Fitting a Hood

[Rimcanyon]

I am looking for some advice from the forum experts. The hood on my Conv. D is bowed about ¼"-on the passenger side. I am looking for the right way to correct the bow. I can take some pictures, but the bow is very even from rear to front, highest in the center of the side. The hood curve needs to be relaxed on that side. I am thinking that the issue is that the hood was kinked at some point years ago and the frame has since been repaired a couple of times, very poorly I might add. I recently welded the frame on both sides to improve on the poor repairs, but I did not correct the bow (I may have made it worse).

The drivers side fits quite well except for one issue: the hinge bottoms out when the front of the hood is about 1" from closing, so the last 1" flexes the hood in the rear driver's side corner. I have the hood angled as far down as it will go in relation to the hinge, which is not a lot. i.e. an angled punch still fits through the alignment holes. I may have to do some grinding on the hinge bracket to get the hood angled down a bit more (so that the front makes contact earlier).

My plan to fix the bow on the passenger side is to cut some slots part-way through the concave frame, then weld some small wedges in to flatten the arch.

[Rimcanyon]

I measured the bow on the passenger side, and it is more like 150mm, 9/16".

I'm thinking that a bending jig might be required, so that the final shape can be set prior to welding . e.g. by welding anchor points at the front and passenger corner (to add tension for stretching) to the frame, then slitting the frame and using some gentle clamps to achieve final shape and avoid buckling. Welding to expand the frame seems like the safest option, but I would be interested in hearing from the experts. Maybe an experienced 356 body man could bend this back into shape by hand .

[Rimcanyon]

Just for completeness, here are some photos of the prior welding I did on this hood:

The pop rivet mess it came with on the passenger side:

Sheet metal stiffeners welded on:

Stiffener welded to the driver's side:


Final result before filling:

[JTR70]

Hello, The substructure repair that was completed will have to be cut in order for the hood to relax back down into contour with the body. Once its cut, fit it back onto the car to dial in the needed contour. You'll have to come up with some way to "hold" that shape while its rewelded. John Brooks did a really nice repair in exactly the same spot. you can find it here.

Red 65SC gets floor and battery box - ABCGT Forum

[Rimcanyon]

Thanks Justin. That's how you learn, I guess. I will do what you recommend and post some photos as I go along.

-Dave

[Jbrooks]

Dave

I did not see the underside photos before the below post. Cut out the old repair, and replace it. Do you have a die gringer and a bead roller or access to one.

That one is not too bad.

Mark the hinges or use a pin through the alignment holes so you can put it back on in the d=same place. . remove the hood,

If there are not any kinks or big bends you might try just bending the hood. I have done them over my knee. or you can place a couple 2x4's across the area of the hump. and use a clamp to re-bend it back in to position. YOU make a slight arc in the upper 2x4 close to hood arc you want to achieve. You can draw a line from the other side of the hood, mirror the bad spot only plus a foot either side of the kink. Use the left side to copy, cut it with a band saw. Sand the edges soft put a rag between the wood and hood, Then use several C clamps to press the side back into the arc. I have some big F clamps for this. Start at the windshield side, one clamp at a time and slowly squeeze it back. Then let it rest for a couple hours under pressure. You need to just stretch it back out.

Then when putting it back to testing. put some tape over the locking latch hole, and be sure its is centered before tightening up the hinges.

Upload photos of the underside stiffener. then after they are up and listed by file name in the edit box. put the cursor in the text where you want a photo to go, then click "Medium or Large" next to the photo link. that will insert a bigger photo into the text box.

Its not hard, its metal.
John

[Rimcanyon]

Dave

I did not see the underside photos before the below post. Cut out the old repair, and replace it. Do you have a die gringer and a bead roller or access to one.

Die grinder yes, bead roller no. I have a sheetmetal brake but no capability to do curved surfaces except by hand. A hammer, vise and a piece of round stock make do.

Upload photos of the underside stiffener. then after they are up and listed by file name in the edit box. put the cursor in the text where you want a photo to go, then click "Medium or Large" next to the photo link. that will insert a bigger photo into the text box.

Its not hard, its metal.
John

John, thanks for explaining how to post images. The forum software doesn't seem to like Macs much, lots of strange errors, but I'll figure it out.

Dave

[Jbrooks]

Dave

If you think MAC's are bad try an iPad.

