So, after my last hood was completely f`ed up by a shop, I have bought another hood and looking for pointers to install. I did a quick, set the tops in place, and looks like it should fit fairly decent. Hints, tips and tricks appreciated.
If the car is painted, lots of blue tape. Other than that, patience and a tape measure. If you're lucky, it fits well and the gaps are good. If not, may have to play with radiator height to get the lines all nice and parallel. I'm sure there'll be other responses, some may agree or disagree, but that's how I get started.
Thanks. Nothing is painted so no tape required. I read somewhere about the use of a paint stir stick for gaps.
I haven't had a hood fit correctly right off the bat,,it helps to have a extra set of hands to help with adjustments. Is the hood a original styled 4 piece or 3 piece? I try to keep the hood together (4) piece and check my gaps,,the shell may need to be moved up,down or sideways,,you may have to do some shims at the cowl also. When yo get it as close as possible you may have to slightly trim in some ares to get a perfect fit. When you dis***emble the car for paint make sure you save and mark all the shims,spacers and washers in baggies. HRP
It is a Rootlieb 4 piece Mr Primer. Is it possible to fit the top halves and add the sides later as it is a real bear to manoeuvre into place.
Your never going to get the sides to fit after you line up the top alone,,that's why you need a extra set of hands to fight with a 4 piece hood. HRP
Thanks and advise taken. I have it in place and will need to get the cowl to hood and rad shell to hood seals in place to go further. So far the top looks good but like you said, the sides will need some m***aging.
You can get it on by yourself. . . bolt the rear hinge mount to the cowl, slide the center hinge over the two halves, then slide the front hinge mount into the hinge itself (don't screw it to the grille/radiator yet). Now lift/slide the entire thing over the grille and onto the rear hinge mount, and rest the front mount onto the grille. Lift one side of the hood up, and screw it to the grill/radiator, then do the other side. It helps to keep everything loose, radiator mounts, radiator support bars, etc. . . this way you have to room to shim/tweak/whatever you need to do.
I gave up on using the braided fabric cushion on the cowl and ended up using 1/4" copper tubing inside rubber fuel line and I was able to line the reveal up with the body perfectly. This way if it's a tad too high you can flatten it to fit. It may end to stick to the hood but a little candle wax fixes that.
I did a Rootlieb stock style hood for a friend awhile back. Ended up taking a slice out of the p***enger side of the top to get it to fit tight against the body and rad shell. The slice was 3/8s at the rad shell back to zero at the cowl. Fit perfect after that. The repro front fenders were another story!!
Thanks all for the tips. I set the top in place, similar to ZHR`s suggestion and installed the sides with the rod after. Very happy with the top fit and will tweak the rad shell to even up the sides. When it comes to gaps, I read somewhere about using a paint stir stick, any thoughts?
You can chase a hood fit all day and fitting it in pieces is worse. Remember to fit the hood it must align with the body and the grille shell so neither can be tightened down. If you have too any shims for the doors alignment, the front cross member installed to high or too low or the radiator is the wrong height everything is off it can be a number of issues . Also remember the hood does not set even with the top of the cowl ridge it sets below it. Its best to install the complete hood and then make a decision as to alignment of the cowl to hood first and then address the radiator.
I had a stock roadster and fitting the hood(the original) was almost impossible to get the gaps right.We fitted the old welting back into place, it was nice and contoured and settled in.The rad stays were set up and the rad checked for alignment.Every time we got the tops perfect, one side panel would fit real nice but the other had a gap at the bottom front edge against the grill shell and the rear edge climbed over the cowl by a similar amount.....we shimmed and tweaked until we got that right and then it threw every other gap out....we thought the frame might be bent or out of line but it measured up as straight as a straight thing..the body was also dead on position wise.....we tried recurring the drivers side top to try and bring it into line but that caused bad fit on the gril and cowl. Finally, my mate who was going to paint the car decided that we cut a thin pie shaped sliver off the rear of the side panel and welded it to the front edge.....it worked a treat and gave us great even gapping all round.I'm not saying this is the correct way to go about it and realise that it must have fitted properly at some time in its life, but I was not going to take the body off and re-shim it as I would have got drawn into a full rebuild and detailing of the whole car, knowing how I am, and a quick repainted would have become a couple of years rebuild lol.....good luck with yours, get some mates to help out and have bags of patience...if it isn't going too well, walk away and come back to it later.
On the last 4 deuces I've done (Rootlieb stock style 25 louver hoods) my body man ended up cutting/t******* the tops or sides in some manner to get the desired fit. We like paint stick gaps. Maybe we're a little picky but good hood fit is mandatory.
I have spent the last couple days playing with the new hood and am happy to say that I have it real close I did not need to trim the hood at all and it was just a matter of playing with shims. Turns out that the body was shimmed incorrectly and was evident by the door gaps along with the fact they did not close well. Wescotts has an excellent article on alignment and definitely a good read for those in a similar situation.
In primer for the summer and will look for a reputable shop to finish over the winter. I have some minor tweaking to do but unlike the last hood, this one was not trimmed to fit.
Use electric drill to spin the hinge rods. It makes the rod easier to remove or install. You might have to use a drift to start....so the rod sticks out enough to get the drill chuck on. Pulling or pushing the spinning rod is easier than trying to just pull or push the rod in or out of the hood sides.
I replaced the Rootlieb supplied rods with stainless ones. They actually fit really nice and no real effort to get them in, but was concerned what the paint would do.
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