VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Body - Sheet Metal, Paint & Wood Need advice on hood fitting 40 Chev Coupe

Hood lines up nicely at the nose area and at the cowl of the driver's side,but seems to buldge at the cowl area of the psgr side. If I push in on the psgr corner the hood lifts up along the center. Almost seems the hood is too wide for car body or maybe the corner support bracket needs to be bent rounder. Any ideas would be appreciated

Do you have the hood laceing installed? The hood hinges and springs are "over center design". In other words the springs hold the hood open untill almost closed then pull the back of the hood down onto the cowl. The lacing must be in place to rase it up flush with the cowl top. Also any wear or slop in the hinges arm povots will affect alignment. You'll feel that as a jerk when the hinges go over center. If none of the above helps, remove the springs and hinge pivot bolts and just set the hood in pace. How does fit the cowel? You can bend the rear of the hood to add or remove curvature to get a good fit to the cowl.
Jay

Powerglide53, I am responding to both your posts. Please do yourself a favor by getting any manuals available for your car. A body and a mechanical manual are priceless! You can order them on line from a company selling manuals. Usually they are listed on ebay under the year of your car (1940 chevy manual). You will see that when you do an ebay search for parts that their are hundreds of parts listed for sale under 1940 chevy. You will find that this search also brings up many parts that are not appropriate so doing a search using the words 1940 chev* brings up only the most relevant potential parts. Eliminating the y and putting an asterisk in its place is helpful. Other tricks are also available. We have had posts on this topic before.

We have quite an extensive index covering the last ten years of our chatting. Try doing an advance search under the Search heading at the top of the page. Make sure you follow closely the Advanced search hints.

No matter how good the pictures are in the manuals some even better ones are in the Chevs of the 40's parts manual. You can go to their web site and order a free catalog at www.chevsofthe40s.com.

You should also be aware that most of the Chevy manuals are on the internet at the web site http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/

Thank you for also Identifying clearly the topic and year of the Chevy you have a question on. Good luck and welcome, Mike

P.S. I just did a search on 1940 Chev* manual and one is listed for $23.59 with free shipping and a body manual is listed for $19.95. Buy new manuals they are reprints of the originals and will hold up better to all your usage. The correct ebay CATAGORY is MOTORS with the subheading Parts & accessories

Thanks guys for your responses, I will follow up on all the info given..C.J.

Jay,I'm wondering what the procedure is to bend the hood corner bracket. Is there some special technique that one can use?..C.J.

BAssH! (translation Big Hammer).

Depends on what you have available. Some have used a ratchet strap successfully. Board and large hammer. Get Guido to push really hard?

I don't know if you or someone else has had the hood hinges off, and just installed the hinges on the wrong side. This is easy to do on the 41 hoods (I don't know if this is possible on the 1940 hoods). I have done this before!!! And guess what you can not get the hood to align at the firewall because one side always bulges. This is not when you solve the problem with brute force. This is when you change the hinges and label them passenger side and drive side. There is a difference!!!! Good luck, Mike

P.S. The most common way to bend a hinge is when you are driving and the hood flys up and hits the roof, window, or firewall. I have sold hinges because of this. You want to make sure your hood latches are both working correctly. You also want to make sure that if you close the hood you can easily reopen it. If the latch is out of alignment you may find it impossible to reopen with out hours of extra work. I bought a parts car that someone had cut the front off of the hood to release the latch. On a 41 you have to remove the front horn inner panel on the passenger side (if you are right handed remove the right side, the left one if you are left) because the grill limits all access to the hood latch. You then get about a 16" screwdriver, someone with a long skinny arm, and reach in and pry the latch release open. I always leave the grill out until I have aligned the hood latch. I then mark where it goes and take off the latch and install the grill.

Good advice Mike, I hadn't thought of reversed hinges being the problem.
C.J. if you do have to bend the hood, to add more curve squeeze between the center and outside edge. A push-pull porta power is the tool of choice but a come-a-long would work, you may have to fab a bracket and bolt to the center of the rear support. Protect the outside edge with a piece of angle. Go slow - little at a time. squeeze, let it spring back then check the fit. You just want to bend the rear support brace not kink it. And not damage the outer hood panel.
Jay

Hey Mike, I just tried with the "wildcard" (*) and Ebay says it no longer "supports" it's use...Hmmm