Hood Part 3

January 10, 2016 -

  Most of this was actually done yesterday but I wrapped up the hood latches today.  The only odd thing I found was the metal brackets that are the "catch" for the swinging lever under the hood needed holes bigger than the 7/64" drill bit the manual recommended. Other than that it was pretty straightforward.  I did go with the manual's recommendation when drilling the big 5/8" holes through the hood of stepping up in drill bit size slowly and using reverse for the larger bits.  I also used some masking tape on the top side of the hood to help prevent chipping. Maybe it helped. Unless you have a *really* big chip, the hood handles will cover up divots around the edge of your holes.

Hood Part 2

January 9, 2016 -

  While the hood was mounted, it wasn't aligned very well. To line it up there are 8 nuts to loosen and tighten where the bracket and frame mount come together. First I decided that it would be easier to access these nuts from beneath the car so I jacked it up and put it down on the jack stands.  With the nuts loose I put something heavy (my pancake air compressor) on the hood to hold it in a good position.  From below I tightened the nuts. I came up from beneath the car and found that the vertical alignment was good.  It now sat down onto the body the way it should but somehow I moved it while tightening so I loosened the 4 nuts that hold the horizontal alignment and put it back into a good position.  Then I went around tightening each of the four nuts little by little so as not to move the hood.  I also got up periodically to check the alignment. Yeah it sounds annoying but it was more like a slow and steady wins the race kind of feeling.  Here's the hood down so you can see how much aligned I got it:

  Ultimately the hood needs to be trimmed, filed, sanded by a body shop so I didn't drive myself too crazy over it.  Next up are the hood latches.