Seeking hood fitting advice

[nick729]

Had a friend over to help me fit the hood, since this was the one of those jobs that i was dreading and putting off for ages, thought i would share how it all went. So feel free to chime in and i'm also looking for some advice to get the it fitted 100%. I have 0 experience working with fiberglass so, this was all new to me.

Since the nose is oversized, my plan was simple, measure the distance between the back corner of the arch on both sides to the back of the cowl, then measure the distance from the corner of the pontoon to the the corner of the body upright. The distance was similar on both sides (within 2 mm) so took the distance added another 2mm to that which in theory leaves me with about ~3mm for setting the final gap of the nose. Took Vernier calipers, set the distance and locked it. Used the body edge as a guide and scored the hood all the way. Took the body off and used an angle grinder with the thinnest disk i had to cut along the scored mark i made. The procedure was a lot easier than i thought, but my garage is a total mess after that..

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After that decided to fit the hinges - Bolted them vertically, so that i could see any clearance issues i will run into with the A/C fitting, frame and radiators. It was obvious that even with the nose pushed all the way forwards i will have to cut part of the hinge too. Marked where the nose has to be cut and cut all the way through including the hinges. Looking at other builds, i could not figure out how other managed to fit the hinges without cutting them as even with the nose pushed as far forward as it could the hood opened only about 50cms. I will clean up the cuts on the hinges and the nose later After all the cutting was done i used Delrin blocks as wedges for filling the gap between the hinge and body. I used a Miter saw to cut Delrin blocks, it was a bit of a pain since the wedges are pretty small 14mm tall at highest point going all the way 0 at the front and only 4cm wide and the block i had was so small i could not lock it down and had to hold it with my other hand when cutting. When cutting the hinge i had to cut off the mounting hole too, so i had to drill a new one. Pushed the wedges in, locked them in place and drilled straight through.

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Lots of measuring, fitting and removing of the hood god knows how many times, but in the end i'm very happy with the result, as I was very doubtful about doing all this

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I have a few issues so any advice is greatly appreciated:

1) Driver side pontoon seems to be twisted a bit and also there is quite a large gap there. My hood is at it's lowest position so i can't move it down any more (sitting on the radiator panels). I can force the pontoon higher up and try to lock it down with the splash guard, but i will most likely need to trim the splash guard bottom for that. A member of this forum received Coupe at the same time as me and i saw that he had the same gap and also on the driver side just like mine. What he did was made a cut about 1" up from the bottom of the hood (from the wheel arch all the way to the back) and lowered it down to sit on the pontoon as it should and built up the gap. Any obvious alternative to this other than cutting and filling the gap? I feel like this is more than i can do since i have 0 experience with body work..
2) Wheel arch inner corners they seem to be higher up than the outer corner where it meets the pontoon edge - is this normal or should i do something about this?
3) Anything to be aware of before locking down the pontoon to the lower splash guard? Or is it just a case of setting the right angle and height and riveting to keep them in place?
4) Driver side is too far out in relation to the body line, while PS side is almost perfect. Should i just sand down the hood and build up the body to compensate for this? Similar to what @Namrups experienced on his build.
5) Setting the gap for the pontoon in relation to the hood - at the back you can play around with the gap with the U-bolt and latches while in the front is only the case of locking down the pontoon to the splash guard and adjusting the height of the front hinge and using the locating pins to make sure the corners match?

Any advice before it try to set the final gaps is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Nick

[Kbl7td]

Move the pontoons to match the hood, lock in place with the panels. You’ll likely have to trim the drivers pontoon, I know I will. And yes my drivers side of the hood is “thicker” on the lateral superior portion. Some sanding and playing with the thickness of the rubber bumpers is about all you can do. The thickness of the hood is not consistent at all. This is especially leads to problems where it meets the main body.

I didn’t trim my hinges at all or use spacers. It’s all about your tolerance for how much you want the hood to open. I’d like to spend as little time in there as possible when the car is done.

[nick729]

Move the pontoons to match the hood, lock in place with the panels. You’ll likely have to trim the drivers pontoon, I know I will. And yes my drivers side of the hood is “thicker” on the lateral superior portion. Some sanding and playing with the thickness of the rubber bumpers is about all you can do. The thickness of the hood is not consistent at all. This is especially leads to problems where it meets the main body.

I didn’t trim my hinges at all or use spacers. It’s all about your tolerance for how much you want the hood to open. I’d like to spend as little time in there as possible when the car is done.

Thanks for the reply!

I'm not sure I understand what you meant by "trim the drivers pontoon"? Can you explain please?

[Kbl7td]

Sorry I was kind of reiterating point #1. To be clear, do not cut the hood. If you need to close that gap then cut the pontoon. Then bring that up to meet the hood. Lots of people have had to do something similar. You’re going to create more work for yourself if you try to cut the hood. You can visit my thread either later today or tomorrow because I think I’ll finally be getting around to doing that today.

[lewma]

To be clear, do not cut the hood.

I agree with that. I cut my hood then had to put the material back. It all turned out fine, just created myself a whole lot of unnecessary work.

mark

[nick729]

Sorry I was kind of reiterating point #1. To be clear, do not cut the hood. If you need to close that gap then cut the pontoon. Then bring that up to meet the hood. Lots of people have had to do something similar. You’re going to create more work for yourself if you try to cut the hood. You can visit my thread either later today or tomorrow because I think I’ll finally be getting around to doing that today.

oh, ok, now it makes sense Thank you! I will see how far i can get without any cutting, if that fails i will just leave it to the body shop, as i don't trust myself with this job

I agree with that. I cut my hood then had to put the material back. It all turned out fine, just created myself a whole lot of unnecessary work.

mark

Thank you for sharing.

P.s. I had your build in mind when i talked about cutting the hood