60 Hood Alighnment

[Moody]

The flat side down. Nuts facing up.

[Moody]

Lexi, these hinges you posted about are bare metal, no zinc or cad costing.
Rebuilders on eBay rebuild and replate them for $300.

[59-in-pieces]

Jon,

Indulge me, place a long straight edge on top of each side of the hood running from the windshield end forward.

Take pics or tell us if there is bow in the hood - up or down - and where.

Also do the same thing with a straight edge at the windshield end of the hood, placing it just inside of the center ridge to the pointy corner of the hood, on each side of the center ridge.
Those areas should be flat, without bulges or gullies.

Also check where the black boomerang shaped braces attach to the front of each hinge and to the fender..

Have fun,
Steve B.

[60eldo]

Steve I dont have straight edge right now but heres more pics. I just need to no how to get rear corners by cowl, down

[Warren Rauch #4286]

  I can't see how the bolt retainers could have any bearing on your problem.

Can you press the hood down by hand to the place you want it?

If Not.Have you tried  removing the rubber spacers from the cowl strip. It is most likely the spacers are holding the hood up.
They could have been moved when the hood was off.


  If yes.The other possibility I can see is the hinges are not folding down completely. Dirt,Rust,whatever.

It shouldn't come to this ,but something else I would try.
On a trunk lid with 2 bolt hinges ,the top edge can be lowered by a shim placed on the bolt  away from the edge ( not the one  next to it)
With 3 bolts on the hood hinge try leaving the center one loose  and shimming the front most ? If it works then tighten all the bolts.

Warren

[60eldo]

When I push down on rear corners it wont go down. There are NO spacers on rear cowl. I also tried spacers on front hinge bolt and middle bolt,,,,,,nothing, I think Im just gonna have to live with this. Im thinking its the hinges, I do have another used set.

[59-in-pieces]

Jon,

I went back over your posted pics and only got a glimpse of the front fender attachment on the core support.

There is a rear attachment point - circular tab - on each fender as well held in place by a huge Phillips screw and equally large exterior star point/toothed washer.

Below the actual rear tab with a large hole go shims to bring up the rear of the fender.
I could not tell if these attachment points were shimmed up.
And if the rear tab is positioned correctly it would roll the rear part of the inner fender upward.

If the fronts of the fenders are all shimmed up high, so then will be the entire fender raised up.

With the fenders raise up then the hood to cowl weather-strip can be used WITH the hood bumpers to even the alignment.

with the fenders up, the doors can be adjusted to provide for the proper gap of door to fender and the top of door to top of fender.

Have fun,
Steve B.

[59-in-pieces]

Jon,

Here is the "PRIMATIVE PETE" way to do it - even though it's not recommended by me or the literature..

SHIM THE CRAP OUT OF THE COWL (tweaking it a bit - pot metal so be careful, middle or ends or both) and the rear of the fenders TOO.

If a 1/4" is OK with you - then "FORGET ABOUT IT".

Have fun,
Steve B.

[60eldo]

Thanks steve. I dont want to realine fenders, doors. I just want the hood to go down.

[59-in-pieces]

Jon,

The horse is out of the barn in your case - BUT.

Here is a trick you can use in the future or for others.

Go to every point where the hood AND OR the fenders are attached to the car - and before removing anything - drill small holes to the side of the bolts down through to the surfaces into which the bolts tighten.
Make sure the type and number of shims is noted - by picture and notation.
Use plastic baggies - labeled.

Then when REASSEMBLING THE FENDERS AND HOOD, YOU CAN REPLACE THE BOLTS AND SHIMS IN EXACTALLY BY NUMBER AND WHERE THEY WERE ORIGINALLY ASSEMBLED.
ALIGN THE PREVIOUSLY DRILLED HOLES WITH A THIN NAIL OR WIRE CONSISTANT WITH YOUR PICTURES AND NOTATIONS.

Have fun,
Steve B.

[59-in-pieces]

Jon,

Aligning the fenders and hood are the toughest tasks to do well - no quick fixes

BLUNT TIME.

Everyone has offered you their thoughts, none of which it appears you value and keep saying you just want the corners down.
My final suggestion is - and it is sarcasm - take a body dolly and hammer to them and paint them when your happy with the height.

Sorry my magic wand is in the cleaners.

I'M OUT.

Have fun,
Steve B.

[Cadman-iac]

  Jon,

 This is gonna sound counterintuitive, but have you tried raising the hinges on the body?
  When they are mounted too low, when the hood is lowered/closed, the hinges cannot drop, or close completely, leaving the hood sticking up.
 I would just try dropping the hinges where they mount to the firewall about a 1/4 inch and see if that doesn't let the hood close more.
  Yes, it sounds backwards, but I've ran into this problem a few times on other GM cars from 50's that had the hinges mounted the same way.

 Good luck to you.

 Rick

 Edit:  I looked at your hinges and tried to see exactly how they are mounted on the car, but the pictures are not clear enough. I can see what you mean about it not dropping because of how it's mounted.
 Something I see is that they appear to have a bit of rust on them. Is this making them hard to move, maybe they're binding which is why the hood doesn't close completely.

 My suggestion above was based on the hinges only being bolted on the firewall, nothing to the sides, so not sure what the problem is.