need help adjusting my hood

[Ryan]

Hi, so I am trying to get my hood to line up on my charger. It lones up great everywhare except the passenger side. The hood has a different arc to it than the fender does, the hood rises up a little bit more in the middle. My question is how do I flatten up the hood so it is even with the fender?
    Thanks alot

[daytonalo]

Without seeing it in person its tough , although its not out of the ordinary to have to twist doors and hoods to make fit correctly . You might try removing hood and blocking it up on the ends and gibing a very , very slight push down , this has worked for me in the past . Larry

[Chryco Psycho]

you may have to put shims under the lip of the fender to push it up to match

[bill440rt]

I had a siliar situation with the hood on my Project '69, however it's on the driver's side.

Try this:
Place a small piece of a 2x4 on edge at the front of the hood, parallel with the fender. Gently apply downward pressure on the hood at the bow. BE CAREFUL! Do it several times if you have to, until it is where you want it. Just work slowly & carefully, & keep checking your progress..

[Ryan]

Thanks i'll give that a shot. Question, the underside of the hood is painted, and the top is primed do you think any of it will crack? It needs to come down about an 1/8th of an inch.

[bill440rt]

1/8th of an inch?? That shouldn't be a problem at all. Unless it's really caked with bondo.
Primer, you're OK.

[Ryan]

cool, there is no bondo on that part of the hood, just metal then epoxy primer, and surfacer primer!

[Ryan]

I had a siliar situation with the hood on my Project '69, however it's on the driver's side.

Try this:
Place a small piece of a 2x4 on edge at the front of the hood, parallel with the fender. Gently apply downward pressure on the hood at the bow. BE CAREFUL! Do it several times if you have to, until it is where you want it. Just work slowly & carefully, & keep checking your progress..

I tried this, but no luck. The rear of the hood just goes down when I push down. I need to support the rear somehow. Think I may have to take the hood off, and try and adjust it, then reinstall and check it.... that is going to take some time.

[daytonalo]

BOTTLE ROCKETS

[mopar_madman]

what year car? have the panels been replaced at all? When you align remeber its gonna change when you but you body bumpers on (ir there not on already) Like chryco said you may need to shim the fender up under the area where the bolts attach. Sometimes its just a difference in the panel. My 73 had a replacement fender put on the drivers side earlier in its life and it wasn't a perfect match the way the other side was.

[resq302]

We had a problem like this on our 71 Buick GS convert.  Seems that people didn't lubricate the hinges over the years which caused the hinges to get tight.  When the hood needed to be lowered, people just grabbed and pulled causing the hoods to bow at the weakest point, in the  center.  A body shop told me a way to fix this was to prop the front and rear like Bill suggested and gently push on the center area of the hood to "flatten it out".  Seemed to work for me.  If you decide to do this on the car, you could try to put a piece of wood at the rear corner and front corner of the hood to see if it will allow you to flex the center and flatten it out.

Hope it works for you.

Brian

[Ryan]

thanks for the tips. I think the hood needs to come off for this to work. Let you guys know if it works.

[Ryan]

so I took the hood off and put a stand on the front and the back of it so the middle was unsuported. I applied pressure to the middle and the sucker wouldn't bend for anything.

[TylerCharger69]

mine was the same way...i needed to shim up the center of the fender....I guess it's common for the hood to have more of a bow than the fender.   Passenger side too!!!

[Charger-Bodie]

what would you shim to take care of that on a 69 ? my suggestion is to loosen youre fender bolts and push up on the fender right at the inner lip you may even need to use a porta power just try to use a block of wood to spred out the force then tighten the fender bolts you will want to re block sand the top of the fender to be sure you didnt mess it up

[Ryan]

I really dont want to do that, but I guess I may have to. I dont want to crack the paint on my fender bolts, just re-did the engine bay last year.

[Charger-Bodie]

I really dont want to do that, but I guess I may have to. I dont want to crack the paint on my fender bolts, just re-did the engine bay last year.

.... i really dont blame you for not wanting to marr up the fender bolts but i have a feeling you may have to if you want it to fit right

[Ryan]

so whats the best way to go about loosining those bolts while doing the least amount of damage possible?

[Charger-Bodie]

so whats the best way to go about loosining those bolts while doing the least amount of damage possible?

you could use plastic sockets or just be very carful but unfortunatly if you get the fender to move uo the bolt will move up too so you are going have to touch it up or respray that part of the apron , you can do a flip edge at the bend , sand it hand polish noone would ever know if you do it right

[Ryan]

ya I guess somthing like tha would work. At least the pass side apron is very accesanble. Not a whole that that would need to be removed to spray it.

[Ryan]

ok, so I am still too scared to try adjusting the fender, how much adjustablility is there? I just dont want to mark up the bolts just to find out I cant get it adjust up enough.

[Charger-Bodie]

you are the only one you can answer that question because i cant see it , can you see any slot below or above the washer on the bolt, there is about 1/2 inch of total adjustment so if the  washer is covering the entire slot you probley have about 1/4 of an inch....good luck with it.. Brian

[Ryan]

you are the only one you can answer that question because i cant see it , can you see any slot below or above the washer on the bolt, there is about 1/2 inch of total adjustment so if the  washer is covering the entire slot you probley have about 1/4 of an inch....good luck with it.. Brian

Thanks thats exactly what I needed to know.

[Charger-Bodie]

so how did you turn out?

[bill440rt]

There is very little movement of the fender up & down in the center mounting area of the fender alongside the hood. It is mostly front to back. The only way to get it up or down is either by shimming it up by the cowl or front edge of the hood. That is going to do nothing to bow the middle, only lift up the entire fender. Unless, you use a porta-power. But, then you run the risk of either cracking fresh paint, or (heaven forbid) denting the fender. Play it safe. Also, you're gonna have to loosen almost every nut & bolt holding that fender on to get it to move, if you don't use a porta-power.

Those plastic socket inserts are junk. You can't put any torque on them or they'll slip off the bolt. Trust me, I have a set for standard & metric. Try putting a thin rag over the bolt, & then place the socket over that. It'll at least lessen the damage.

If possible, please post some pics so I can see what you're trying to do. The "bow" might not be that bad. It may even be "acceptable", quality control wasn't the greatest on these cars to begin with.

Good Luck!