Hood Clearances and Adjustments Part 2

[ronmanfredi]

Continuing my attempt to improve the hood height compared to fenders, I noticed that the hinges are sitting on top of the fiberglass nose cap.  In looking at this area from underneath the car, the hinge bolts go through the 1/4" thick fiberglass nose cap and then through a radiator core support metal brace.  Ok, so the hood is sitting about 1/4" above the fenders and the hood hinge is mounted on top of a 1/4" thick nose cap.  😏

Time to make a change.  I took a scribe and traced out the hood hinge where it sat on the fiberglass nose cap.  Next I laid out some blankets on the windshield and fenders and removed the hood by removing the 4 nuts off the lower hood hinge bolts.  I left the hinge attached to the hood so as to not change any adjustment pertaining to that part.  My wife and I picked up the hood and slide it back about a foot.  With the hood hinge area now exposed, I got out my Dremel and Die Grinder and cut out the fiberglass area that I had traced out.  Once done, we set the hood back in place, bolted it down and took a look at how it fit and operated.  

The hood now sits almost flush along the fenders and headlight area.  But when opening and closing the hood, you can see the hinge flex some where it attaches to the sheet metal core support brace.  Well of course it does, this Ford Mustang radiator core support brace was never intended to support a hood hinge!  So, I cut two 12" long, 1 1/2" wide, 3/16" steel pieces of steel that I had laying around, drilled 1 hole in the center of the metal and placed them under the braces so that when you installed the front hinge nut, it would stiffen the support brace.  

Test # 2, problem resolved.  Now the hood sits much closer to where it should, it opens and closes well and there isn't any movement in the hinge mount.

I'm happy and finished up the job with some seam sealer around the area I cut out.  Picture #1 is before, 2-4 after.

Edited November 2 by ronmanfredi

[aardvark]

Much different than the '02' model with a few threaded adjusters.