Graemeinvette

Some weeks ago I read a thread about adjustment of the body to line up with the front of the hood. I was interested since the front of my hood sits proud of the body by about 1/4". The answer was that there was an adjuster under the front bodywork which could carefully be raised to bring the hood into line.

Well I searched with my head upside down in the front of the engine bay, I lay under the front of the car looking up until my wife thought I had fallen asleep, :sleep: but I could find nothing that looked like an adjuster :confused: Can anybody help me with a sketch or a picture? :confused:

Stewart's74

There is no adjuster. What you will most likely have to do is experiment with shims under the hood hinges. Also, there is a support bar that runs from the rad support to the headlight support bar. If this is absent, it may cause the front hood surround to sit low. When I attached mine, after a rebuild of the headlight support, it raised it front up at least 1/4 inch.

Graemeinvette

That sounds a bit more like what I have, I :smash: I will check the support frame, next time I get into the garage. Thanks :cheers: :cheers:

JB

Chances are, you'll have to do what I had to do, and that's get hinges that have been cut and rewelded to lower them (a fellow forum member did a set for me). I tried the other stuff (the easiest is to put washers under the rear bolts on the hinges to tilt the hinges down), but only got very slight changes in height. With the cut-down hinges, I now have perfect alignment.

JB

sb69coupe

JB, glad to hear it worked out for you :cheers:

If the front edge of the hood is too high, I don't think there's any other EASY way to drop the front more than about 1/8" at the most. Maybe I should go into the hood hinge business :D

Graemeinvette

Its a bit more complex than that, since the front of the hood is only too high in the centre, the outside edges align OK. Its kind of like the nose section has flattened in the centre.

vettedreams

How much for a set of hinges? Cut that is!

rickales

I paid $25 each for a NEW hinges from Corvette Central, and $45 each for the modification. Saved the originals just in case.

sb69coupe

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: Great Googley Moogley!

I just did the mods for JB for the cost of postage. I sold a set of modded hinges to "1970 Stingray" for $20. Looks like I was undercutting the competition.

At $45 each I could be rich, FABULOUSLY wealthy! <Insert diabolical Evil Genius laugh here>

paintdaddy

I dont think youll fix that with adjustments.There is a U shaped bracket that runs from the front of the front end to the frame that can be adjusted ,but if you bring it up to match the middle then the nose will be higher than the sides.Was it always like this or did it happen recently?The only fix I can think of is to start filling and reglassing some areas to line it up. :seeya

Graemeinvette

With no magic "adjuster" I thought that this might be the case. Its been like this since I got it some 7 years ago, but I have spotted areas of the dreaded Filler (Bondo?) at one front corner so maybe the dreaded Bubba was here.
Going to do the bodywork this year so once the paint comes off all will be revealed! Thanks for all the info guys. :cheers: :cheers:

rickales

Does anyone have a picure or illustration of this "magic" front end to hood alignment rod? I'd like to see exactly what you are talking about. I've heard legends that the 69 and ups have such a device but I don't the the 68s do.

Maybe one of you 69ers could scan the appropriate AIM page? Is this any easy mod for a 68?
:steering:
Thanks,

paintdaddy

Ill try to take a pic of the 68 that Ive got at my shop .Its just a big U shaped bracket that is about a foot long .The only way I knew about thais was that when my 68 was dissassembled it slouched in the front and I had to lift up on it to get that bracket to line up. :seeya

JB

Thanks again for that Shannon. One of the quickest cleanest fixes I've ever done on a vette. Bolted right in and BINGO, perfect alignment. I didn't mention your name above 'cause I didn't know if you'd care for a bunch of requests coming your way, but looks like you got a business opportunity here. :cheers: I've seen several cars with the hood too high could use your fix. BTW, beautiful welds--couldn't even see where they'd been cut.

JB

Graemeinvette

PaintDaddy,
This is starting to make sense to me. I know the bracket you are talking about, slackenng it and easing it up should raise the centre first of all.

I shal look at this carefully before I do it though.

Thanks. :cheers: :cheers:

WashingtonRacer

Wait a minute here, perhaps it's your front extension peice, it may be pushed up too far and "stressing the fron nose causeing it to bow up in the middle" you have the 4 bolts on each side in front of the front wheels in the wheel well. You could try loosening them a bit and push your front end down a bit. or check out the front nose mount to the extension, if moving it up and down works, then you could either leave it like that or get a smaller cushon for the front. "they like to have the nose body mount the same height as the front "firewall" mounts. I could be wrong though.

rickales

quote:
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$45 each for the modification.
Great Googley Moogley!

I just did the mods for JB for the cost of postage. I sold a set of modded hinges to "1970 Stingray" for $20. Looks like I was undercutting the competition.

At $45 each I could be rich, FABULOUSLY wealthy! <Insert diabolical Evil Genius laugh here>


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How much for ten sets of modified hinges? I know some guys who may be interested.