kwkenuf

On my 61 (long term retrofit project, originality not an issue). Purchased a few years back from the PO who abandoned the project after putting the body together from pieces apparently...
Mocking up the hood, trunk lid and deck lid panels I started to address an alignment problem with the convertible top cover (deck lid) panel. On the drivers side, in order to get the panel to close I have to remove the top bolt on the hinge mechanism. The PO previously slotted the two lower (or rearward if the panel is closed) hinge attach points to attach the panel in order to close it. What do you suppose the problem is? Mismatched parts? Extremely poor body fitment? I have shimmed the hinge tower up, no change noted. Best course of action? The panel closed pic below is with 1 bolt removed and the panel adjusted far forward on the attach point. BTW for reference, the trunk lid fits well, no issues.



In the next pic you can see the extreme adjustment neccesary to get the panel adjusted forward enough to close. One bolt hole is hidden by the bracket and the other two are severely elongated. As you can see from the primer outline, this panel used to fit (maybe not on my car?) When all three bolts are installed the panel is positioned way too far to the rear to close. On the passenger side (not shown) everything lines up fine with all three bolts installed and has room to adjust back/forth and side to side. I am not a body man in any way, shape or form... What concept am I missing here? Suggestions appreciated.... Thanks, Andy

AZDoug

I think, if I spent maybe 10 minutes fondling the undersides of your fiberglas body panels, that I would find that the front and the rear of the car was spliced together again sometime after it left the factory, maybe even in two places.

That was not meant to sound as obscene as it does.

Doug

AZDoug

BTW,

Best course of action: Cut body apart and rejig it properly for fit.

Second, most practical course of action: make deck lid fit body using grinder.

I am glad I bought my car 35 years ago before things like this were done.

Doug

kwkenuf

Doug, Thanks for your comments. From what I have seen so far, the car took a pretty good hit on the left front, damaging far enough back that the firewall was spliced together and the left rear most body mount looks glassed together also. I'm not too jazzed about the way the rear body panels are attached to the tub either... Probably the whole left side of the car was hashed...No doubt this car has had a rough life... I am not set up here nor do I have the skills to blow this car apart and re-jig it together.... If I can fix it to be functional and look decent, I'll be happy. I will be driving this thing till the wheels fall off (or until I become and remain horizontal) and the car will never be sold....so the only person it has to please is me....

Kerrmudgeon

Use a body grinder, a set of torches to custom "adjust" the hinges and arms, and reglass any weak body panels and mounts. In Europe they would call this a hand made car.

aworks

The hinge is bent. Heat the hinge and bend it forward. If you bend it with the panel on you can keep moving it till the panel fits.

mike coletta

I think that this might be the problem!!

Mike Coletta

AZDoug

Some of these cars had a rough life.

A local guy has a '61 that the dash board fiberglas was obviously ruptured, rather than being straight across, the center section kicks up a fair bit where it meets the passenger grab bar, the car has some problems at the rear in the area the trunk lid meets the conv top deck lid also.

I don't know if he noticed it, but I did. Didn't say anything though, not my place.

Your hinge may be bent, but I have a hard time trying to figure out how that could happen, as that is a lot of metal to move, unless the hinge assembly came off a car that was wrecked far worse than yours was., or maybe yours was hit really bad before you got it.. How does it fit on the other side, in the trunk?

Doug

kwkenuf

Interesting... I don't have a side view pic of the hinge handy right now to determine if it is bent but I'll certainly check when I get home. I matched the left and right hinge towers up side to side looking for obvious defects and didn't see anything but based on your comments I better look a bit closer.
To answer Doug's question, the trunk hinge portion of that side tower looks and works fine and the trunk has no alignment issues. The passenger side also looks good and works well....
Here's hoping that a blue tipped wrench will help solve this issue... Thanks for the help so far and if anyone else has ideas, I'm all ears..

aworks

You may not be able to see it. But based on the fact the other side is ok and the deck lid fits I'm pretty sure you need to heat and bend that hinge to fit.

kwkenuf

Thanks for the suggested fix. I'll "heat and beat" on it and report back here with the results. Unfortunately I'll be out of town for a bit so this fix will have to wait...

kwkenuf

Reporting back after 3+ months.... At this rate I should finish the car by 2050 or so...

I tried to "heat and beat" the offending arm back into shape but after several attempts I was only a little better off.....

I tried to locate replacement parts at the major vendors but was also unsuccessful... Priced 61-62 hinge towers lately? $$$ and no one had any to sell me anyway...

This is where participating in this forum paid off... big time... I noticed a "What is this" post by Scotty T and low and behold was a pic of the exact part I needed.... Scotty was also willing to part with it for a price and it arrived yesterday. I immediately swapped the arms and voila! Problem solved, panel fits and has plenty of room for adjustment..... Thanks Scotty T! And also thanks to everyone else who contributed ideas and a solution to this issue... Aint the InterWeb great?

jimh_1962

congrats! Sounds like it worked out perfectly for you.