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Hello all,

I was checking on some advice for fixing a hood issue that was left after my grandfather restored a 115. When you open the hood there is a lot of left to right play in the hood. This makes it hard to close again without rubbing the paint on the sides as it closes. It looks like there is excess length of the chrome center strip that is longer than the underlying metal strip of hood by about 1/2" should that over lap be there or should the be removed. If removed the chrome and underlying metal strip would be about 1/2" shorter than the rest of the hood at that point. I am assuming the some the excess would be folded over to help support the bracket from siding off during install? I have attached pictures. The two top bracing rods under the hood are pushed as long as they go with the bolts by the radiator just barely on.

Does anyone get me a quick picture of there hood bracket area to compare?



Any help with ideas to get this to fit better would be helpful.

Thanks

James

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Just checking if anyone with a 37 120 or 115 can take a couple of pictures and post them. A couple of pictures with the hood up showing the back hood bracket's position with respect to the chrome strip to see how that lines up correctly.

Thanks

James

First of all, the chrome strip clearly has the end distorted/bent/broken beyond where it would otherwise crimp down over the hood hinge. That should fix the length issue.

Second, what we can call the hood hold down clip which is bolted to the radiator surround at the front, and the cowl at the rear, in an opposing orientation, is designed to hold the hood in place reasonably securely. The design wasn't great to begin with, and with over 80 years of wear, both the clips and the hinge are prone to wear. The clips are reproduced. The hood hinge is NOT, as it is part of the hoods (left and right top portions) interlocking design. Re-engineering the hood hinge design can be done, but at considerable work and expense. Frankly, having said and done it, its only worth doing in either an extreme or OCD situation. Study it, understand it, gently massage what you can to improve yours, and live with it.

OH, and do I see a rubber hammer and a pair of pliers in the background? No surprise as removing and replacing the chrome hood strip CAN be done, it was originally crimped on with some fancy fixture at the factory. Rechroming, rarely successful, usually results in frustration, ending with the hammer being thrown. Better to buy a new reproduction strip and use some magic body side moulding adhesive to install.

Thanks for the advance. I thought it would be easy to remove or readjust the chrome strip but it will not move. Perhaps my grandfather used some bonding agent 23 years ago. At least I didn't make it any worse for wear. I will crimp the extra chrome piece over that should prevent the hood the siding to far forward which is part of the issue. Hopefully that will make it the best it can be.

I was thinking it would be easier to do adjustments with just the top two pieces of the hood on and then add the side parts of the hood and metal dowl rods once the top pieces are bolted down and lined up the best they can. Right now I separated them all to get a better idea of condition and fit.

Thanks again

James

agree with Flack...the hinges suck....and good luck getting the hood back on solo...and without damaging at least some paint.

took mine off once....will avoid ever doing it again.

Thanks I was going to use 3 people to get everything back together