The slices will work, We just cut out the old section and replaced it. Added photos, no filler or lead, just polish the welds. There was too much Braze and extra holes in ours. Trevor's Hammer works can make you a section ( https://www.356panels.com/hoods.html ) I got a complete B hood form him a few years back, it was excellent. He can probably make you a section from the hinge forward a foot or so and you can trim it to fit. give him a call he always answers the phone.

[Rimcanyon]

John - thats what I hope to do after seeing your repair. Thanks for taking the time to teach me the right way to do it.

I already ordered a right corner frame from Restoration HW. I asked them to extend the side so it would be long enough, they said they would.

[Jbrooks]

Dave

when you get the new corner, don’t cut up under the hinge mount any further than you need to. If you remove the hinge, leave 3- 4 rivets minimum, so you can realign the hinge mount. The metal up that far is probably fine. Also double check the radius profile on the corner, it may require some tweaking to get it to match your hood.

And two miles from the track, that’s nice..

[Jbrooks]

Also while you have your hood off, look at the stars and lock mechanism for wear. Easy to repair while it’s apart anyway. The wavy spring washers usually give up by now and need replacing. They press the star over by the trigger so it can latch, any lateral movement will cause it to fail to latch. Then measure them in the locked position for parallel so they don’t stress the hood when open. A little light file work now, saves you later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p569In_XFzY

[Rimcanyon]

I had the hinges out a couple of weeks ago. I did not see any wave washers. I ground the flats on the stars so they would engage and slide into position a bit easier. I also adjusted the hinges for angle a bit, primarily because the right hinge was bottoming out before the hood was completely down and the hinge star wheels were not disengaging at the same point. I adjusted each hinge using an inclinometer, and they ended up about 6 degrees below horizontal.

I got the part from Restoration Design, but unfortunately it wasn't what I had asked for (the corner side was too short to span the kink). I called and Josh is sending another one with an extended side.

[JTR70]

Thats an evolutionary change John. Pre-a and 356A hinge stars and action levers are twice the thickness with no spring washers. Later B&C hinges where half the thickness (and lighter) with those spring washers your describing that pushed everything to one side and into alignment.

[Rimcanyon]

My 59 hood hinges have no spring washers. I am still waiting for Restoration design to send the hood frame part, patience is the name of the game.

I removed the windshield today since it was cracked. Unfortunately the bottom ⅜" of the left side post broke off when the bolt was unscrewed, so I will have to weld on an extension. The side walls were really thin and rusted and the bolt threads were rusted to the post. Always something unexpected lurking where you least expect it. I tried to remove the post from the window frame but was not successful and didn't want to make matters worse. Disassembling the D windshield frame was interesting: after removing the bolt on top with the locating divot, there were two additional hidden screws that hold the side to the top. One is inside the rubber channel and one is behind the rubber door window gasket channel.

With the windshield off I removed the dash cover partially to see what shape the dash was in, since there were some ugly lumps under the vinyl. Surprising how much rust there was in each corner between the vinyl and the dash top. No rust had come through to the backside of the dash, but almost. I like the patina of the original vinyl, so I will grind off the rust and paint with epoxy primer then I may reinstall the vinyl. The top two studs that hold the eyebrow to the dash were missing. The remaining two studs had wood threads on the end that attaches to the eyebrow and a 4mm or 5mm threaded end with a 9mm atf nut on the other end.

[Rimcanyon]

The hood frame corner arrived from RD. The picture shows the normal corner and the special corner they made (RD does not offer the straight frame part).



After making one cut on the right corner, the hood relaxed quite a bit, but there are still problems to fix to get it to fit nicely.



The hood is sitting in place, no rubber gasket. The tape shows the points of contact. It also contacts in front right. When the front is lifted the hood pivots at the two points of contact in the rear.



Both rear corners and the rear of the hood are high.



The front right is low:


Need to do some more cutting of the frame to relax the rear on both sides. Not sure what to do about the front right being low (twist) so I will leave it for now. The plan is to first make a cut in the left rear frame, check progress and look at points of contact, work on the points of contact so there is more clearance for the rubber gasket, then make additional cuts to relax the hood to fit. Then make a wood form that matches the hood contour on each side and re-weld with the hood clamped to the form, checking as I go. Always trying something new.