Test Fit= Ahh @#*$ me!

Had a f@#k me moment this morning. After stripping the paint off the body of the 5, I was piecing it back together to test fit a few things when all of a sudden I noticed my hood no longer lines up correctly, meaning the two back corners by the firewall protrude out about 1.5 inches on both sides; and the hood is sitting about 1.5 inches higher that the fender channel its suppose to rest upon. It never did this before, so I'm trying to determine which line of appropriate profanities to use because I used up my entire vocabulary on this one.

Anyone else ever experience this? What did you do? I don't want to go 1970's GM and shim the crap out of everything; especially since it was fitting fine before.

 

Somebody stepped or jumped on your hood while it was off.

 

I'm wondering if maybe I put too much pressure on it somehow when I was stripping it down?

 

:uwop:

Let the pros take a look. In saying that I certainly do not mean ME!

 

That is entirely possible. Not really much structural support in the ribbing.

 

Sorry, I broke my own rule, here you go:


Notice the gap between the hood and the fenders. About 1.5 inch +/-


Both sides of the hood look like this, pretty mean gap.


Nasty body line. It did not look like this when I initially took it off.


Okay, maybe the drivers side isn't as bad as the passenger side, but there is still a gap.

My first thought to remedy this is to get a few rataching straps and throw when across the hood and SLOWLY bend the back corners inward. The corners were previously both folded over completely inward, so I straightened them back hense the black paint which I will strip later.

 

Exact same hinges on the same side? Just throwing out anything I can think of.

 

If you got a little aggressive while stripping it, you may have relieved some stresses in the sheet metal that has caused it to spring out. Should be able to pull it back in with some gentle strap work. Maybe your neighbor with the toyota that helped you with the frame straightening can give you some ideas.

 

Normally I'd go see him, but that dude is currently on a cruise ship near St. Thomas. . . lucky man.

And yes, same hinges on both sides. I know because I didn't remove them and thats why you still see blue paint on them.

I threw some straps on them, I'll let those stay on overnight, check tomorrow, and retighten if needed.

 

Now you have to widen the tub...

 

Funny guy

 

I think the fenders need to be loosened up and lowered