Hood installation / gap to housing (PU 51')

[ACII]

Hello together,

first of all i want to introduce myself shortly.

My name is Achim, living in Germany (near to munich i think u know that place) and restoring / driving a Chevy PU from 1951.


After two years of driving my baby , i try to fix now all the peanuts.

Since i have installed the hood, i have the problem that it is not fitting in the right way to the housing..

THere is a huge gap as you can see on the pics ....

i hope you have some advise how to fix up that gap.

Sofar i dont know if there are some long hole behind the hood hinges.

So maybe i could force it closer to the housing.

Hope to hear from you soon

Regards
Achim

[britnjc]

Unbolt your hinge from the fire wall very carefully not to let it spring and hit the paint. Then loosten the bolts were it bolts into the side of the cab. Push the hood back and set your gaps. Then reinstall the spring back on the firewall. Definately a two person job. It may take a couple of times.. They will never fit perfect unless you spent a lot of time in the body shop reworking your gaps with new metal. But it should get better than that... Oh yeah we need more pictures

[63 & 64 Bowties]

Achim, welcome to the forum.
How does your hood fit up front? Do you have a picture with the whole hood in it? The hoods on these trucks won't fit right if you don't have the exact angle on the fenders. Is it possible you didn't get the fenders exact when you installed them?

[britnjc]

oh yeah i was looking at the wrong gap.. I was looking at the gap on the cowl.. Yes most definately it is either a cab angle or fender angle problem.

[ACII]

Hello and thx for the quick answers..

right at the moment i do not have a pic of the hood in total.

Britnjc...u r right.. i have the problem at the cowl...

I have loosend all bolts of the fenders at the moment, thats the reason why there is a huge gap at the fenders as well.
Also loosend all the bolts of the radiator brackets.


So in the next days i try to force everything closer to the housing to get a smaller gap and a smooth finish in the front

DO you know which size of bolts it is originally used for the fenders (installation to the housing).

THx
Achim

[63 & 64 Bowties]

Originally Posted by ACII

DO you know which size of bolts it is originally used for the fenders (installation to the housing).

THx
Achim

5/16" but I don't remember how long. Anyone else know?

[britnjc]

I suppose your talking about fender to the inner fender wells. or is it inner fender to the cab your talking about. Irregardless I think they are 3/8" . Others may chime in. may actually be 5?16 like said above. I cant remember

[ACII]

i mean the bolts for using fender to the cab.

I do not have any inner fenders anymore :-)

Ok if using 5/16 bolts the existing screw holes are more or less longholes.
So i can force the fenders a bit backwards.

At the moment i have installed 12mm bolts (like 1/2 inch). So there is now space for movements.

Thx for ur help....
Achim

[britnjc]

those should be fine. if you need more movement just use a smaller bolt

[1952ssr]

Something I found useful on our trucks was the use of the new style clip nuts (mcmaster.com u-nuts/tapped hole) these come on handy I know on the back fenders clipping them to the fender and you turn a two man job into a one person one. I plan on using them on the front fenders as well, putting the clip onto the cab then you free up one hand from having to hold the nut.

[OrrieG]

From previous alignment threads the thought is that on the AD trucks the cab, hood and radiator support need to be aligned first, THEN the fenders aligned to the cab and hood. If the front of the hood was closed on the rad. support in your photo then it looks like the cab needs the back raised moving it towards the hood and/or the rad support pushed towards the cab.

[Atomsplitter]

Here's a link to the Stovebolt.com's Tech pages. Scroll down to the section that says "General Body Work" and you'll see a step by step instruction for the hood installation. The rest of the link may help with the rest of your tuck assembly too.

http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/

This will make it look much more goodly (sorry, that was to easy!).