LavaRock

I purchased a used VFN Sunoco hood and installed it today, but after all our efforts it still sticks up a little at the front about maybe a 1/4". Since it is used and was on previous owner's car for a few months in the garage. Has it taken its final shape? Or can it still conform to my car? I'm thinking shave it down and use hood pins (yeah I know they don't match F-bodies). Any suggestions would be helpful? Thanks!

chaman

iTrader: (5)

Suggestion? Patience and resignation, my son.....

HMFDZ28

iTrader: (16)

http://faqs.armorysound.com/?page_id=7 this should help for ideas

LavaRock

Yeah, we used that link to get it fitted, but haven't figured out why the front still sticks up? We even removed those rubber bumper things, but it didn't help.

djsanchez2

iTrader: (14)

I have the opposite problem thew front of mine dips down lower than the lip of the bumper cover by about 1/8 inch. The rear rises a good 1/4 inch away from the fenders as well.

LavaRock

Everyone had such high praise for the fitting? I must be missing something. Or will patience pay off? I still like it, but wish it was perfectly aligned.

firefighter813x

iTrader: (6)

Mine is the same way... It drives me nuts!

vjo90rs8

iTrader: (9)

i wanna buy one this week, I hope I don't have the same problem. Do you guys have any close up pictures

LavaRock

Can you adjust those hood bumpers higher?

Thinking about my problem (high front) I'm going to drill a little more into the bracket holes closest to the front of the car. If that doesn't work I'll strongly consider hood pins.

Also, has anyone heard of putting cold water on a hot fiberglass hood to help shape it? Someone told me this and I'm not sure if it is worth trying?

02gtp4now

iTrader: (7)

chances are if you try to reshape it you will crack it, with the rubber bumpers out and the hood shut can you push it down level or is it solid when you push down. did you try adjusting the hood latch down

phantomzer0

iTrader: (17)

When a corner is to high, then opposite corner at the back needs to come up. It works like a see saw. It may look right in the back but it isn't. try playing with the back. What I would do is, take the hood latch off, loosen all the bolts from the hinges so the hood can slide freely. Now I would put the hood down and move it into a good position. Have a friend help out. get that baby just right, put some pressure on the spots where bolts are, lift it and tighten.

Let's let vfn in here to possibly help out,. You could always call them too.

LavaRock

I'm going to tackle it again either this weekend or next. My question is how flat or aligned should these hoods be? Would they be exact to the stock height or should it be a 1/4" higher at the rear flat to the front, 1/8" all the way or what? I'm not upset btw, because I still love the look of it, but would like to know just what I should expect as far as exact fitment.

Roger@U.S.Exotics

It sounds like you'll want to adjust the latch itself down a bit. First thing you'll want to do is crank all four of the rubber bumpstops all the way down, and loosen the u-bolt until it's got a little bit of play in it... this will just allow the u-bolt to feed into the latch still even if things shift a bit. You'll then want to look for the mechanism that the u-bolt, at the front of the hood, feeds into and latches. You'll see two 13mm bolts that mount it to the rad support. Just loosen these two bolts up a few turns until it's got some play in it. The holes the bolts are fastened into are slotted up/down about a full inch. Just lower it down a bit and retorque the bolts, close the hood and check the level of the hood in the center, making sure it's even with the bumper cover. You may have to repeat these steps a few times before it all lines up. Once you do get it level, just carefully retorque the bolts on the u-bolt. It's likely that the front corners of your hood are probably sitting a little low at this point, so use the rubber bumpstops for the fine tuning there. Alot of people think that the only way to adjust the levels on their hood is the bumpstops, when they should be adjusting the height of the latch first, and relying on the bumpstops for the fine tuning. Let me know how that works out. I have a difficult time trying to explain things like this through text sometimes, so if you need to talk over the phone or anything, feel free to PM me and I'd be happy to walk you through it that way. Good luck!! ... Hope that works.

LavaRock

Thanks Roger! I think that's going to work and more amazingly I understand what your saying. I'll try it tonight.

Roger@U.S.Exotics

That's great brother!!... Just keep me posted. It's one of the simplest adjustments on these cars, but alot of people just don't know about it. Typically it's that latch adjustment and headlight cover adjustments on the birds that most people don't know about. They can both save people a TON of frustration and time. I'll check back here later tonight or in the morning to see how you made out.

bad6as

iTrader: (17)

like that? thats a pic of my car in my friends mirrior. so its backwards

djsanchez2

iTrader: (14)

I will sell you mine. It is already black. I think im gonna go back to a SS hood, I seen a CF one that i might want to pick up, hopefully paint it sans manta.

Roger@U.S.Exotics

It looks to me that your hood can be adjusted as well to drop down that passenger side corner. First, I'd just want to make sure it wasn't something obvious, like the front passenger side bumpstop being too high. That would definitely cause the hood to sit at that angle... but I assume you've probably already played with them. Be sure to crank all of the bumpstops all the way down before you do anything else so they don't interfere.

Now... try the same sequence that I posted earlier, but when you're adjusting the latch down, drop the pass. side bolt (13mm) about 1/4 inch lower than the driver side. I know that they're only a few inches apart, but you'd be surprised at the difference it can make when that slight angle is multiplied over the distance from the latch to the high corner. You'll wanna be sure to loosen the u-bolt on the hood a bit before you close the hood though... reason being that when you're dropping the left side of the latch lower, you can imagine that the entire latch is going to sit at a bit of an angle. Instead of the opening at the top of the latch facing straight up, it will now be angled a bit towards the left. When you close the hood, the u-bolt will need to feed in from about 1/4 inch further to the left than it did originally. Basically what is going to happen is the latch will pull the hood down on the passenger side a bit more than it will the driver side. Give that a shot and it should level everything out. You'll probably feel some tension when closing the hood now, but don't worry. After a few heat cycles (running the car, letting it cool, running, and so-on) the hood will close with less force. Good luck with it and let me know if you need anymore ideas.

Danny2tek

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the tips Roger. I'm finally gonna install my WS9 that I bought from you THREE years ago . Hopefully everything goes good.

firefighter813x

iTrader: (6)

Thanks for the advice as well. It needs to be repainted again, so I will muck with it then.