I'm in the middle of working on my 1950 Cadillac series 62 and I'm wondering how do I fix the gap difference on the edges of the hood between the fenders in the photos below, I have the shop manual but am a bit confused by it does anyone know how to fix this, i cant for the life of me figure out how to fix this like the shop manual says. it says to "loosen fender mounting screws at frame, radiator support and cowl." "then position fenders so that space between fenders and hood is equal at front and rear" now im hoping there's someone out there who has done this and can give me some advise because i still have the radiator support bolts tight but my assumption is how can the fenders move even after loosening the support screws because the chrome trim and grill connect both of them. Please help! Thanks, Joshua
probably but i don't really intend on removing them since there's so many bolts and i mean alot also the manual doesn't say that its needed to. Im going to try loosening the final bolts but i truly feel it wont work. hopefully there someone who has done this on a similar model who can help
Do it back at the hinges….they were only close from the factory. If you want them perfect send the car to Foose or Kendig.
If it's anything like my 48 Oldsmobile the holes for the grill and trim or slotted they need to be loosened before the fender can be adjusted
It's really hard to figure it out from seeing two little pictures... It can be out of whack for several reasons. Usually there is old collision damage, and it was probably repaired, but they didn't fix everything that needed to be fixed. Everything needs to be unbent, and adjusted, in order, starting from the beginning. And it's complicated enough that you really can't expect to find "the answer" on the internet. Good luck! you can try loosening all those bolts, but it's gonna be a lot of work.
wanted to give an update to let everyone know what happened and to give anyone in the future the information i found out. so good news I was able to get the hood aligned! what I did was first marked with a silver sharpy where the hinge was currently then I loosen the 3 hinge to hood panel attaching screws on both sides then loosened the hood reinforcement to hood center nut. After it took some wiggling but the hood finally came loose from the hinge and I was able to adjust the hood on the hinge. Took me about 5 attempt to get the gap decent and by the 6th attempt I noticed the front right was closer than the front left so I loosened the back left 3 screws and pushed it down a little to pull the opposite front corner in a little retightened and measured the gap with a ruler and all was perfect! **** side not when checking the gap close the hood SLOW so you don't crush your fenders if your over to far, also your hood lock plate support will have to be adjusted****
Because these cars have hoods that get narrower as they go forward it's important to also ensure the hood and fenders align at the leading edge also. I see in your pictures the hood appears to be back further, so moving fenders back, or hood forward will also close the gaps.
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