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Help, I been hoodwinked!

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regularman

regularman

Yoda
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OK, folks. I ran into a serious road block. My hood has been sprung on the passenger side around where the prop rod is, as if somone tried to push it down without disengaging the rod. Does anyone know how to remove this? I worked my butt off trying to get the hood to fit until I Realized exactly what was wrong. This makes the nose of the hood twisted over to the driver side a bit and makes the hood stick up a bit on the passenger side. I swear I don't remember seeing this before but the car had all kinds of problems then and I guess I did not see this. I am now going to take the hood down to bare metal as well. When fooling with the hood I had a piece of paint pop off on that side leaving a place where I could see the original paint. I did not like this so I am taking it all off except where the bondo is on the nose.
 
For this... I'd start with putting a bit wood under the lip and try warping it back as you would with a sprung door. Then look for any place where the metal has buckled or torn or stretched. Then weld, flatten and shrink as needed.
 
I'm pretty disheartened right now. I tried a block for a bit Trevor and I could not get it out and I was afraid of doing some real damage. I can see the bend in the frame, the frame on the underneath that is painted all nice and neat already. Hmmm, I need to sleep on this. Trying to figure a way to maybe use something like two rods and a turnbuckle from the inside so it can be fine tuned and maybe left there if its not too ugly. I don't want to drill any holes in the frame and weaken it though. I am also trying to get out of taking the hood back off, but what I am thinking will make me do that. Hmmmn.
 
OK, I now know what I will have to do. after having a few brews and getting away from it for a while, I think I have something that will work and work right and keep it right. The ideal would be to have the 1/4 angle the right lengths to meet at the hood prop tab and keep the correct amount of outward pressure and get bolted there.
MVC-296F.jpg
 
Hi Kim,

Are there any kinks / creases in your hood? Or is it simply 'wowed' so that it now sits with one corner high, and one low?

Metal being what it is, you'll have to push it quite a ways past 'neutral' the other way, to get it back into shape. I know it sounds a little barbaric, but I'd say that hauling down the 'high' corner (perhaps while propping up the 'low' corner with a broomhandle or something similar) is the simple solution. Go progressively further until the front of the hood sits level.

I recently had to do a similar thing with the front frame arm of a unibody car. It was about 2" out in one direction. I ended up having to deform it about 4" the opposite way, just to get it to return to neutral. Yes, you certainly may end up needing to strip and paint once you're all done.

Good luck!

-Duncan, Ottawa
78 Midget 1500
 
This will probably sound stupid... but I am used to sounding stupid.

My hood was sitting lopsided on my car as well. My solution was to adust the rubber stops that the front of the hood rests on. I screwed the right side (looking from the front) all the way out and the left side all the way in. Looks much better now.
 
I spent all freaking day yesterday on that hood. I came up with another solution. Hook a cable through the hood prop tab and lower the hood with a piece of wood under the high part and then underneath the car connect the cable to a piece of pipe and use it as a lever with one end agsint something (had to jack the car) and pull down. This worked ok, but I spent a long time on that hood and then took the da and snaded it down. 14 different colors of primers, paints, etc had to come off. Used 40 grit pads and ground and ground until I got to the original primer and then I used 80 grit and some 120 to take it to the metal. Will take pics soon. today I must install the trunk lid and clean, clean, clean. With any luck I will primer tomorrow, after I tape, tape, tape and then clean again.
 
I have used cables with an adjustable coupler on BE bonnet wings to get them toed in, if this is any help.

Patrick
 
It's really a matter of "whatever works". I've employed everthing from Port-a-Power jacks to wood blocks and rubber mallets. I'ts more a matter of learning just how much force to apply for any given 'straightening' task. I find it challenging to determine how to "reverse" the forces causing the damage in the first place...

...but then I'm consider'd a bit 'off' most times. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif
 
Bugeye58 said:
DrEntropy said:
...but then I'm consider'd a bit 'off' most times. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif
Click to expand...

I ain't gonna touch that line, no way! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
Jeff
Click to expand...

Nor I!!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif

Stuart. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cheers.gif
 
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