lonestarjarhead

Does anyone have any warnings or suggestions for aligning and closing a 55 hood. Nearly finished with the car and haven't had a hood on until now. The hood doesn't act like it wants to pivot down and close. Thought I would seek advice, before I bent the thing.( Which looks like it would be easy to do.)

Tedd Thompson

To give the latch a helping hand , retract the hood release as you lower the hood so the catch is in the release possession. When it closes (you can hear it snap over the bottom catch) you are done. Don't allow anyone to open or close your hood unless they know how it should be done, that latch is flimsy at best and I have had to reinforced mine. Cost the last guys insurance who closed my hood incorrectly over $7,000 to get my car fixed and almost gave me a heart attack when the hood tacoed itself over the windshield at 55 miles an hour. Not a good day.... Tedd

redoldsman

I know you have been fooling with cars a long time and this may sound elementary so don't take offense but are the hood hinges well lubricated? Have you sprayed them with something like PB Blaster? Based on Tedd's comments, the 55 must have a different latch mechanism than a 54.

Rocketowner

If your hood hinges are worn in the rivet holes,it will not line up at the latch. When shut does it pull down and line up at the rear corners,if not ,the holes where the rivets go through are probably worn oblong.
You can check this by raising the hood and while carefully watching the rivets,have someone push the front end of hood up as high as it will go,then let it back down to where it was. If you determine movement at the rivets ,then that is your trouble.
You can have the hinges rebuilt ,or take them apart, weld up the oblong holes and redrill them and install new rivets (available online at the well known Chevy suppliers. If it happens to be the drivers side, I have a good used hinge . Larry

DFitz

Also, obvious, but be very careful. I wouldn't let anyone else close the hood anyway. If new paint, be careful of side to side, you can chip the new paint both on the hood itself and the fenders. The rubber bumpers on the fenders will help, but you can still get metal to metal contact near the front before its seated.


I had new fenders. Took me quite a while to re-adjust the hood latch before I was happy with it. And yes, good advice, make sure you get that click of the latch around the centering pin when you close.

lonestarjarhead

Thanks for all the replies. The 55 hoods are definitely difficult to fit correctly. There's not a lot of adjustments possible. I have mine sort of fitting the hole, but I've found out that I have some serious problems with the hood itself, so I might be looking for a hood in the near future. I had a lot of trouble finding the one I have, then had to do a lot of work on it.However, it appears to be sort of twisted. I'll work on it some more, because any that I find will probably need work also. But if anyone within driving distance of East Texas has one, I might be interested.

lonestarjarhead

Looks like my plans to have the 55 on the road this summer definitely went off track. Left shoulder was bothering me, so I went to the doctor and he said I needed a total replacement, which was done this last Friday. Have to keep it in a sling and no working it for a month. Bummer