Jon Frampton and I worked on getting the hood on my car setting straight
today. Ever since putting the hood on after it's restoration, it never sat
quite right, being slightly higher on one side in the rear. it also had an
annoying habit of popping open while buzzing down the freeway. I had the
presence of mind to remove the grille before we started, so the rest of this
tale is not nearly as gruesome as it could have been.
We loosened the four hood hinge bolts and checked to make sure the hood was
setting in the engine bay opening squarely. We then eyeballed level at the
cowl side and tightened the hinge bolts up. It all looked pretty good, so I
pushed her down and latched it. That was when the fun started.
The hood refused to pop open. Try as we might (and Jon lifts weights, so it
was not for lack of strength!) we could not release the hood latch. We
finally resorted to taking out the hinge bolts and lifted the thing off from
the front. Did I mention I took off the grille?
Hmmmm. The latch part on the hood appeared to be going into the mechanism
slightly off center and no amount of adjusting of the cowl or hood parts
would center it properly. It finally took a round file and a lot of elbow
grease to elongate the mounting holes in the hood latch to get the
adjustment we needed. Upon reassembly, the two parts fit together
beautifully, so I snapped the hood shut again.
Yes, you probably can guess what happened then--it stuck shut a second time!
Fortunately, just loosening the hinge bolts got us the slack we needed to
open her up again and after adjusting and sweating (it was warm in the sun)
we managed to strike a deal that me and my 30 year old car could live with.
With a few shim washers under the round rubber bumpers at the back of the
hood, we got it set. It still is not quite perfect, but it is level and it
opens when I pull the release. Though not a truly fitting thanks for all his
hard work, we treated Jon to lunch and got home before 3 o'clock.
Working on a roadster and getting home before dark. What a concept!
Paul Bauman
Westminster, CA
67 1600
http://www.PictureTrail.com/bauman311
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