tcolt

I'm trying to straighten the tip of my hood that got pushed in when I took a an inch or two too long to stop behind a truck last year. I think only the driver's side (right side in the picture) got tapped in, but I'm not sure if the tip of the hood should be slightly forward of the two tip to the left and right or all at the same level? Can somebody take a ruler to theirs and tell me or take a picture? It's not easy to know when the ruler is perpendicular to the car, so in my picture it probably isn't accurate either. This was taken after I already pushed the driver's side tip back out with my 4 ton dozer...

Texas442

This should be fun. I'd love to see a picture of the 4 Ton dozer
Regarding the hood, I think you want to compare to 71-72 only and not 68-72.
Here is a picture per you request of a 71 with stock steel hood (not W25)

tcolt

Thanks! Just to be sure, it looks like the center tip is a little further forward of the two on either side. Is that right? (The tip of the hood without the attached trim molding, that is)....

Since you asked here are some more pictures. I supported the dozer at the firewall and so far haven't pushed with 4 tons :-) Actually, just closing the hood was enough to already get the ram piston to push forward into the tip of the hood. While I was doing that I kept lightly tapping with a hammer on the areas of the hood skin where the stress from the damage had cracked the paint. With the tension on the dozer that helped the stress in the crease and bring the tip out. But I'm still afraid that was the easy part as I think the left edge of the hood got a bit of a bow as well which might not be as easy to take out.

Luckily, John McNeel from this forum has already offered to help me out with a used hood and I already am getting a bunch of other parts delivered from him down from Oregon next week. Obviously, my stubborness still refuses to let my old hood win, so I'll try to set it straight before I install one that my car wasn't born with. Knowing me, there probably will be a time when I'll be able to use it in the future anyway... :-(

tcolt

As I feared. It seems like the left side fits even worse with the fender after I straightened the middle of the hood out a bit. There must have been some overall tweaking of the whole hood even though I can't find any other signs of damage to the skin or the inner structure.

I guess I need to up the tonnage ;-)....

tcolt

Wow! Here's the next problem... The crazy thing that a sharp blow will do and you didn't even noticed it was there. I'm glad my bumper doesn't seem to have taken a hit at all...

Yellowstatue

Four ton dozer..I thought you were talking about a tracked vehicle How much damage to the truck??

tcolt

Zero damage to the truck although he was trying to shake me down for a scratch he said was from the accident, but was a different height than my hood. This was a heavy duty truck with a solid folding ramp in the back that acted like a flat steel wall. Like I said, if I had two or three more inches, I probably wouldn't have touched it.

Are those three "tips" at the front of the hood all supposed to be exactly in the same plane? In other words, if the hood molding was removed, would all three of those points have touched the truck ramp at the same time? :-)...