New Hood installation

[urmyboyblue]

I have not seen anyone post up an installation of the new hoods, so here is one. But first, a preface:

My truck is a 1965 C10 SWB stepside. I have owned it since 1984. The truck has lived a few lives while I have had it. One of the lives to note was as a bracket racer. During this time, I cut out part of the cab- the part that feeds air from the cowl down to the cab vents. These pieces also act as a mount for the two cowl pieces in front of the doors. Without these, I had to get creative to mount the cowl pieces, so the pictures will show this. The way I am mounting the cowl pieces may give more adjustment than your typical truck, I don't know. This will be important to realize as this thread goes on.

The truck:

[urmyboyblue]

Welcome to Australia, I guess. I don't know how to correct the rotation of the picture- if you can tell me, please let me know.

Another thing to note about this fitment is that I am using Switch Suspension's hood hinge kit and not the stock hood hinges. These can be seen in the picture above if you turn your monitor or your head over.

The hood- I ordered this from LMC Truck. It was truck shipped to me in a cardboard box that showed some damage. Having purchased other body panels from them, I expected the hood to be well packaged so I was not concerned about the packing damage. It did not seem to be anywhere that would hurt the hood. I was wrong.

When I unpacked the hood I found it was simply loose inside a large cardboard box with not packing around it at all. And it had been damaged.

Due to some phone issues, i will have to post pictures of this tomorrow. I will try to continue my writeup tomorrow.

[SkinnyG]

Ta-da!

[Arne]

Originally Posted by urmyboyblue

Welcome to Australia, I guess. I don't know how to correct the rotation of the picture- if you can tell me, please let me know.

This is typically an iPhone-related issue. Before uploading, whether directly from your phone or from a computer that you have the picture on, rotate the picture to upright, even if it already looks correct to you. (i.e. - click the 90° rotate button 4 times to return it to proper orientation.) Your phone and computer are smart enough to show the pics correctly, the forum software is not...

Love seeing more threads with two-tone short stepsides.

[urmyboyblue]

Here is some of the damage that the hood had when I received it. I kept it because all of it is behind a brace and will not be seen when the hood is finished. It isn't much, but this is supposed to be a new hood.

I talked with LMC and we worked it out so I kept the hood and they helped me out with the cost of repair.

This is just the damage I saw at first....

[urmyboyblue]

I have had the hood since April of last year and due to health issues, just now got to fitting it. Here are some shots of the first fit:










The result of the first fit is a) the hood is too low about 1/4" (a hinge issue, not a hood issue), b) the hood is about 3/16" to the passenger side (also a hinge issue, not a hood issue) and c) on the driver side, the hood is pulled in at the bottom about 1/8" (this is a hood issue.) The hinge issues were fixed by moving the hood brackets over 3/16" and by adding spacers. However, the hood had to be worked on to fix c.

[urmyboyblue]

Apparently, I did not take any pictures of the work I did to the hood. I cut the spot welds at the back of the hood and bottom of the hood toward the back on the driver side. I then moved the outer skin over about 1/8" at the bottom, flexing the skin before rewelding it together. This didn't take more than a couple of hours. I attribute the issue to poor quality control at the factory. The passenger side was fine and lined up. Who knows, the next hood may have been perfect. I have seen this in fenders. The first set I bought lined up fine on one truck but the next set sucked. I am pretty sure that both sets were the same name brand, too.

[urmyboyblue]

Fixing the issues above and doing some alignment work, this is what I got:







All in all, the fit is not bad for a driver. I think it could be dialed in just fine for a show truck as well. Just be aware, that like all aftermarket parts, some work is going to be required to make it fit.

[urmyboyblue]

One last picture- this is how I picked up the hood an put it in place. I modified my engine hoist with an extra 4' long pole that is clamped on. There is an electric hoist that is at the back of the engine hoist with the cable routed up to the mast pivot point and down the mast. It connects to two straps that catch the back of the hood. The front is lifted with the engine hoist using a large strap that I have had for years.

[joesscamaro]

I've been curious about these aftermarket hoods...thank you for posting pics and review on it. No issues with getting the hood latch matching up?

[Braunschweiger]

Annoying with the dents, good job fitting the hood.

[raidmagic]

Looks pretty good. My stock hood doesn't fit any better. I love the device you made with your engine lift. Looks like I'm going to have another fun tool to make. My wife or daughter are usually pretty good about helping but I work alone a lot.

[raidmagic]

What happened to the hood you had on there and what did you do to mount the upper fenders without the cowl being there?

[SkinnyG]

The hood on my '61 is original and the truck has never been hit, and still nothing fits right. Don't fret too much.

[urmyboyblue]

Originally Posted by raidmagic

What happened to the hood you had on there and what did you do to mount the upper fenders without the cowl being there?

The hood I had on it was a fiberglass hood that was set up to flip forward. The hinges were attached to the grill support. I will have to get some pictures of the upper fender mounts- they are all custom.

I found a body shop that is going to paint the new hood. I hope that it looks good. Not going to be cheap but not going to be as expensive as the hood originally cost. And it is going to take time- they are backed up a couple of months.

[Steveoreno]

I would like to jump in here and offer my experiences with a new LMC hood that I started playing with today. It arrived a couple of months back and was delivered in a HUGE box...massive! I should have taken pictures (sorry). Inside this box I found that the actual hood box was protected from all sides with heavy duty cardboard baffles. The hood had a couple of extremely small dents....hardly with mentioning. I placed the hood on the truck (on carpet pads, no hood hinge bolt up as yet...just testing the waters). I found that left to right alignment was pretty good however the rear hood contours do not follow those of the cowl panel as you can see in the pics. It sits a good 1/4 inch below the level of the cowl. I briefly attempted to introduce more height in the center by placing spacer blocks under the center portion of the rear hood support and with a helper (two actually) on one corner I pushed down on the opposing corner in an effort to bend the hood slightly thereby raising the center......no joy there...it would not hold the bend. I think I will probably be cutting spot welds and "re-contour" the rear of the hood. I'm not sure yet what would be the best approach here. Any ideas are welcome.

[Steveoreno]

As a follow-up, I was able to change the arc in the hood by means of a porta-power as shown. It didn't take much time and now the hood fits well. I did have to elongate one hole in the right turn signal trim tabs and fix a couple of really small dings but again, easy fix. I am very happy with the overall quality of the hood. Your mileage may vary but at least I'm not dealing with rust and someone else's botched body work LOL.

[Braunschweiger]

Very clever and looks great

[raidmagic]

Originally Posted by Steveoreno

As a follow-up, I was able to change the arc in the hood by means of a porta-power as shown. It didn't take much time and now the hood fits well. I did have to elongate one hole in the right turn signal trim tabs and fix a couple of really small dings but again, easy fix. I am very happy with the overall quality of the hood. Your mileage may vary but at least I'm not dealing with rust and someone else's botched body work LOL.

Nice work. Looks good.

[joesscamaro]

Good work on reshaping that area and glad to hear positive reports on the overall quality of the hoods.

[Steveoreno]

Thanks guys!

[GSP7]

That is a lot of Damage