Hood Problems When CLosing

[jims09build]

Hi All,

Car is painted and ready to drive(If I ever get a weekend without Rain) The problem is before paint the hood closed perfectly. Now when I close it the driver side front corner does not go down level. I can push it down easily with 1 finger and it will stay there. But each time I open and close it, it does the same thing. Nothing seem to be holding it up underneath. It's driving me NUTS!

Thanks,

Jim in Pa

[Mr. Barry]

Take a piece of white chalk, and rub it over the offending corner (and a few inches beyond), ....Close the hood, and push down...When you raise the hood, you will probably see that the paint is rubbing somewhere close to the corner....
Hard to see when everything is the same color.
Edward

[jims09build]

Originally Posted by Mr. Barry

Take a piece of white chalk, and rub it over the offending corner (and a few inches beyond), ....Close the hood, and push down...When you raise the hood, you will probably see that the paint is rubbing somewhere close to the corner....
Hard to see when everything is the same color.
Edward

It's not hitting anything. I can push it down and it stays down. All the moving hinge parts are fairly loose so nothing is binding. Thanks

[Mr. Barry]

Jim
Not trying to be a "wise guy", but just trying to give you a suggestion....
Something is keeping the corner from dropping, until you push it down, (with no effort)....
I get that...But , having myself painted quite a few cars, I have found that sometimes the obvious is overlooked....The chalk may prove nothing, but you have nothing to lose, but a few minutes of your time...The chalk will wipe off easily.
Edward

[Dave M]

My guess is that the hinge needs to be tweeked abit. I had a similar issue with mine and after a very small adjustment it no longer does it.
Dave

[rich grsc]

AH you need to adjust the hinges.

[BigLeo69]

hood hinge adjustment or go to the front body mounts and loosen you can tweek the front up a bit too
start at the hinges first, they can also bottom out on the 3/4" tube across the radiator throw some clay around that and then close to see if it hits it at the bracket on the hinge
also depends on what hinges you have mine are the mk3.1's

[tightasp]

I had the exact same problem as you. Found a misinstalation of the gas strut on the right side was keeping the hood up on the front corner. The problem was that the strut comptetely collapsed just before the hood shut. Seems the PO mounted the strut pivot in the wrong location on the right side only. Since both struts had lost there gas charge I only replaced the left side and it supports the open hood by itself and the hood shuts flush with no extra effort. Mike

[BigLeo69]

Originally Posted by tightasp

I had the exact same problem as you. Found a misinstalation of the gas strut on the right side was keeping the hood up on the front corner. The problem was that the strut comptetely collapsed just before the hood shut. Seems the PO mounted the strut pivot in the wrong location on the right side only. Since both struts had lost there gas charge I only replaced the left side and it supports the open hood by itself and the hood shuts flush with no extra effort. Mike

thats why i don't use them, prop rod

back in late 09 i complained to F5R and thought the layout holes were in the wrong place they sent me a new set the same freakin size and #, gave them to a member he just payed shipping.
thought about moving the brackets but i like the car with out the struts.

[Doug Meldrum]

I had the same problem... I bought shorter struts from McMaster Carr. The hood doesn't open as far but it works. The struts will keep pushing the corner up while you drive. On the hood issue... I adjusted the hinge (moved it down).
If I had it to do over, I would use the Breeze hood hinges. I'm not happy with the junk hinges FFR sends out.

[jims09build]

Thanks for all your kind responses. I tweaked the hinges, removed the struts and all the bumpers and tried to raise the body mounts in the front but it still does the same thing. I will try the chalk trick this morning. I didn't have this problem when the car was completely assembled before paint. Maybe when I reassembled the hinges after powdercoating them I got something wrong. I did drill positioning holes in the mounting brackets so I know they are back where they were. I even rigged up a strong spring under the hinge to help pull it down but even that did not help. I know it is something simple and I will figure it out. Can't drive it any ways as it's 45 degrees out and going to rain again

Jim in Pa