C1 hood repair question??

[John R.]

Started a project today. My '58 hood for some reason was missing its bolt plates where the hinge mounts. These are the ones that float inside the hinge area. Guess they rusted out over time and fell out?

See photo...I bought new bolt plates from Ecklers to install, but wondering if these are secured somehow or do they truly just float inside the hood hinge area? Has anyone done this repair that can give advice??

Thanks much!

[John R.]

Re: C1 hood repair question??

Forgot to add, split the hood to replace, so you are seeing the inside of the hinge area in the photo. Thanks

[Richard M.]

Re: C1 hood repair question??

John, There is a "keeper" bracket that gets riveted to the metal reinforcement plate using the side rivet location. The brackets must have fallen off long ago. These keepers are mandatory to hold the "I" shaped nut plate in place.

Sorry for the horrible MS Paint diagram, but you'll see what they look like. You can make up some metal U-brackets from sheet stock. Make sure strong enough not to bend too much. Test fit a bracket size so that the threaded hole in the nut plate is close to the holes in the hood as you rotate the nut plate. Drill out the rivet at the side and re-rivet into the new u-bracket as shown in my diagram. Since you have the skin separated, you may also want to bond the other end of the bracket with epoxy to help hold it in place.

DSC07953brkt.jpg

Ecklers uses a cheap soft steel for their keeper brackets, as I discovered when using one of their repro hoods. The nut plates kept falling out. Spent much time trying to relocate into the keepers. I ended up using tie-wire to help hold them in place. Getting that done on a finished hood was painful.

As a hood installation aid, I like to thread studs into the nut plates to help locate the hinges and align the nut plates, then remove one stud at a time and replace with the hinge bolts.

Rich

[John R.]

Re: C1 hood repair question??

Richard, just what I was looking for! Where can I pick up new rivets that look like they are original?

Thanks!

[Richard M.]

Re: C1 hood repair question??

I forget what type, but IIRC 3/16" diameter. Check Paragon as they have many to choose from.

https://www.paragoncorvette.com/sear...archTerm=rivet