# '68 Hood adjustment??



## Flambeau (Dec 30, 2013)

Hello All!! I have been veiwing this forum for about a month while I was researching info on GTO's. The wife and I were looking for a GM A body car and thought we would be getting a Chevelle..... That is until we found this beauitiful '68! We bought it from the second owner who did a frame off 20+ years ago when he was turning 50, well, now he is 70 and didn't drive it much and wanted to find it a good home. We picked it up 2 weeks ago and I have been doing a bunch a little stuff like tires, choke, etc. 

So here's my question... The back of the hood sticks up about 1/2 an inch on both sides. The wife and I tried to adjest it today and may have made it worse!  We have both rear hinges lowered all the way and it still sticks up?? The rest of the car is perfectly straingt too. I have heard these hoods are a real pain and I may just want to buy a new set of hinges and try again. You can kind of see the hood in the pictures, any advise? Thanks Y'all!


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

Welcome to the forum, you won't be disappointed with the GTO over the chevelle. I know it sounds counter productive but try putting some body shims under the front hood bolt of both hinges (between hinge and hood) to lift the nose of the hood which will lower the rear, they are a pain to get just right but you should see it start to come down.


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## Flambeau (Dec 30, 2013)

Instg8ter said:


> I know it sounds counter productive but try putting some body shims under the front hood bolt of both hinges (between hinge and hood) to lift the nose of the hood which will lower the rear, they are a pain to get just right but you should see it start to come down.


Huh.. Ill give it a try. I know I went to public school, but I cant figure out why this thing is fighting me so bad!! 

Thanks so much for the advise.


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## tom miller (Mar 3, 2013)

I have the same problem with my 68 hood. The body guy I took my car to tried for a couple hours to get the hood to fit right. He finally concluded the hinges will not close far enough and suspected the hinges were poor after market parts. I am getting ready to order new hinges from Ames as soon as I get my carb back from Cliff Ruggles. I will post a review when I get it all done.


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## Matthew (Feb 11, 2011)

Loosen the back bolts, and while pushing up on the hood, tighten them back down. If the hood is still sticking up, push down on it. If it goes down, you have bad hinges. If it does not move, you have something preventing it from going down. Examples... you might have a new cowl seal, or you might have one of the 68s that has a hood bumper mounted on the cowl. Matt


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## Flambeau (Dec 30, 2013)

Matthew said:


> Loosen the back bolts, and while pushing up on the hood, tighten them back down. If the hood is still sticking up, push down on it. If it goes down, you have bad hinges. If it does not move, you have something preventing it from going down. Examples... you might have a new cowl seal, or you might have one of the 68s that has a hood bumper mounted on the cowl. Matt



Thanks. I just tried this and when I pushed on the back it went down a little. Think (hope) it's hinges. 


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## bondobill (Oct 24, 2011)

Before you replace the hinges try taking out the rubber seal on the cowl and the wedge shaped rubbers on the fenders and see how it closes then.
We replaced both the hood hinges with oe parts on my sons 68. Hood fit like a glove until we installed a new w/strip on the cowl 

A good way to tell if it's the hinges is to remove the hood from the car.
If you have any sloop from side to side at the pivot points in the hinge, you have bad bushings.

You said when you pushed it down it only moved a little ?
If the hinges are wore you should be able to push it down a good 1/2''.
Sounds like something else is holding up the hood or the hinges are poor quality repops. 

Bill


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## geeteeohguy (Feb 2, 2008)

What Matt said. Loosen the rear hinge bolts, and the front ones just back off a hair. Have a helper push the hood open all the way with quite a bit of force while you tighten the bolts. This is the factory procedure. After 20+ years of having my '65 hood raised at the cowl, I had a friend hold the hood wide open and did this operation and fixed the problem. Took 5 minutes.


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## Flambeau (Dec 30, 2013)

Thanks guys for the replies. I tried both methods and it didn't get any better. Seems the hinges have quite a bit of side to side slop. Who knows, the last owner may have replaced them with cheep repos 20+ years ago. Think I'll pop on some Ames hinges and see if it gets better. At least then I'll know that it isn't the hinges if it's still not even. The hood seems to be the only body problem, everything else fits like a glove. Doors, trunk, windows all fit perfect. 

Thanks again. 


Sent from AutoGuide.com App


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## chuckha62 (Apr 5, 2010)

If the procedure that the guys have given you didn't work, there is a good chance that you have aftermarket hinges on your car. If so, this is a known issue with them. If you try to buy new hinges, you'll most likely have the same problem, unless you find OE parts. You can try to elongate the holes in the hinges (where they mount to the inner fender) to give you more adjustment. I was able to do this on the '72 Chevy C10 that I just restored.

Chuck


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

Reading this one with interest... The hood on my 69 also refuses to sit down at the rear corners. Original hood, original hinges, springs and bushings are all tight. I'm wondering about the wedge bumpers now. When I was mocking up the car prior to paint, at one point I actually had it adjusted where the rear of the hood sat 1/2" _below_ the tops of the fenders - before installing the rubber wedges. I haven't been able to get it back down since I painted it though (and installed the new rubber wedges). MAYBE I've got the gaps too tight and need to spread the fenders a little wider with shims underneath the A-pillar side bolts - but if I do that, it's going to snowball on me because then the outsides of the fenders will probably stick out past the doors and then I'll have to shim the top door hinges out some to make up for that...

Makes sense though, I guess, because on the drivers side corner I've got to be really careful opening and closing the hood because the chrome trim strip along the rear edge of the hood is extremely close to the fender, and in fact has 'caught' the paint there a few times.

Bear


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## Matthew (Feb 11, 2011)

Bear, I thought I had the same spacing/gap problem. Even took the wedges. The hood did sit better, but those little fellows have an important roll in keeping your hood steady as you know. You might try to bring the front of your hinge up then push the hood up as high as it will go to drop the back part of the hinge. Matt


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## Matthew (Feb 11, 2011)

Sorry, I meant to say "even took the wedges out." Matt

Good grief... role not roll.


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## Flambeau (Dec 30, 2013)

Well guys, the Ames hinges WORKED!!! They looked exactly the same but for some reason laid the back down a couple inches more. I actually had to raise the back a little bit to make it flush. Thanks again for the help.


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

That's good to hear. My hinges are in good shape, but the springs are the ones the car was born with. I just ordered a set of new springs from Ames so we'll see how that goes.

Bear


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## tom miller (Mar 3, 2013)

*Hood Adjustment*



tom miller said:


> I have the same problem with my 68 hood. The body guy I took my car to tried for a couple hours to get the hood to fit right. He finally concluded the hinges will not close far enough and suspected the hinges were poor after market parts. I am getting ready to order new hinges from Ames as soon as I get my carb back from Cliff Ruggles. I will post a review when I get it all done.


Got my new hinges from Ames and took them to my local body shop to be installed. Two hours later I have a hood that lifts, closes, and fits PERFECTLY.
The body guy said the Ames hinges were the best after market hinges he had ever seen. I would highly recommend them.
Tom


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## 68GTO4004Spd (Jun 19, 2008)

yep Ames hinges rock.


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