Featured Folks Of Interest I will never understand bodymen!

The hood does not close, that should be the concern not the body gaps!
If you reread my post, he says "The body gags look good!" In order to get the hood to close that body gap may be so different that at it is at that point!

That is my point everybody man I have ever dealt with is all wound up on trivial matters and not the things that really matter.

How many people are going to notice that the gap on the left side of a hood is 1/32" different than the right?

My dad who was a mechanic/service writer at the local Chevrolet dealer was endlessly going round and round with the Body shop manager and the body men.

They would do the body work, repaint/replace panels, grills, headlight, parking lights etc... spend hour messing with body gaps turn the jobs out as finished but none of the lights were working because they never hook them up!!!

Do you think the customer was more concerned the fact the body gaps were better than factory or the fact the headlights didn't work?

Dad also did all the frame straighten (train by/at Blackhawk) because all the bogymen did not know or refused to do it.

 

I paid my way through university working in an auto body shop. Every body man in the shop had their own piece of wood that no one else was allowed to touch.
I’d touch a biker’s old lady before touching a body man’s 2x4

 

The old body shop vs mechanic shop vs service department conundrum. Or typical dealership drama.
Most service writers I worked with barely knew the difference between a hubcap and a headlight.
Plugging up a headlight is a lot easier than aligning body panels. Still no excuse for leaving em unplugged.
But basic panel fitment and function issues start with checking the gap against the fixed (welded) panels. That’s SOP.
Mechanic logic vs body repair logic are supposed to be different. A door not fitting is the same as an engine with a misfire. One is more important than the other to each repair discipline.
Customers will notice and complain about both.
Both issues make $$$$$ for the dealership.
I preferred independent body shops mostly due to the absence of the “service writing” department. Or less beuracracy. I was able to work directly with the estimator. (Not the same mentality as a dealership service writer)
And the headlights always worked when the car was delivered.

 

It's a television show and hardly represents "bodymen".

 

Clearly you have never been in a body shop when a customer picks up their car. They notice everything. Even stuff that's always been that way but now they think is wrong.

 

I'm a leg man...no need to understand me

 

You mean like tires that get scrubbed off or poor handling because of suspension/frame damage from a collision damage that was never repaired?

I have seen that several time in my life! You have no idea how many lifetime I have heard/seen myself, my father and others talk about a customer will come in complaining of tire wear, ill handling etc..

Upon trying to align the frontend discover bent steering suspension components that were never replaced or even checked!

 

Non of that has anything to do with diagnosing a hood fitment.


If the body shop missed a bent part, that starts with the estimator or service writer.
The alignment shop discovering a bent suspension part is them doing their job

if there is excessive tire wear from the dealership missing something, that is an issue from management down. If it was “p***ed” by the alignment tech, that’s on the service department/management for allowing that to happen. Seen it many times in a dealership. The body tech tells the service guy something is bent just to be ignored. The alignment guy has a big die grinder.

this thread is proof of why dealerships struggle with customer service. It starts at management.
Suspension and alignment fall under mechanical labor. Some body guys do both. Some do not.

comebacks can be traced to poor quality control and poor management.
The “ain’t my job” at***ude is a result of poor leadership.
If the car is wearing tires due to a poor repair, that is an example of a poorly ran facility. Body, mechanical and office failure.

 

What's not to understand? HRP

Remember to old adage, a picture is worth a thousand words - in this case maybe two thousand words!

 

In that case, the fact the hood won’t close is a sign of the front sheet metal being out of alignment, putting the hood ****eyed to the cowl so it closes is not the solution.

 

Align the front after verifying the cowl to hood gaps are correct. Or close.
Simple body work

 

Gaps are a very important, in my opinion bad gaps kill an otherwise nice rebuild. So many things come into play, first of all is most of the cars included in this forum had poor gaps when they were new, enter into the mix the wear and tear, the accidents and things that are still bent, hinges, core supports frame horns etc. The hood to the cowl gap gives you a good indication where the hood striker meets with the latch and where the core support needs to be for proper latch operation, from there it can be a wrestling match, bending pulling taking it apart again and again after tweaking things. I just did a lot of work on a late 60,s Chevrolet that had been hit pretty hard in the front, things fit poorly from the back of the doors forward, as a body man I lined things up as good as I could with what I had. The owner come and look things over, he made some compromises on his expectations versus spending more money to make the things fit better. If you’re having a car done by someone else, both parties should be on the same page. Refining how things fit is often time, frustrating, time consuming and expensive.

