Can't get my 69 hood open

[Michael L.]

Guys,

I just reinstalled the hood on my 69 and I can't get it to open when I pull the hood release. The car was recently painted and the hood was installed and working fine but I had to remove it after it came back from the paint shop so I could finish the underhood work. When I pop the hood the passenger side pops but the drivers doesn't. Is there a trick to getting these hoods up when they are sticky? Thanks for any help.

Mike

[Mark E.]

Re: Can't get my 69 hood open

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=c3+corvette+stuck+hood

This CF link also shows the Chevy TSB:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...l-details.html

[Michael L.]

Re: Can't get my 69 hood open

Thanks Mark. I had that info, but unfortunately it didn't help. The problem wasn't a failed release cable, it was that the hood was stuck on the latching pins due to poor alignment from a freshly reinstalled hood. I did take the drivers side splash shield out to be able to access the mechanism more easily (which I think is easier than going through the cowl with the tool shown in the CSM) but it only confirmed that the cable was fully depressed when the handle was pulled. After struggling with it for several hours I managed to work up the courage to lay some towels on the fender and pry the hood up with a pry bar (YIKES!). At first I tried with some soft interior plastic pry tools but it just didn't exert enough force on the hood to get it done. Once I used the metal pry bar it popped up without too much force. I'm taking it back to the paint shop for some final touches and I'll leave the hood unlatched until then and let them re-align it. I thought about loosening the hood hinges to let the hood "float" and sort of self align, but it is very tough to get to the hood hinge bolts from underneath, despite what someone in that CF post suggested.

Mike