johngandersonjr

I restored my father in laws 67 roadster back in 2006-2008 with help from a friend. everything on the chassis was done. body was removed. when the body was removed i did not take note of the shims.

My father in law has now passed and my wife and I inherited the car. We drive it all over and is pretty reliable, but the darn think squeaks and the body gaps are not correct. the door gasket scrapes the paint on the decklid, etc....

I know for a fact there are "zero" shims between the radiator support and the frame and if I remember correctly only a couple at each body mount.

I brought the car to a corvette repair shop and they said it would take them about 8-12 hours of work to shim the car, adjust the doors and headlight buckets

Does that sound reasonable? I am pretty mechanically inclined and would do the job if I know I will not damage the paint.

wondering if anyone has any advice. I cannot afford to paint the car at this time, so If I am going to crack the paint by doing this, I would rather wait.

Thanks!

John

DUB

Let them do it because the time they estimated seems to be in line....OR....do it yourself.

Not trying to cast any doubt on the integrity of this shop that you plan on doing the work..but I do know that a lot has to be loosened in order to get the body up enough to begin the shimming process.

DUB

johngandersonjr

I brought my 67 in to have the body shimmed and replace the hood hinges as my driver side hinge was shot.

I picked up the car and now there is a gap/high spot. It is only on the front and only between the nose and the corner.

Wondering if I need a new hood or what is up. I am not a body person.

Any advice is appreciated.

John

DUB

I doubt it is going to help this issue...but the rod that goes from the lower radiator support...up to the left headlight area...is it installed??? You also have the same type of rod for the right side.

I can see a separation in the front edge of the hood in your photo....and not knowing if this has caused the outer skin to delaminate or loose it bond to the understructure...you might need to fix that or deal with the DRAMA of another hood.

There is going to be very little to no way of raising up the top hood surround in the area due to it is bonded to the metal support beam...unless the bond is released ...raised up and bonded back....and it is not easy feat ESPECIALLY if a person is not wanting to damage the paint.

The hood looks flush at where the hood hinge is in relation to the top hood surround...so separating it and trying to raise that up would THEN cause the top hood surround by the hinge to be higher. SO...it still would not be correct if you are attempting perfection. Sometimes a person has to live with it or split the difference and have it almost perfect.

You could modify a hinge by taking it apart and welding up a hole and re-drilling it to make the hinge be a little bit lower. That will not make it PERFECT...but allow you to get it closer without making the side hood to the top hood surround sink down too much and then it looks screwed up.

I have modified a few hinges due to an issue much like this when person brings in there freshly painted Corvette done at some other shop and now want it fixed.

The shims at the radiator support to frame have ABSOLUTELY NO BEARING on this issue you have. Simply due to teh fact that the inner skirt and top hood surround are bonded...thus the mounting surface for the hinge on the inner skirt is SET and can not be adjusted.

DUB