Hood Hinges . What is your opinion .

[Bill Balkie 24172]

Hello ,
     When looking at my car and deciding on what to do with my ugly hood hinges I hesitate  to make a fast decision . To do it right the hinges need to be removed and disassembled and re Cad. Plated .   Then reassembled ( Rivet ) and installed .   Very time consuming and expensive . My car is not a show car but a nice clean driver . It would be easy for me to paint these hinges flat Black and call it a day . Or  I can live with them they way they are .  What do most of you  do to make your hinges look decent .  I made a fixture up to  spread my springs open enough to sand blast them and paint them .

       Bill

[Tom Boehm]

Eastwood sells paint in a spray can to reproduce the color of silver or gold cad plating.

[76eldo]

The hinges on my 73 Pace Car were shot.
I had a set redone and it took four of us to get the hood back on the car.
We spent an entire evening trying to adjust the hinges so that the rear of the hood sat right.
I gave up and dropped the car off at a trusted body shop this morning to align and adjust the hood and hinges and paint the Parade Boot that I recently purchased to replace the one missing from the car.
I’m fortunate because in 73 the hinges were semi gloss black. I painted them with rattle cans and they look great. I’d clean yours up as much as possible. The fake gold cad paint looks tacky in my opinion.  If the won’t clean up I’d paint them black and be sure to keep them lubed up.
The 70 hinges hold up much better than the 71-78 Eldo ones. Those hoods are heavy.

If i were you I would not remove the hood for any reason if you don’t absolutely have to.

[Bill Balkie 24172]

Hello Brian,
      It’s 3:15 in the morning and I am thinking about my hood hinges . I needed somebody to confirm that painting them would be OK . I agree with you that gold painting does look tacky . And yes taking that hood off can be a lot of trouble . It’s not something you do every day . Thank you for the encouragement . Sometimes the easiest way is the best way . I just have to make sure they are good and clean and grease and oil free . Before painting . They will look a 100% Better and I am not worried about a 100 point show car . Just a nice clean
Driver .


     Thank ,
           Bill

[rwchatham CLC 21892]

Here in Michigan it is around 70 dollars to have hood hinges Cad plated and usually they only have to be disassembled to replace the rivets  if they are worn , not for the actual cad plating .

[76eldo]

If the fit and function properly and your hood lines up properly then I would clean them and try to spray them black in place.

1970 hoods although large are not known to be a problem like the huge Eldo hoods.
I never knew that hood hinges were a “thing” and so expensive to deal with until I got this 73.
The hinges need to stay properly lubed as to not go up and down dry which probably leads to the rivets and holes becoming worn. They the side to side alignment goes off and the front hood corners start chipping the fender inner edges.

Both of my 70’s are all original with pretty tidy engine compartments but far from a perfect detailed and repainted engine compartment which I do not want for these cars. They are as Cadillac built them and have some wear which is fine with me.

If you were replacing failing hinges that would be different.

Taking the hood on and off seems unnecessary to me to make the hinges look nice but it’s your choice. You asked for opinions so that’s mine.

[Bill Balkie 24172]

Hello RWchatham ,
   Sound like a good price to me . Here in New Jersey you have every environmental agency breathing down your neck driving the price up . I  think i am going to leave the hinges on the car , clean them to the best of my ability and  mask and paint them a gloss or satin black . I just dont feel like going through the trouble of removing the hood , sending the parts out and fighting alignment problems and fear of scratching the paint on the car . Its the easy way out and not correct to the standards . It just feels right to me . I do admire the other enthusiast that go the extra mile .

     Bill

[chrisntam]

You’ll need at least 3 able bodied folks to off & on a ‘70 hood. Very heavy, unlike hoods on a ‘55 Chevy or ‘70 camaro.   Heavy.

A trick I learned here when removing hoods and making realignment easier is to drill very small 1/8” holes through the hinge & hood in a few places on each hinge prior to removal. When reinstalling, use 1/8” roll pins or round stock to help locate the exact orientation of the hood/hinges. Worked like a charm for me and the holes are not visible.

I painted mine Rattle can gold, they look “ok” or marginally acceptable. I’ll post a pic later.

[Dan LeBlanc]

The hinges on my 73 Pace Car were shot.
I had a set redone and it took four of us to get the hood back on the car.
We spent an entire evening trying to adjust the hinges so that the rear of the hood sat right.
I gave up and dropped the car off at a trusted body shop this morning to align and adjust the hood and hinges and paint the Parade Boot that I recently purchased to replace the one missing from the car.
I’m fortunate because in 73 the hinges were semi gloss black. I painted them with rattle cans and they look great. I’d clean yours up as much as possible. The fake gold cad paint looks tacky in my opinion.  If the won’t clean up I’d paint them black and be sure to keep them lubed up.
The 70 hinges hold up much better than the 71-78 Eldo ones. Those hoods are heavy.

If i were you I would not remove the hood for any reason if you don’t absolutely have to.

Brian, if the hood is sitting too high at the rear, you need to raise the hinge where it attaches to the inner fender.  Counter intuitive, I know.  My late father, a body man of 47 years told me that one when the hood of my 61 was sitting a bit high at the cowl.  Worked like a treat.  I adjusted Art's too.

[MaR]

On 71-78 Eldorados and 71-76 RWD cars, the vast majority of the time when the back in stick up, the rivets are worn. If they are just starting to wear out you may be able to adjust it out but it's only going to get worse. On my '74 Eldorado, I made stainless steel bolts to replace the bad rivets.

[76eldo]

In my case it’s an adjustment issue.
The rivets are new, hinges were just done by SMS Auto.

The body shop has it now and will align and adjust.
We gave up.

Your pictures show an interesting option to the rivets but I’m going for factory appearance.

[Bill Balkie 24172]

Hello Mitchell ,
    You made custum shoulder bolts using a nyloc nut and washer  . Very effective , easy to replace . A first class job .

    Bill