CosmicRay

I had the hood open on my '74, propped open by the brace on the driver's side (or whatever that brace may be called).

Before I go on... let me preface this with the fact all cars I've owned in 20 years have had the hydraulic lifters which you just raised then lowered.

I think you know where I'm going next...

Yes, I went to close the hood and reflexively just pulled it down without popping the brace loose. I heard a sickening "CRUNCH" and saw roughly a 2" piece of the inner lip of the fender, the size of the bottom of the brace, which had broken out.

The best part about this is that it doesn't SEEM too hard to fix, with perhaps a little extra metal and some clever epoxy work.

Before I proceed, though, I thought I'd ask if anyone else has fixed this problem before, and how best to do it? I would imagine this happens a lot, as it wasn't too hard to break and that mounting spot is very weak.




EDIT - is there any way to edit the subject line of a thread? I just noticed the typo after hitting "submit"... sigh...

7T1vette

Your repair method is reasonable for the problem you have. Backing it up with a stiff piece of metal will provide adequate support.

I've not found how to edit the title line either. Don't worry about it; it reads fine.

P.S. Don't remove the hood, if you don't absolutely need to. That thing can be a PITA to get aligned again.

CosmicRay

Thanks, 7t. Since it's not on the outside, I figured if I epoxied a piece of metal a few inches long, and the broken pieces onto it, it should be at least as strong as it was before, and not look much different. No need to remove the hood; it goes up and down just fine, but for now I have a separate brace I'm using to hold the hood up.


It's possible this section was already cracked and my stupid closure was just more than it could take.

mrvette

Dont feel so bad man, my wife's car has a brace on the pass side that is about a foot long, and I can't tell you how many times I have bent that thing in 1/2 because I got lazy on the memory......

CosmicRay

mrv, I knew I wasn't the only one!


I would have felt better, though, if I only bent the brace/prop and didn't break a piece out of the fiberglass. But in either case, it makes you want to kick yourself! Hah!

DUB

I have repaired many this this same issue.

Without a photo of the damage I can not offer any suggestions on what I would do. I have to repair this damaged area so the owner can not tell it ever broke...but what you feel would work for you seems to be one method.

DUB

bj1k

That is a common problem and an easy fix but there is two ways to fix it , the professional way or the layman way. The professional way is to just do the whole repair with fiberglass and resin but there is a technique to doing it right so I won't begin to explain that in the amount of time that it would take but since you are just interested in making a repair that will work and simple to do you are on the right track to use metal . I assume that you are just talking about the fender lip breaking off and the inner fender attachment down below is still not broken so I will tell you how to repair the upper fender lip. You can cut a strip of 18 gauge metal about six inches long depending how long the broken part is and drill a mounting hole for the hood brace in the center area . Space out about four holes for rivets , two on each side of the center hole . Lay that piece on top aligning the mounting hole in the original spot with your broken pieces in place and drill down through the fiberglass. Now countersink the holes in the fiberglass so that the heads of the rivets will be level with the fiberglass . Apply some epoxy to the strip and put it under the lip. Rivet it in place and bond the top over the rivet heads and have your broken pieces in place so you won't be able to see the repair and install your reinforcement brace .

CosmicRay

DUB, yes, I'll post a photo soon, just haven't had a chance to do so.


bj1k, it doesn't surprise me it's common. I understand that there would be a more "proper" repair of the fiberglass. If I had a show car, and planned to take the car in for shows, that would be the way to go. I don't know if what I'm suggesting would be so much "layman way" as "the easy way" After all, the professional way sounds quite time consuming to get right; and still would leave a very weak point of support for the hood. Reinforcing with metal would at least make it a bit stronger, and could still look good to the casual observer. I very much appreciate your method, it makes sense. I was thinking perhaps about rivets, too, so that's how I will go.
Again, pics coming a bit later today.

DUB

A common misconception is that the 'professional way' is quite time consuming. YES...it takes more time than using a piece of metal and rivets. BUT...then a gain..I might have a 'biased' out look on this because I do it all the time and it is second nature for me...and not a really big deal.

And for what it is worth. GM design did perfectly fine...UNTIL the hood support where it gets bolted to the side of the inner skirt gets loose. When it does this..it then allows pressure to be exerted on the flange of the top hood surround where the top bolt for the hood support gets secured..and with this repetitive movement..it fatigues the fiberglass/SMC and causes it to break. If the hood support is correctly installed...it will never cause the flange to break. And that is assuming that the bond between the top hood surround and the inner skirt is still strong. Because IF IT IS NOT...it will flex and even cause for further damage if it repaired....regardless of the method. UNLESS a thick piece of metal is bent to almost a 90 degree angel and bolted to the inner skirt and take the entire top hood surround flange out on the equation.

DUB

CosmicRay

DUB, yes, sometimes the professional way might not be prohibitively difficult, especially for those experienced with it. My take in this instance isn't necessarily just the repair of the glass, but all the finish and repainting which would go along with it. It might be quite a different story had the car yet to go to the paint shop.


I don't quite follow your explanation about the support getting loose causing this to happen, though. Sure, fatigue could play a huge issue but that would seem to require a lot of hood opening and closing to play a role. Plus I didn't see anything loose on the supports; the piece of lip which broke out was solidly bolted to the bottom of the prop. For now I just unbolted it from the hood and removed it so it doesn't get in the way, until I fix it.

DUB

YES...fatigue plays a huge role....without a doubt...a lot of opening and closing does have a lot to do with it...along with when the hood is raised and supported...it is applying downward pressure...just by its design. AND that can be accelerated by pulling down on the hood when it has not been correctly released when lowering it....which I see happen often when owner lowers their hood and does not get the support pulled back so it can scissor back without catching and putting stress in this area....AND if the bolts are slightly loose....it can further increase the potential of damage. If the bonding adhesive has also been stressed..it just add to it also.

Many factors can cause this...the 'trick' is catching it before it breaks.

DUB

CosmicRay

Yep... and that's how it broke out, when I pulled the hood closed when the support had not been released. Stupid me. I had pulled on the upper edge of the hood, making for a huge lever pressing straight down on the locked support. So... crunch.


Here's the pic. As I mentioned I already unbolted it from the hood itself at the time this was taken so I'm holding it out to the side a little for greater clarity.

bj1k

Looking at that picture it looks like there are more cracks further out which complicates things a little to just do the simple repair that I previously described. At this point I would suggest that you have it professionally repaired by someone with the fiberglass experience or it will just break again.