hood problem

rzkas

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 15, 2010
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61
Location
washington
HI? i have a 82 corvette. when i got it, it came with a hood that was over the hood bay. it wasn't the hood of that car originally but it was a corvette hood. i took my car to the body shop. body shop guy worked on the car and painted the car. when it comes time to put the hood on, he did everything but the hood wouldn't align or fit correctly. there are space side to side and front. what could be the problem. is the hood the wrong hood for the year corvette or could it be something else. the scoop was added or molded in by the body shop.

20121229_143621_zps0e330037.jpg.html

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Unless wrecked and patched, there's little change a hood would differ from another, and IIRC all long hood have the shape.
Did you try to install another corvette hood?

I'd bet it has more to do with the body, because it's made of several parts glued together it's never exactly the same.
Has the car's front been damaged in the past? Any hints of fiberglass repair?


What worries me the most is the front gap, no hinge shim would fix that.

150850df7acb45578.jpg

Both sides of that gap are strongly supported, it would take a lot of force on either side to change the angle.

Just make sure your fender brackets, radiator support and hood header support are not rusted out or bent.

I'm a bit surprised your guy didn't assert the problem before painting.

You should post pict of the underside of the hood and front clip.
 
Looking at the before pictures that hood did not fit correctly. The body guy should have either fixed it or had you get a new hood.I would take it back to the body shop and see if he can fix the hood or get a replacement hood either way it will have to be repainted.
 
ok yeah i will get under hood pics. i dont have any ideas if the car has been hit before. the title is clear
 
any ideas what to do next to fix this problem. mostly what is the problem with hood not lining up correctly or fit right
 
any ideas what to do next to fix this problem. mostly what is the problem with hood not lining up correctly or fit right
As long as you don't know if the problem is the hood or the front clip there isn't much to be said, unless by "fix" you mean "camouflage".

The only way to be sure I see is by trying to install another hood and see how it fit.

Also:
Get yourself a photobucket account (it's free), that will make picture upload easier for you.
 
my money is on your car was hit, and fixed by someone who didn't have a clue about how to fix their car (his name is Bubba, btw).... the biggest tell to me is the radius on the passenger side, it should be a smooth curve.

and simply because it's never been reported as wreck is no indication of anything other than it has never been reported.

but the zillion dollar question - why did the hood get pre-fit? Don't feel too terrible - I've been there, as has everyone I know who's turned a wrench (the famous words, "it just has to fit") so while I may not sound sympathetic - I really am saying "d'oh" IRL

*edit * that car had to have been hit on the passenger side..... maybe no frame damage, but it doesn't look like they fixed the core support
 
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i really appreciate all ya inputs and thoughts. do you recommend to take off or remove the front nose completely and see what is going on underneath. if yes do anyone has guide and instructions on how to remove the front nose i.e fenders, bumper from the frame. i have the car in my garage. it no longer in the shop. the body shop guy went out of town.
 
I remember this car. I think you posted pics before the paint job and everybody told you the car had front end damage. The hood didn't fit any better before you painted it. Now that it's painted, you either shape the hood to fill in the gaps, as Denis said "camouflage". Or you throw the paint job money away and pull the front end off and fix it right. Or you accept it as a driver the way it is. Those are pretty much your options.
 
From what I have seen on my 82, if the radiator support is tweeked being that it supports the front clip couldn't it cause the center to bow up like his pictures show?

I also believe he was searching for a impact bumper at one point so this car obviously to a front hit so perhaps has frame rail damage causing this.

I kinda recall on my 82 there is a brace that secures the center of the front clip if it were tweeked could it not cause this bowing?

take clip off you either way have to straighten stuff out or just accept it the way it is.
 
I don't think anyone has tried this but it might be possible to cut the bonding strips and glue carefully and remove the front clip without any paint damage ??? Denpo just glued his front clip in place so his memory is fresh .... think this can be done ??

My first approach at this point (now that it's painted) would be to unbolt the radiator support, front frame extensions and remove the header bar from under the car.... then see how you can tweak the front without these pieces in place, then see if the header bar is bent or what the heck is going on there, there is someting wrong no doubt but I believe it's safe to say it's not the hood .....
 
Well, if the hood is ruled out of the problem, one possible scenario would be the side fender bracket rusting out.
This would make the whole front clip to "fall" down.
It's easy to spot, when it happens fiberglass break around the hood hinges.
And in that case, the bar that goes from the radiator support to the header rebar would be left pushing the header rebar in the middle, causing such bending.

As I said in my first post, without pictures on the inside it's all wild guesses.
 
ok i will try to take the car to a muffler shop so i can take pic from the bottom. pls help me with instructions on how to remove the front nose off the car without causing damage to the paint or do i need to take off from the car to diagnose the problem. i have spent lot of money. the paint is a tangelo orange pearl pbc 32. paint by itself is expensive.
 
ok i will try to take the car to a muffler shop so i can take pic from the bottom. pls help me with instructions on how to remove the front nose off the car without causing damage to the paint or do i need to take off from the car to diagnose the problem. i have spent lot of money. the paint is a tangelo orange pearl pbc 32. paint by itself is expensive.

No need to take it to muffler shop, just slip under the car, put the car on block if the belly rubs :rolleyes:
Most of the pic you have to take is from the engine bay with the hood up, don't forget to set you camera to macro, you'll be taking mostly closeup picture
You'll start to worry when you know what you have to do, but there is lilttle chance you can unglue and reglue your front clip without damaging the paint, but so far I don't see the need of it.
If you don't see what are the parts people mentioned here are I urge you to buy an Assembly Manual if you didn't already, you definitely gonna need one.
 
click on the link it will take you to photobucket for more pics. i will try to get under hood pics and add them.

http://s1211.beta.photobucket.com/user/rzkas/media/20121229_143638_zps9b69112b.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

What's in there is already a good start.
First of all, the hood looks like crap, before and after :
20121229_143505_zps2591853c.jpg

DSC01168.jpg



This is camouflage not even done right. That not a good sign of you guys doing good job. Did he ran out of town JUST after this job? :huh:

There's strange things : brand new fabbed hinge sitting on what seems to be a pile of rust (dark picture, hard to tell)
DSC01201.jpg




This is what a rusted out fender bracket looks like (front my own resto):
This part is in the front fender well.

bodywork-14-bracketrustedout.jpg

And this is what it does to the fiberglass around where the hinges bolts :

bodywork-15-rustedoutbracketconsequences.jpg


I'm still putting money on the hood as potential source of problem, it's been broken and never fitted right.
The fix done on the corner is not acceptable anyway.
Good this is repainting a new hood is much simpler than repainting a front clip.


To be frank I'm also quiet concerned by the overall paint quality, is that hole and chips I see all over the brand new paint?
 
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