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Expert
Posts: 2264
  
Location: McComb, Mississippi | I'm having trouble getting the hood aligned on my 63 imperial. The drivers side has no binding at the cowl but the passenger side has some serious overlap. The hinges are adjustable as well as the hood. I need some advice on this because im getting frustrated. I've looked in the manual and it is no help. |
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Expert
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Location: Hay Lakes, Alberta, Canada | How are your hinges? Worn rivets? |
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Expert
Posts: 2264
Location: McComb, Mississippi | The hinges look fine. One was bent so I replaced it with one from a parts car. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 8947
Location: WHEELING,WV.>>>HOME OF WWVA | is this after a resto --------------------------------------------later |
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Expert
Posts: 2264
Location: McComb, Mississippi | Nope. Just removed the hood to replace a bent hinge and aid in engine removal. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 8443
Location: Perth Australia | Hinge is from the same model car?
Is the side thats giving you grief the side you put the new hinge on?
If the hinge came from something different, theres your problem
If it came from the same model, but its that side, its adjustment and you know where the bolts are already, adjust it
If you later say you did something else (oops, forgot to say, I had to swap a fender as well), all bets are off 
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1102
Location: Hayward, Calif | I feel your pain as I am fighting the same problem with the 59 Dodge I'm working on. I too read the FSM, several times looking for an answer. There is one paragraph that mentions spacing the frt fender out away from the hood. It didn't say anything about shimming the fender at the rad support. Don't know how the fender can be moved outward without shimming at the rad support. My next thought is to loosen that big rad support mount bolt and see if I can shift the rad support over slightly, dragging the front of the fenders with it. I also took a close look at the hood itself to see if it might be sprung slightly out of shape. I don't know how much of a curve that Imp. hood has, but another thought I have is to connect something to the near front underside of hood and try to pull it like a bow string and give the hood a bit more curve. In hopes of getting driver side, hood to fender clearance. This sounds a bit radical so am saving that as a very last resort. Hope this has been of some help, but I do know this is getting to be a Royal PITA. Jerry |
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Expert
Posts: 2264
Location: McComb, Mississippi | The hinge came from another 63imperial. No fender has been tweaked because the fenders and front cap are all one piece. Its adjustment that is incorrect. I guess it'll just take some playing around to get it correct. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 8947
Location: WHEELING,WV.>>>HOME OF WWVA | there's a lot of directions it'll move to get it straight , just sometimes ya gotta get the right combination of moves------------------------------------------------later |
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Expert
Posts: 1208
Location: SWITZERLAND | Some guides as shown here may help. Good luck - SERGE - http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=23691&start=23 |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 8443
Location: Perth Australia | Look at the webbing of the hood carefully as well
I was just thinking bent hinge. A hood I bought for my dodge looked fine (needing paint) so I went and prepped it all and painted it and it came out great.
Looking at the reflections in the paint, it looked like a big green curved mirror, brilliant.
Fitted it to the dodge as the final painted piece and went to align it. No matter what I did, it always sat up on the left side. I then started to think about it, the reason I wasnt using the original hood was (apart from the rust) someone had tried to close it quickly and although the hinges were fine, the rust had weakened the hood and it folded at a oval hole in the webbing (very weak spot when you look at the design) and when I looked at the hood I was trying to fit, there it was, the oval hole had small folds in it and the edges of the holes were all wrong. This was right at the highest point of where it wouldnt line up.
I tried to fix it by putting blocks of wood at the front of the hood and pushing down where its bent, tried putting a 3x2 piece of wood between the hood and a roof beam and lifting it ect ect even cut the frame (so the oval could get bigger) and welded up the void, nothing worked, then I burnt the paint on the outer skin (with the welder) and gave up
I ended up using another hood that fits fine (although I really should go around and re gap the car) and the old shiny one is in the garage with old rusty fenders leaning on it.
I would be VERY careful trying to "re curve" you hood as it will bent at those ovals (if yours has them) and will be useless
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Expert
Posts: 1737
Location: Hay Lakes, Alberta, Canada | I'd suspect worn rivets. The hinge may look fine, but if the holes have a slight oval to them, the rivets move a bit, and it puts the geometry out of wack. Both of my '57 Chryslers, and my Caddy have that issue. I've had the hinges re-built for my 2 door, but I'm not far enough along to install them. |
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Hood alignment
