Setting/lining up hood

[TomsResto]

A friend with quite a bit of body fitting/painting experience was supposed to help with this project but has hit some personal/family issues that is making him unavailable for awhile and I'm not sure if I want to keep waiting with riding season not too far out.

I removed an electric reverse opening hood kit off of my 69 and going to back to standard OEM style hinges, pin, etc.

Is their a recommended process to squaring up the hood and getting the lines as good as possible w/out removing front quarters?

Do you make the adjustments/shim where the hinges connect to the fenders or at the underside of the hood?

I really don't have any experience with body panel fitment so I'll take whatever advice you all have to offer.

Thanks in advance

[blacklab]

You are going want to start with your doors first
Line up your rear door lines to your quarter panels and work forward to fenders then hood
Once you have doors lined up and fenders ,you could square up the engine bay do a cross measurement from the cowl bolt to opposite front corner to the fender that would be a good starting point
You can use shims were needed but not behind the hinges


Good luck

[TomsResto]

Well I finally blocked off some free time to allocate to this project and let's just say ... holy crap that took longer than I thought.

Slowly/carefully running the hood up and down couple hundred times probably, ended up having to take hinges back off and extending the pill shaped slots for adjustment another 1/16" - 1/8" with a die grinder, etc.

My tips for anyone else previously inexperienced in setting their hood after all the other panels are fitted (rest of car had good lines, but they err'd on the side of "low" so I think that contributed to some of my challenges)

1) Tape off the entire perimeter of the engine bay... edges with the fenders, cowl, valance, etc. (with good 3M automotive tape)
2) I found an article that I read about 20 times to better understand how alignment works... it's still open on my other computer, so I'll post it here for reference (it helped, but was still difficult for me to practically apply with all the issues I was encountering that eventually ended up with me extending the adjustment slots in the hinges)
3) Convince a good friend to help you (this isn't a one person job)
4) If what you are doing to try and make an adjustment doesn't take you in the direction you want refer to #2 above or go the opposite direction of your adjustment and then carefully lower the hood again and see if it it inexplicably takes you in the direction you want (several times the "what am I living in opposite world here!" thoughts cross your mind, out your mouth)
5) Take your lunch breaks, beverage breaks ... it's going to take more than a couple hours
6) Realize there is a reason that Overhaulin, Gas Monkey Garage, <insert favorite car tv show> doesn't film much time on showing you every gap line on the cars they build ... absolute perfection is for $200k show cars (I'm very happy with 3 sides, one side does have an ever slight taper on the gap firewall to valance but you have to look for it

[TomsResto]

Well I finally blocked off some free time to allocate to this project and let's just say ... holy crap that took longer than I thought.

Slowly/carefully running the hood up and down couple hundred times probably, ended up having to take hinges back off and extending the pill shaped slots for adjustment another 1/16" - 1/8" with a die grinder, etc.

My tips for anyone else previously inexperienced in setting their hood after all the other panels are fitted (rest of car had good lines, but they err'd on the side of "low" so I think that contributed to some of my challenges)

1) Tape off the entire perimeter of the engine bay... edges with the fenders, cowl, valance, etc. (with good 3M automotive tape)
2) I found an article that I read about 20 times to better understand how alignment works... it's still open on my other computer, so I'll post it here for reference (it helped, but was still difficult for me to practically apply with all the issues I was encountering that eventually ended up with me extending the adjustment slots in the hinges)
3) Convince a good friend to help you (this isn't a one person job)
4) If what you are doing to try and make an adjustment doesn't take you in the direction you want refer to #2 above or go the opposite direction of your adjustment and then carefully lower the hood again and see if it it inexplicably takes you in the direction you want (several times the "what am I living in opposite world here!" thoughts cross your mind, out your mouth)
5) Take your lunch breaks, beverage breaks ... it's going to take more than a couple hours
6) Realize there is a reason that Overhaulin, Gas Monkey Garage, <insert favorite car tv show> doesn't film much time on showing you every gap line on the cars they build ... absolute perfection is for $200k show cars (I'm very happy with 3 sides, one side does have an ever slight taper on the gap firewall to valance but you have to look for it

Links for tip #2:
http://www.autobodystore.com/ms1.shtml
http://www.restorick.com/tech/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11

[TomsResto]

I should add also that by extending the slots (for the hinge mount to the inner fender) I did not have to use any shims anywhere (to extend on 'blacklabs's advice above)

[gator68428]

Glad you made progress.
And, Blacklab your advice was spot on. The whole starting with the doors idea makes perfect sense. Just battled recently with my hood and no matter what the front left fender was too far forward... Come to find out the gap between the door and rear quarter was at least an 1/8" too big. I still need to replace the driver side door hinges, so once I do that I'll know where to start.