 

^^^^ I agree. I doubt anyone was trying to make the gaps “better than the factory” 80 years ago, but I think most try to make them the best they can 80 years later.

 

I doubt they're gonna leave the hood like that and if you need any idea of Matts metalworking skills check out his 39 Merc he just chopped. Hes carrying the torch of the old Fords from you geezers so be proud someone young gives a damn about these cars and is out there slinging parts and saving cars!

 

[QUOTE="twenty8, post: 15781816, member: 364605"



If you loosen the hood hinge bolts you may be able to wriggle the rest of the car back enough to get the clearance and gapping needed. You never know until you try..........[/QUOTE]

OK, I got the hood hinge bolts loose (real loose cause I thought maybe they were still too tight the first 5 times), but I can't get the car to wiggle backwards far enough to get the hood gap correct. Do I have to take the car out of park?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

Depends on how many friends you can get to help with the wriggle.............

 

3' for the normal jobs and 8 footers for the really tough ones. I had a Pinto station wagon that the drivers door kept sagging - a couple pumps on the floor jack every 6 months or so kept it from s****ping the jamb.

 

With all due respect, I think you are missing the point.
You have to align the rear of the hood with the cowl as your starting point. If the hood won't close you then tweak the fenders and radiator support panel/front sheetmetal to get the hood to close. It can't be done successfully in the opposite order............... unless you are one very lucky hombre.

 

OK, I got the hood hinge bolts loose (real loose cause I thought maybe they were still too tight the first 5 times), but I can't get the car to wiggle backwards far enough to get the hood gap correct. Do I have to take the car out of park?

Sorry, couldn't resist. [/QUOTE]
This might be a gray area, but, auto trans? Wouldn't a clutch be more appropriate for this forum? Just asking...

 

Trying to drag irontrap on here is crazy... for a laundry list of reasons.

 

That's bodywork 101, you fit the hood to the cowl with a nice even gap and then if the hood doesn't close or the fender gaps are poor you move the front clip around until it lines up/closes.

If you get a good gap at the cowl and the hood doesn't close, it means the rest of the front end sheetmetal needs to move to meet the hood, not vice-versa.

 

I'll be honest...... I didn't have the time earlier to watch the whole video, but I have watched it all just now.
The video seems to detail the process very well, and I am struggling to work out what hell the OP is on about.

 

I always just thought this was common knowledge, at least in my universe it was. I came to find out it was anything but throughout the years.

 

Not trying to dis the guys in the video, I've never heard of them before and don't really spend any time on youtube, but having a youtube channel doesn't necessarily make them professional body-men, just means that they found an income stream on youtube.

 

I personally prefer to hang the hood from the ceiling of my garage then, with the car on wheel dollys, move the car around until it lines up with the hood. Once aligned, never forget to unhook the hood from the ceiling though ... I'm on my second garage now

Always at least two ways to skin a cat so just be thankful you ain't a cat!

 

After this thread
I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THAT ARN’T BODYMEN… lol

One of the hardest parts I’ve had to work with and Aline have been aftermarket hood hinges. A man that I built several cars for had a 57 Chevy that he had built by someone else before I had met him and one day he asked if I could look at his 57 and Aline the hood and front sheet metal. Well after a couple of aggravated hours I told him that he needed to set of hinges but I was building a 57 for him at the time so he said to use those new ones and I still couldn’t get the results I needed. The hood would pull down different every time and it wouldn’t matter if the springs were on the hinges or not so he ordered them from a different brand or vendor I can’t remember but they actually worked and would allow the hood to lower the same every time finding the striker every time.

I tried the hinges on the 57 I was building and they did the same thing on that car as well so we ordered a second set and when I did a 55 a couple years later for him we used the hinges that worked on his 57.

There were door gaskets that were to hard and affected how the doors closed also but after fifteen years I can’t remember what brand actually worked but we tried a couple before we found the ones that worked.

 

They arent professional body men and they will gladly tell you that. Matt prides himself on doing things his way which is usually the way they were done back in the 40s-50s when these cars were modded.

 

I have just enjoyed some of the comedy in this thread if nothing else. Anyway, carry on...

 

Necessary tool box implement of destruction

 

Leave the hood off.
Fixed.

Kee-kee-kee