the latch catches the first detent, the driver's side of the hood is about 1/2" above the driver's fender (which is a GM fender), while the passenger side is still up about 1 1/2". So the hood isn't coming down evenly. I also noticed that the hood hinge on the pass side requires that the front-hinge-to-body hole be fully adjusted down (as low as the front hinge hole allows, not normal in my opinion).
So if I was to guess without measuring, I'd say the repop fender hinge mounting holes are probably in the wrong position compared to a GM fender and that the hood does not close evenly, which requires extra force to overcome the torquing of the hood.
This weekend, I'm going to put a GM fender back on the passenger side to see if that solves the hard-to-close hood problem. The stock hood and fender combo had the hood lined up nicely and was easy to close. So the issue to me is with the reproduction parts.
Hopefully some of this info will help. I'd be curious to see if anyone else has been down this road too.
Woj.
Are you using repop sheet metal and or hood hinges? I recently put a repop hood and front right fender with stock hood hinges on a 69 Chevelle and faced a similar problem. I could get the sheet metal to line up decently, but the gap between the header panel and hood was about 3/8" TO 1/2". With a little bit of hood movement toward the front and a different header panel (GM), all the gaps closed up nicely, but the hood is still tough to close. The hood latch, upper and lower are all lined up well, but it still requires quite a bit of effort to get the hood to latch.
The other thing I noticed is that when closing the hood and the latch catches the first detent, the driver's side of the hood is about 1/2" above the driver's fender (which is a GM fender), while the passenger side is still up about 1 1/2". So the hood isn't coming down evenly. I also noticed that the hood hinge on the pass side requires that the front-hinge-to-body hole be fully adjusted down (as low as the front hinge hole allows, not normal in my opinion).
So if I was to guess without measuring, I'd say the repop fender hinge mounting holes are probably in the wrong position compared to a GM fender and that the hood does not close evenly, which requires extra force to overcome the torquing of the hood.
This weekend, I'm going to put a GM fender back on the passenger side to see if that solves the hard-to-close hood problem. The stock hood and fender combo had the hood lined up nicely and was easy to close. So the issue to me is with the reproduction parts.
Hopefully some of this info will help. I'd be curious to see if anyone else has been down this road too.
Woj.
Day six on trying to get my hood to line up. After reading about the alignment holes on the frame I went out and yes they were off so I pulled the front off the car and redid the body again last night. Today I put the front back together and its still off same way. I left the body mounts loose to move it around but with no luck. The hood will still not line up. and yes this all stock parts and i still have to push as hard as i can to get the hood to close.
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16,278 Posts
The hood striker is adjustable. Loosen the nut and move the striker down a turn and try it again. Also, take some diagonal measurements on the front end and make sure they are within no more than a 1/16" of each other. This will tell you if the front end is squared up.
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6,448 Posts
You pretty well have to start with the fore/aft gap between the doors and quarters and get them even. then set the fenders to the doors. If the gap across the front of the hood is still tighter on one side than the other, then you may have to fudge the tight side door and fender a little forward or the other side rear some to even things out. A few years ago, when we got our el Camino back, the gap across the front was tight on the passenger side. All the other gaps checked out ok and it was just a matter of shimming the passenger fender forward from the firewall fore/aft attachment point as that fender to door gap was tight. The cure was pretty simple in that case. It can be time consuming getting everything right but looks and works nice when you get it there. Speaking about things built wrong. On one of the el Camino repro fenders, the bracket that bolts to the side of the cowl was welded on so far out of position that it had to be cut off and relocated. It can be a nightmare with this repro stuff.
My doors and fenders gaps are all set at 3/16. The body is lineup IE quarters, door ,fenders. I even tried to move the rad support over and that did help a little but not enough. I even took the bolts out of the front of the rad support to the fenders and still can move it over enough. Question # 1 I have the hood hinges to the fender bolts tight could this be a problem? The back of the hood is line up with the fenders. As far as locking the hood down problem I have moved the striker down but then the hood sits to high on the front side
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6,448 Posts
Take a vernier caliper and measure the fore/aft gap on each side of the hood to header. Calculate the difference and divide by four. That is the amount that you will have to cheat the door to quarter and door to fender gaps. Add to the tight side and subtracting from the right or big gap side. That's about the only way you are going to square the front up unless there is something we have missed. A 1/16" added to the gaps on one side and taken away from the gaps on the other side will take care of a quarter inch V gap across the front. It just shows how small changes stacked up can make a big change.
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41 Posts
Here's something that I do when installing fenders. Install the inner fender to make sure all of the bolt holes line up nicely, but leave the bolts loose so that the fender will still flex when aligning it. You will get a lot more movement in the fender than you think. On cars with a header panel, to tighten the gap at the hood eight or ten inches back of the header panel, move the lower front of the fender out where the inner fender bolts to the bottom of the core support. Just a thought.....
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