-----Original Message-----
From: spitfires-owner@autox.team.net
[mailto:spitfires-owner@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of s1500@comcast.net
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 9:13 AM
To: Spitfires
Subject: The dreaded bent-in hood edge
I made an observation a few weeks ago. I was at my dad's place looking
at his cars. On his GT6, I noticed the left rear edge of the hood,
behind the hood latch is bent inward.
And on my Spit, yep, the hood's a bit bent inward too. When you
open/close the door it rubs against it and has even scraped a little
bit of paint off.
A google image search even shows it on a few hoods.
1. What the heck is causing this? I can see the crease clearly, but
can't quite explain how it happened in the first place. The passenger
side is perfectly straight.
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I would guess that the hook that the bonnet latch connects with is too
far inboard and when the latch is closed it, is having to pull the
bonnet edge inward. If it is obviously too close to the body that it is
causing the edge to not be aligned with the door once the latch is
closed, you can shim the latch to bring it out further. Normally this
is not necessary, but if the body piece where that catch is attached has
been damaged (pushed in) in an accident, I can see how that might cause
this anomaly.
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2. Aside from a professsional body shop job, how can one rectify it on a
shoestring budget?
Here's my idea. Wedge in a perfectly-engineered(sand 'er down, Dremel,
etc) piece of wood during winter storage, or when it's parked. Could one
just open the door, slide the wood block in careflly, and have it slowly
bend the hood piece out?
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If the problem is the latching point, that would not solve the problem
because closing the latch would just pull it in again.
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Cheers,
Joe C.
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