C2 Nose & Headlight Support Rods = Hood Alignment?

[Roger P.]

Re: C2 Nose & Headlight Support Rods = Hood Alignment?

Did you add the shim to the bottom half of the hinge and not to the top half? It needs to be under the rear bolt of the bottom half of the hinge.

Russ,
Yes, I actually added a washer below the rear bolt (away from the headlight bucket) as a shim since it is so close to the rear edge of the hinge. I started with two washers, but opted for one after trial & error testing. As I mentioned before, the shim did very little to help the issue. Keep in mind that it isn't off very much; it's just that I am a perfectionist and would like to get it as close to flush as possible. I have attached a few photos of the front edge of my hood (before adding the shim) so you can get a better idea of how the center is higher than the body surround. Again, the driver side is now a fraction lower with the shim, but the center of the hood is still off about 1/8" or so.

Roger (50141)

[Wayne W.]

Re: C2 Nose & Headlight Support Rods = Hood Alignment?

You can take off as much as you want, but eventually you will get through the panel. Obviously, you don't want to do that, but it actually wouldn't cause any structural problem, because as stated before, the mount is solid riveted to the panels, and bolted to the radiator support. Without grinding on, or re bonding the body panels, the only way to move the hood relationship to the body is to lower the pivot point on the hinge. You can to that by raising the rear and tipping the pivot down, grinding a little off at the front of the mount which does the same thing, doing both, or modifying the hinge itself as others have suggested.

[Roger P.]

Re: C2 Nose & Headlight Support Rods = Hood Alignment?

Hi guys,
I want to provide a conclusion to my endeavor so you and others will know how things turned out. I decided to go back to the high hinge and add additional shims under the rear hinge bolt (I used stainless steel washers) in order to tilt the pivot point down as suggested. This helped bring the hood just about flush at the corner on the driver side. The passenger side was previously low, so I have a full shim there to bring that corner near flush. However, the hood still sits about 1/8" or so high at the center/nose and tapers down on each side to the corners. Although others have been able to get some movement on the nose by adjusting the headlight support rods, I can't get it to budge even a fraction. All things considered, the hood looks good thanks to your help. Just like the typical bulge along the length of the hood at the passenger side fender, it looks like I will have to live with the minor imperfection along the width of the hood at the front body surround. I attached a photo of each corner after the shims were installed.

Thanks again,
Roger (50141)

[Gene M.]

Re: C2 Nose & Headlight Support Rods = Hood Alignment?

Roger,
You could get it a bit better on the passenger side by using a open slot rectangle shims like on the bottom of the core support. The open slot will allow the shim to sit more toward the rear of the car thus giving greater "tilt" to the hinge.

You can make them up from 1/32" or 1/16" sheetmetal aluminum or steel will work equally as well. Just cut em out with tin snips drill a hole and cut one side of the hole out. File smooth, done.

[Roger P.]

Re: C2 Nose & Headlight Support Rods = Hood Alignment?

Update!! I was given a suggestion that worked out great. It was frustrating that most carefully