VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 Aerosedan Hood Gap

Have recently acquired a 1947 Aerosedan. Aside from the hood popping open to the safety catch when driven almost any distance, a problem which seemingly is easily remedied by adjusting the pin (happened on a subframed 48 p/u i used to have), the hood will not meet the top of the grill without a wide gap of close to an inch. Of course there is also not a good mating at the fronts of the fenders. The hood sits nice at the back and meets the cowl exactly. Raising the hood bolt adjustment did not help.
My bodyman, whose native language is Espanol, first thought the fenders could be adjusted. On a closer look he seems to insist that new body mount rubbers (there are 23 in the Chevs of the 40's kit) will help in adjusting the fit of the fenders and hood. Has anyone here encountered this problem and if so how would one go about fixing this annoying flaw? It's a nice car otherwise, black over silver, www, visor, '55 235 engine.
HELP!
Ray Antoky Brooklyn NY

Ray the hole front end is based on the spacers below the rad shell where it bolts onto the the frame. It sounds to me they weren't installed properly or at all. Sounds like you'll have to readjust all the front end sheet metal along with the fender extentions.

Agree - the radiator support is the Center of the Universe for these cars, also trucks thru '54.

It's all about getting the radiator support perfect, and it is challenging. Big, and uneven, gaps is a common problem. A lot of folks end up enlarging and making oval bolt holes in the fenders, inner fenders, grill mounts, etc, to get enough adjustment on sheetmetal pieces to get them to move far enough to line up.

As we are on this subject. What thickness of spacer would be recommended to start with. Also is there a company that sells a shim pac or is it just as easy to fab up our own.

chevsofthe40s.com sells a shim pack but you have to tell them the size you want .it's in their catalogue which is available online. http://www.chevsofthe40s.com/search.lasso?search=shims&dept=car
Ray in Bklyn

Thanks Ray. I appreciate the reply.

John