vintagered13
Well-known member
The hood won't fit snug to body. As you can see by the pics, it's out there. This is on a 46 chevy stylemaster. anyone have advice?
Hood Fitment Question
- Thread starter vintagered13
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donsrods
Well-known member
All of these old cars were not known for their good body alignment and gaps. Some were worse than others, like '40 Ford hoods, they usually have big gaps.
All you can do is minimize the gaps by moving things around, like the fenders to gain a little room to move the hood back some. It takes a lot of adjusting up and down and fore and aft, trying to pick up a 1/16 of an inch here and a 1/16 there. What you want to do is find what is stopping the hood from coming back more and remove that obstacle.
Sometimes the only fix is to weld additional metal onto the edge of hoods and doors to make them larger to meet up. This is very common where a door gap is too big and the extra metal is added to take up that space and make it acceptable.
Don
All you can do is minimize the gaps by moving things around, like the fenders to gain a little room to move the hood back some. It takes a lot of adjusting up and down and fore and aft, trying to pick up a 1/16 of an inch here and a 1/16 there. What you want to do is find what is stopping the hood from coming back more and remove that obstacle.
Sometimes the only fix is to weld additional metal onto the edge of hoods and doors to make them larger to meet up. This is very common where a door gap is too big and the extra metal is added to take up that space and make it acceptable.
Don
Hoof
Banned
a little at a time
As donsrods says, a 1/16th" here, and a 1/16th" there. I would suggest you try to fit the panels that match up to the body structure first. Things that fit to areas that can't be moved, like that door to the A pillar gap, for example. Make sure the door is properly aligned in its opening. Look at the door to rocker panel gap. Make sure that gap is nice and level. And make sure the door to quarter gap is good. When these panels fit with their openings properly, it makes it a little easier to fit the more adjustable panels to them. If you start with one of these main panels off just a bit, you'll fight the rest of the panel gaps for days! Because you can't really move a door too much to fit the hood or fender cuz you've got a door opening to consider. Also, try fitting the hood to the cowl-(this only applies if the cowl panel is part of body structure, not a bolt on), If the hood to cowl gap is right, and the door quarter panel and door to A pilar gap is right, and you still have too much of a gap between the hood and door, then you are left with donsrods suggestion of welding more material to the edge of the hood to make the gap smaller-with a mig, not too hard to do, and a pretty common practice. Just build up a series of welds 'till you get it close, and grind it smooth...just my 2 cents worth-good luck!
As donsrods says, a 1/16th" here, and a 1/16th" there. I would suggest you try to fit the panels that match up to the body structure first. Things that fit to areas that can't be moved, like that door to the A pillar gap, for example. Make sure the door is properly aligned in its opening. Look at the door to rocker panel gap. Make sure that gap is nice and level. And make sure the door to quarter gap is good. When these panels fit with their openings properly, it makes it a little easier to fit the more adjustable panels to them. If you start with one of these main panels off just a bit, you'll fight the rest of the panel gaps for days! Because you can't really move a door too much to fit the hood or fender cuz you've got a door opening to consider. Also, try fitting the hood to the cowl-(this only applies if the cowl panel is part of body structure, not a bolt on), If the hood to cowl gap is right, and the door quarter panel and door to A pilar gap is right, and you still have too much of a gap between the hood and door, then you are left with donsrods suggestion of welding more material to the edge of the hood to make the gap smaller-with a mig, not too hard to do, and a pretty common practice. Just build up a series of welds 'till you get it close, and grind it smooth...just my 2 cents worth-good luck!
Hoof
Banned
PS: If you're not getting enough adjustment, you can hog out the holes in the hinge assemblys with a die grinder and carbide rasp, elongate them as much as possible for more movement backwards on that hood...
