Blazer Hood

[givengold]

I have a 72 2wd Blazer. The hood shakes like crazy while going down the road. I am not sure if it is OEM. It has been repainted, and it shakes so bad, the paint has cracked. Is this normal for a Blazer? Or should I be looking for a replacement hood?

[71swb4x4]

I don't think hoods are repo'ed, but I could be wrong.
What is shaking, the hood skin, or the whole hood? The hood springs should keep the whole hood from shaking, the spacers under the skin should keep the skin still.
Do you have the spacers between the hood skin and the hood supports? I am going off foggy memory, but I think it's similar to 1/4" thick rubber.

[givengold]

It seems to be the hood skin, with all of the flex going on. I will check for spacers.
Thank you for the guidance.

[wiggins]

Yes there should be a foamed rubber type stripping in between the hood and the bracing underneath the hood that will keep it from flexing.

[tubbedII]

Thanks for posting this! If you don't have this foam/rubber, what's a good replacement?

[Dunenutt]

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cb/full.aspx?page=11

I bought these, seemed ok.

[Firebirdjones]

The foam inserts are reproduced. They stick between the frame supports and the outer sheetmetal.

I can tell you though, the center of the hood still moves a little.

Mine still has the factory foam installed and in good shape. I don't notice the center of the hood moving much on paved roads at slow speeds but I do see it buff around a little when going 70-75 down the highway. Can't get around that, it's shaped like a brick.
It does however move quite a bit when I off road it, even creeping along at 10-15 mph. So I don't think you'll completely get rid of it.

The inner structure design sucks, what can I say. With only two support bars running front to back for the center support, and neither of them are in the center where it's needed most, it's just not enough.
My 79 pickup has a hood just as large, but with much more cross support underneath. I never see that one move at all.

[Firebirdjones]

Here is why you'll never completely get rid of the sheetmetal moving around at speed.

A shot of the bottom of my 72



And here is a shot of my 79. The support structure was improved starting for the new 73 model year.



Make your own assumptions, but it looks pretty obvious.

[cleszkie]

I had the same problem after I removed my front clip and then reinstalled it with different fenders. My hood never moved before I removed it. After much experiemntation I found out how to get rid of the side to side shimmy.

First. you must make sure that your hinges are adjusted such that the hood sits snugly with your fenders, compressing the rubber bumpers that are located in the fenders. You may also have to adjust the depth at which the hood pin latches to the core support to achieve the proper fit. Secondly, and most importantly, you need to adjust the height of the two rubber hood bumpers on the core support such that the hood is actually contacting BOTH of them snugly when the hood pin is fully engaged in the core support latch. This removed ALL movement in my hood, and it opens and closes nicely. Hope that helps.