lester69

Can anyone help me move the wiper door and vent grills closer to windshield on 69 vert, hood hitting vent panel

Thanks in advance

grybdn

you should be able to loosen the 6 screws holding the grill down, and move it back a little, slide cardboard, match books in there to hold in place, b4 you tighten the screws.

Burgundy 69

There are several adjustments you can make here.

Assuming that you have already looked at the obvious fix (loosen screws on vent and move it back), you may need to adjust the position of the wiper door. Sounds easy, but it gets complicated.

If you look at the W/D stainless trim, the edge closest to the windshield should be aligned relatively close to the fender trim. If yours is not, ie. W/D trim is 1/4" or more forward of the fender trim, your shims (see below) are probably missing.


There are two plates with rounded corners located on either end of the fire wall. Bolts attached to the W/D mechanism pass through the firewall and into these plates to secure the unit to the firewall from inside the engine compartment.

If your wiper door has ever been out of the car (I suspect they all have at some point), chances are that the flat shims used behind the firewall in the wiper bay (where you can't see them) are missing (they probably fell down inside the duct work when the mechanism was removed the first time). If the shims are missing, the mechanism/door will move naturally mount toward the nose/hood when reinstalled.

Although you can fabricate new shims out of sheetmetal, you could probably get away with using a set of washers. I purchased my shims from Gary at Caladonia a while back.

The complicated part here is that in order to add the shims, you need to remove the entire W/D mechanism. The shims sit on the bolts that pass through the firewall into the engine compartment. This will require you to:

1) unbolt the rod that activates the electric wiper switch. Not a biggie.

2) unbolt and remove the wiper door actuator. Again, not a biggie, but a pain never the less.

3) remove the nuts holding the two plates (with rounded corners) at each end of the firewall. not a biggie, but don't drop the nuts and be sure to put the plates aside now.

4) with someone holding at each end, slowly remove the wiper door mechanism by rotating forward being careful not to chip the paint on the door or the fenders!!!

5) once mechanism is out, add shims to both ends and temporarily replace the mechanism to check for alignment and proper gap. With proper shims, the mechanism/door will move back toward the windshield and align pretty closely with the fender trim. Of course, this assumes that the fender trim is properly seated in the first place.

6) before bolting everything back up, tighten the nuts holding the W/D mechanism in place at the firewall and put the door down. Close the hood then carefully slide the vent into position. Check the clearences on both sides (front and back) of the vent. Since the vent has slotted holes, you have some room for adjustment either way (forward or back).

While you are at it, this would be a good time to check left/right alignment of the hood/vent/wiper door. These items should be aligned so that the gap stays straight from the nose of the hood all the way back to the W/D trim.

Since the vent actually screws onto the W/D mechanism brackets, you don't have much play between the W/D and vent. You do have control of the alignment of the W/D mechanism though. Before tightening the nuts you can slide the mechanism both left or right on the firewall. Since proper alignment depends on both the hood and W/D, I would attempt to align to the hood, although that could certainly be off as well. If the hood is not properlyaligned, you need to decide whether you want to open that can of worms (adjusting the hood ock pins, etc...).

After checking for alignment, etc. remove the vent, tighten the wiperdoor, close the hood, place the vent back in again (double checking alignment. Now that the W/D mechanism is in solid, you want to be sure that the vent still sits properly. Once satisfied, reinstall the actuator and the electrical switch actuator.

One last thing. I found that the threads, where the screws hold the vent to the mechanism, were stripped on my car. Several years ago, a forum member was selling a screw kit which replaced the original screws. The kit included brass studs (drilled out old threads in mechanism and tapped in new stud). If still available, this will tighten up the vent.

Well, hope I didn't scare you off. It's not a hard job and it's worth doing.

Mark

lester69

Thanks alot I really appreciate the information , knowledge and time you took helping me, I printed it and will take it to the garage with me.

Thanks again
Lee

Burgundy 69

I hope I have been helpful. My system has been in and out of the car several times, and I believe that I have probably encountered every issue possible.

Mark