47-55.1 Reinstalling the Hood

[edgeleycanuck]

Just wondering if anyone has come up with a handy way of reinstalling the engine hood by themselves. I'm thinking with a couple of straps and an extension of some type on the engine hoist may be a solution?

[dsraven]

Hang from the rafters at the approximate angle you need and then drive the truck under it. Worked for me once. If you use a come along or some sort of easily adjustable mechanism you can lower the hood slowly or use the floor jack under the truck to raise to the hood height. Then get a couple of bolts in the hinges and remove the mechanism. Use tape on the edges so the paint doesnt get scratched up. Worst case scenario.
If you have an engine lift you could build a structure from 2x4s that would work. Like a lot of guys have built for lifting the cabs off. Then suspend the hood from that.
Put a blanket on the cowl area and fenders, tape edges. Pick up hood from front with engine hoist and guide the rear of hood manually. Place hood on hinges and allow lift to hold hood while you get the bolts in.
Somebody on the hotrodders site built a mechanism to do this, it had hinge points and was pretty cool. Cant find it now though.a few years back.

[MiraclePieCo]

I fabricated a simple hood-holding frame to attach to my engine hoist. I'll attach a photo later if I can find it.

[joedoh]

if you care about beauty marks, enlist a couple friends and some towels.


if you arent worried about "beauty marks"

I have only done it with the hinges installed on the cab already, so thats how this is written.


I usually just put the hood on in the proper place, after putting a bath towel on the cowl where the hood rests and..

the hood can be unweildly but if you lift by putting the nose of the hood in your waist, you can grab the sides about the middle and its easy to maneuver to the truck. then prop it up with a broom stick, letting the back edge pivot on that towel. then install one bolt at a time, top bolt, spring bolt, bottom bolt, viola. I do the spring bolt second because its usually easy to push it down slightly to get the bottom bolt in.

a word of caution, there are shoulders on the hood bolts that have to seat, clean the shoulders and the holes on the hinges with some emery paper or scotchbrite pad. if I get one that doesnt want to seat the shoulder in the hinge while tightening, I usually tighten it to the shoulder, then open and close the hood a few times, it will sometimes "snap" onto the shoulder. also, there are two different size shoulders, and for some reason the same size shoulder can have two different size sockets, so have all your tools ready. I use a ratchet where it fits, and a crescent wrench where it doesnt.

[mr48chev]

I'd say that Joedoe' point of if you absolutely have to protect the finish on the truck and the hood having a couple of good helpers is a big plus.

Also having the hinges mounted on the cab is a necessity as far as I am concerned.

I've done the old towel on the cowl, set the hood up in place, lift it up in front and prop it up with a stick and put the bolts in on one side and the other by my self a number of times but that was with primer and not being worried about scratches that I could scuff out and spray more primer over.

For me a cherry picker engine hoist is that helper you don't have to buy Pepsi or beer for, mine gets used all the time to lift this, hold that and save on back strains. My chain hoist on the gantry also gets used just as much for similar things. Rigging a simple wood or even metal hood holding rack to lift and maneuver the hood sounds like a great idea. it makes me wonder if you couldn't use one of those tilt engine lift attachments for the cherry picker Like this one from Hf that lot of us already have to be able to jocky the hood's angle a bit.

[mr48chev]

I'd say that Joedoe' point of if you absolutely have to protect the finish on the truck and the hood having a couple of good helpers is a big plus.

Also having the hinges mounted on the cab is a necessity as far as I am concerned.

I've done the old towel on the cowl, set the hood up in place, lift it up in front and prop it up with a stick and put the bolts in on one side and the other by my self a number of times but that was with primer and not being worried about scratches that I could scuff out and spray more primer over.

For me a cherry picker engine hoist is that helper you don't have to buy Pepsi or beer for, mine gets used all the time to lift this, hold that and save on back strains. My chain hoist on the gantry also gets used just as much for similar things. Rigging a simple wood or even metal hood holding rack to lift and maneuver the hood sounds like a great idea.

[edgeleycanuck]

Thanks for all the input and suggestions. Putting that hood on is one of those jobs where another pair of hands would sure help. I'm at the point where I want to get the front clip aligned with the cab (vertical positioning of the rad support mounts) and I'm pretty sure the way to do that is with the hood on. Anyway always great to hear from any of you guys, really appreciate the support!

[PDW HOTRODS]

I got this from Summit Racing. It works good, I work on cars a lot and it's not always easy to find good help you can trust with new paint. I also put towels on the cab and fenders and it works good.
Auto Dolly Hood Pickers M998090

[mongocanfly]

That's pretty slick PDW.....never saw one before...kinda pricey for one time use or two,,but would be fairly easy to make one

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=18apkjRdn6o

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2nFe1wle6hE&t=9s

[dsraven]

Looks a lot like the one I seen over on hotrodder site. Like said, be pretty easy to make something, even out of lumber. "Single use" kinda make something.

[my56chevytruck]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

That's pretty slick PDW.....never saw one before...kinda pricey for one time use or two,,but would be fairly easy to make one

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=18apkjRdn6o

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2nFe1wle6hE&t=9s

I like this a lot, does this hinge off angle when the hood is un-bolted from the body??

[mongocanfly]

I may be misunderstanding your question 56...but if your talking about is it somewhat balanced when unbolted... it looks like the pivot is very close to hood center, and it looks like he has some pretty good tension on the pivot bolt...I'll be fabbing me one of these when I get to the hood install phase..theres not much to it and it's a great idea...much like the cab removal jig for engine lifts

[mr48chev]

I'd bet that there are more than a few guys out digging though their saved for someday pile looking for the tubing left from a collapsed dining canopy or other piece that they saved back rather than throwing in the scrap load.

95 Bucks is a lot to spend on something you might use once or twice but if you can dig around in the scrap/left over pile and make one that would be well worth the time.