1957 Hood Adjustment

[Blubau]

My hood fit great before I left it in the open position for the past 4 months. When I recently closed it the front was high about 1/2” and the rear was shifted to the right about 1”. I have the grill removed and was able to get the driver’s side hinge adjusted to lower the hood and I can push the hood down on the right side which shifts the back of the hood into correct position. So before I mess with the hinge to hood bolts I thought to ask the forum for help.

Is there a process to lower the front of the hood? I am thinking the front adjustment bolt is moved higher and the rear moved lower to change the angle? That is what seemed to lower the driver’s side when that was high. I can’t see any way to accomplish this except to remove the hood, manually move the hinge and then reinstall the hood. I can’t see any place to pry or to manually move it with the spring pressure.

Is there a reason that leaving the hood open would cause this and can someone explain the hood adjustment process better than the manual. In the 1956 Manual it say push down on the hood to lower the front.

Thank you in advance,

Bill

 

[Goldwinghg]

I leave my hood open all the time,and my battery tender on my battery. I've ever had an issue with the alignment. The hinges, .might be loose. Do you see any way to adjust the front hinges. I would think they must have work loose.

 

[Blubau]

There are four bolts behind the grill and four that attach to the hood that encompass the hinge to body and hinge to hood points.

I’ve been adjusting the four behind the grill and got the driver’s side to lower, but the passenger side won’t adjust. I think the front bolt needs to move upward in the slot but I don’t see any way to force it to move.

On rear hinge cars you loosen the bolts and then raise the hood and that forces the rear downward. But, I am not familiar with front hinge hood adjustment. I’ll be back at work tomorrow and give it a fresh look.

 

[Tom Alpers]

It would seem to me that the four behind the grill would be the ones to raise and lower the front of the hood and the ones on the hood itself would be the ones to position it properly fore and aft. I have left my hood open for extended periods and it's never affected the hood alignment. I would suspect either the bolts were loose and the hinge moved or someone banged into the hood while it was open and bent something. Especially if you are now finding you can't get it back into adjustment with the bolts and slots that are provided for the adjustment. They allowed it to be in adjustment before.

 

[Blubau]

To get the hood aligned it required the removal of the rubber bumpers that support the closed hood. After removing those and using the procedure from the 1956 Ford Car Service Manual I was able to get the front lowered. I will have a little more adjusting to do for the best fit within the hole and for the hood to rear to latches to mesh.

The process in the manual is to loosen the 4 bolt behind the grill and then push down on the front of the hood. I had been doing this with no luck. Removing the rubber hood bumpers allowed the front to drop below the surround and then when opened and closed it was level.

 

[Gary Graham]

Thank you, BluBau. I have the same problem. I will give it a shot

 

[Blubau]

Gary, Once you do this adjustment watch while the hood is opened to make sure it clears the body to prevent paint chips. I have my grill removed so the bolts were easy to reach. In the manual it shows that removal of the round plate below and in front of the radiator support is the access point for those bolts.

 

[Blubau]

I’m back again to add more in depth information. I spent the day working to get the hood as close as possible and success after 4 hours of patient experimentation.

Hood Springs:
Yesterday I had found the front hinge springs were bunked up and had lubed them with white lithium grease. While pondering why the hood doesn’t always close exactly the same I guessed that there’s grit in the spring coil binding it and causing the issue. Today I took a wire “toothbrush” (TIg welding stainless brush) and some WD-40 and thoroughly cleaned the springs. I opened and closed the hood as I was cleaning and I could now hear the springs binding and then releasing. So, I cleaned until it was even and lubed with the white lithium.

Rotated the hood:
I had the front of the hood adjusted level, but the rear of the hood was still too far to the driver’s side and I had to use the rear pegs to get the hood to center and latch. So, I loosened the four bolts on the hood and grabbed the hood, while open, and “reefed it” with all my might to move it clockwise, then tightened the bolts.

Rear Tapered Peg alignment:
Now I needed to set the rear tapered pegs to slide into the latches. I placed a 20mm deep socket on the latch opening and then slowly moved the hood to contact the socket opening. When it was out of alignment I adjusted and used the socket for the guide, until they were set to slide into the hinge hole. But, not so fast. I removed the peg side of the latched off the hood and loosened the adjusting nut (3/4”) to allow me to set the hood height. I also cleaned the tapered pegs since they were painted. While reinstalling the peg mounts I found that they have an angle and need to be installed with the thicker side toward the front of the car. Otherwise they won’t be close and you will not be able to adjust them enough.

Adjusting the front hood height:
Now I am back to adjusting the front of the hood height again. I wasn’t happy with the previous results after the spring clean and lube, hood rotation, and rear peg alignment. So, here I go again and not too excited about this very frustrating portion of the story. But, all ends well and this will give future readers a proven method. Previously I had been trying to get the front hood hinge (at the body attachment point) furthest front bolt higher in the bracket thinking this would rotate the hinge to assist in lower the front hood height. But, I was unable to get it higher in the slot than half way up. So, this time I loosed the bolts and then allowed the hood to drop as low as it would go. (Be careful not to hit the body). I then tested the hood fit and the hood was low, but that also made the hood rotate counter clockwise in the opening. So, height good but too tight at the bottom left and upper right. Then I loosened the bolts and pulled the hinge up as high as it would go and now the hood was high at the front and the alignment shifted clockwise. The solution is: with the front hinge at the body pulled up as high as possible in the slots I latched the rear of the hood aligning it within the opening using the pegs; then latched to get it centered. Then I loosened the front hinge to body bolts and pushed down on the hood, just like it says in the service manual. And the hood front dropped just below level which is important since operating the hood raises it slightly. I tightened the bolts and operated the hood and it was at the perfect height and slid into the rear pegs and latched with a 2-finger push on the driver’s side.

It was a lot of work figuring out the solution, but worthwhile having a nicely fit hood.