VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 !930 chevrolet Hood

I have to raise my radiator and shell to the cowl height to get the hood to align up, but them the hood sides are about 1 1/2 to 2 inches short. When I bought the car it was titled as a 1930, but I found the job number stamp that identified it as a 1930 Coach.

Questions:

Could I have the wrong year hood and need one with that would allow the radiator to set lower and still allow the hood to align?

Could I have the wrong year fenders?

How can I identify these parts?

Thanks for your help.

Some pictures might help....Joe

Sure, I will try to get some soon.

Thanks for your interest.

While pictures may help us figure out what is wrong, there should be no reason ever to have to raise the rad shell more than 1/8" or so. The gap between the lower side of hood and fender lip/frame rail is usually about 3/4"-1" uniform along entire length. Place hood on cowl and check distance from hood lower side edge to fender/rail. If more than 3/4"-1" at this location, you may have wrong hood. Also note cowl/wood sills are only supposed to be spaced off the steel frame by 3/16" pads at mounting bolts. If more than this at cowl, remove pads and replace with proper ones, and adjust rest of pads to align doors etc.

Am I right in assuming that you need to level the hood to align the sides?

How could I determine if the hood is the correct year?

We have had several threads here about putting the 29-32 hoods in place. First assumption is that cowl is at right height, and perpendicular to frame, and also straight across chassis.

The next step is to completely loosen the rad shell by releasing the nuts on bottom of rad shell lower brace/to cross member and the bolt for the V-brace into the rad.

Then set hood center hinge pin into cowl loop so hood fits with a uniform gap all along upper and side edges of cowl, typically about 1/16" gap or so. Once this is accomplished, you can tape it in place or block lower sides to hold it in place. If V-brace front end is not now centered under center of hood at front and of proper length to engage rad at proper location, it may need to be adjusted to the left or right or in or out by means of adjusting the V brace nuts at cowl on either side of brace. These nuts allow V brace to be made longer or shorter on each side as alignment dictates, by loosening outer and inner nuts as needed(the ends of the V brace have a nut and washer on both inner and outer face of cowl). May take several adjustments to get it just right. Once V is centered and of proper length, secure to loose rad using top bolt, and then check fit of hood (about 1/16" uniform gap at rad as well). Finally if rad shell needs a slight tilt to one side or the other (or a fore/aft twist), or needs to be raised a small amount to get perfect alignment, use steel or hard rubber shims under lower mounting bolts (check to see lower part of shell is equally spaced away from fenders (about 3/4" clear each side?). The V-Brace is not intended as only means to hold hood/rad in alignment, the lower bolts and shims do most of that work when carefully shimmed. The brace helps stop it from vibrating, and keeps rad from tilting back and forth.

As for the hood description, a '30 hood looks same as '31, but the side louvers go only about 1/2 way along side for '30, much further forward for '31. Good luck

Thank you sir...

Can someone give me the measurerments of a 1930 hood to make sure that is correct?

Munch, here are some quick rough measurements of the hood on my '30 Special Sedan that might help you to see if your hood seems like in the right ballpark.

Using a steel 100 ft. tape, hood closed, hooked the zero end under the lower rounded edge at the rear (at cowl), went up the side, over the top, keeping the tape about 1/2" from the rear edge of the hood, and down to the bottom of the lower rounded edge. So, overall hood at the rear = 6'-11 3/8".

Same at the front edge, overall = 5'-8 1/4".

Then, just for you to compare hood side panels, folded up one side, and while it was lying there near the top of the radiator, measured from the bottom of the side panel front lower rounded edge up to the center of the side hinge pin (exposed when you fold it up) = 1' -7 1/2".

That's on my '30. See what you get.

Thanks 46 Panel, I'll check these measurerments when I get home.

When you talked about the lower rounded edges, are you saying that they are not square as are in my pictures?

Sorry 46 Panel, I did not send pictures. Thst was a different post. My bottom corners are square.

Not quite sure what you mean that yours are square. But the lower edges of my hood side panels have an outward rolled "bead" or rolled edge, about 1/4" in diameter, curls clear around to complete the circle, not much different in size or shape from the rolled edge at the top that accepts the 1/4" hinge pin. This goes all along the bottom edge, for stiffness, I'm sure.

Do yours have some kind of small, square, angle bend?

Someone else will have to comment on what is normal. Surely yours were never cut off for some reason........

Got you, I just misunderstood. My hood has the same measurements as yours.

Thanks to everyone's suggestions I do have some things to look at.

Thanks