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I put an original ‘63 hood on my 63 (which for some reason had a 64 hood. Driver side lines up perfect but at hinge and at top latch the hood is about 3/8 of an inch higher than fender body. Center on the passenger side is good. Hood is was taken down to fiberglass and didn’t look to have issues. Is it common for hoods in that era to have some such gaps? I can take a shower out from hinge but the center is low and latch is still high. I can post pictures if needed.
You are confusing the terms, "flush" and "margin". Which is it?
How did the '64 hood fit? The '63 hood should fit the same unless someone has done some midnight fantom bodywork to either the hood or the right side of your car.
There is some adjustment on the latch by the firewall. Also, did you check to see if there were shims under the hinge? I have seen people sand down the fiber glass under the hinge or even mill a little off the bottom of the hinge. Pics would be a big help.
Therr is one shim which i can remove but that would make center portion be below fender. The prior hood fit flush to body line with the fender. Gap down by hinge is like 1/4 inch or more. Top by latch is smaller. No midnight body work to my knowledge. . Attaching pictures. Top passenger side by latch Bottom passenger corner by hinge Same shot by hinge w/o reference finger Center where hood is flush with fender
JAO,
You can lower the front edge of your hood by adding a shim under the edge of the hinge that is the toward the firewall. I have used some A arm alignment shims that are available in a verity of thicknesses and that will allow you to tune the downward movement. Works like magic - no milling or sanding required. Found this trick right here on our forum.
I don't think a hinge adjustment is going to correct that front corner edge of the hood. The hood corner fiberglass is just way off of the contour of the surround at that corner. The hood appears to have much less forward and lateral side curvature and is just too flat to flush out with the surround. At the upper, latch area it would seem some of that offset ould be taken out with adjusting the latch - but that would pull the center part of the hood side down below the fender. Most of the time a little irregular fit on the side of the hood/fender gap can be corrected by splitting the bond seam of the fender gutter to the inner wheel well, shimming the fender it to match the hood and then injecting bonding adhesive back in the joint. In this case that doesn't look like the solution. That hood is going to take some serious body work to make it fit right IMO.
Last edited by DansYellow66; 11-19-2018 at 10:30 PM.
I am going to guess body work at some point in the cars history. If you adjusted it flat to 1/16" low at the firewall it would probably be high all the way down to the front hinge corner. The fix is not In the hood but in the inner fender to surround panel bond.
Looking at applying heat to possibly re-shape the hood or possibly separating skin from the frame and re-bonding in the correct position.
Fortunately, I'm working with raw fiberglass - no paint.
You want to adjust the hood to fit at top and bottom and separate the bond of the surround fenders to the inner wheel wells and shim the middle area of the fenders to flush with the hood - then re-bond.
Another possibility is the lower corner down by the parking light took a good hit sometime in it's past which will tend to fold the corner down and under to various degrees depending on how hard it was hit. If they don't get the upper surround corner jacked back into place before doing the fiberglass work on the lower corner around the parking light it will end up like that. In other words the hood is OK but the corner of the surround is rolled down by prior damage. Should be apparent from standing back and looking straight on at the car. Sometimes the leading edge of the wheel opening is pushed back closer to the tire to or has been trimmed off. I had a 66 years ago that had this issue on the driver side from an incident that damaged the parking light area.
I never heard an answer to MikeM's question... How did the '64 hood fit ?
If the nose had been "folded down" in a hit I would think it would be reflected in the headlight bucket fit -- which looks pretty good IMO...
Last edited by Frankie the Fink; 11-20-2018 at 07:34 AM.
Recommend you use a straight edge to measure the hood curvature on the driver side and compare it to the hood pass side. If the same, you have a surround issue. If different, as in flatter on the pass side, you have a hood issue. Then proceed from there.
You can’t transfer of the cookie sheets onto a 64 hood without it looking seriously pathetic. There’s a second recess in a 63 hood to drop the pans flush with the hood. Believe it or not if you store a hood for many years it can change shape depending on how it was stored either too flat for two curved. My guess is that hood was stored Wrong or it is another fine reproduction. An original 63 no hit body and an original 63 no damage hood will fit together perfectly. If everything was stored correctly. When the cars have had damage a good body shop will make the hood fit the car no matter where the damage was. And if you try to put a different hood onto that same car thy usually do not fit. There are many Corvettes out there that have that same problem because of poor repair.
" Believe it or not if you store a hood for many years it can change shape depending on how it was stored either too flat for two curved. My guess is that hood was stored Wrong or it is another fine reproduction."
So, how is one supposed to store a hood? I have my original hood stored in the closet standing on the firewall edge. It has been there for years. Just wondered because it fit the car perfectly when I took it off for a BB hood.
11-19-2018, 03:03 PM
Hood Alignment
. Attaching pictures. 
