Hood Positioning

[Alphamacaroon]

I'm having a hard time positioning my hood far enough back to align the rear arch of the wheel wells with the pontoons. My body is as far forward as it pretty much can be (hitting the front cockpit uprights). And my hood is pushed back as far as it will go in the slots in the mounts. I know there are a thousand different ways to tweak the body to get things to line up, but I think in this case I'm pretty limited because I'm bottomed out on both adjustments. It only needs to go back a small amount (¼" or less maybe), but even this small amount of misalignment is really easy to spot in the wheel wells. The weird thing is that it is possible to force the hood backwards by hand to get them to align, but then as soon as you let go, it misaligns. Since I know the front mounts aren't moving my guess is that it's slightly flattening/deforming the wheel well arch. What I'm basically saying is that the hood pins might be able to do what my hands do— to force the whole thing back some and keep it there— but it seems like I should be able to get it aligned without their help.

I figure the two options I have are to cut longer slots in the hood mounts, or to make hood mounts that are slightly thinner (front-to-back-wise). Any other ideas I might be missing? Has anyone else run into this problem?

[John Dol]

Jim,

You have a gen III but I had to elongate the slots in the hood hinge on my gen II to be able to align the wheel opening to the pontoon.
I’m sure other gen III owners will chime in too.

HTH,

John

[jdavis500]

I think I experienced a similar issue. I wonder if it fits better without your struts installed. I had my hood dialed in, but when I installed the struts, it deformed the hood which pulled things away 1/4". I finally concluded that the underlying problem was the thin wall of the hood forward of the wheel wells. I ordered new struts that were a lesser strength, fabbed brackets for the front end of the hood to prevent the flex, and I laid up more fiberglass in the thin areas. I think in retrospect, enough fiberglass would have stabilized things enough to prevent the deformation. Posts 114 and 116 of my thread go over this.

[edwardb]

I recall (I think...) lengthening the slots a bit in the hood hinges in my Gen 3. But it's been over a year ago. I tweaked so many things I've lost track. But I definitely experienced a change with the hood struts installed. Pushed my previously decent fitting hood forward. I found that it's critical to (1) have the pontoons locked down with the lower wheel well sheet metal, and (2) have the guide pins and sockets in place between the pontoons and the hood. For me, this mitigated the movement from the hood struts. At first it was necessary to push the hood back slightly when closing to get it over and into the pins. But now that it's been down a while and maybe the fiberglass takes a more permanent set, it closes easily over the pins and the gap is maintained. I'm using the stock struts. I'd be careful about using lighter duty struts. That hood is heavy, and gets even heavier when filled and painted. I use locks on the struts, one or both, when I'm working on it or when it's displayed. I've heard of guys having them blow closed at car shows. Don't want to be that guy.

[Alphamacaroon]

Thanks for the great info everyone! It does seem to be related to the struts and it does seem to line up fairly well if I push it back and get the pins to hold it. So maybe it is just a matter of forcing the fiberglass settle into place over time. Although it sounds like lengthening the slots isn’t a crazy idea, so I may try that too.

As usual, thank you all for the great info and encouragement!

[jwhit]

i had to make my slots longer also

[freds]

i had to make my slots longer also

Me too.

[bil1024]

Quick question, so did you all tighten the bolts in the slot ? Or leave it loose so as the hood could move forward and back ?

[freds]

Quick question, so did you all tighten the bolts in the slot ? Or leave it loose so as the hood could move forward and back ?

Tightened!

[Alphamacaroon]

Ended up cutting a longer slot and that made all the difference in the world.

Next question: suggestions for aligning the top edge of the hood with the body?

I’ve got the large rubber bumpers installed and they don’t quite raise the hood enough to align with the body. Again, it’s not much, but it’s noticeable enough.

First thought was to put some washers as spacers behind the bumpers to raise them up a bit. Second thought was to use body filler to build up and contour the hood (although this seems like an area that could be prone to cracking).

Other options or techniques I might be missing?

[edwardb]

I used bumpers to align mine. Of varying thickness depending on the location. I have a box of different sized bumpers, including some tall ones. So can't say every one I used was from the kit. I adjusted the height of each one as needed on my stationary disk sander. Works well. I had a numbered diagram and numbers on each one so they went back into the same spots during the various stages including paint. You may still need to do some bodywork/filling. But you should be able to it very close with bumpers.

[Alphamacaroon]

I used bumpers to align mine. Of varying thickness depending on the location. I have a box of different sized bumpers, including some tall ones. So can't say every one I used was from the kit. I adjusted the height of each one as needed on my stationary disk sander. Works well. I had a numbered diagram and numbers on each one so they went back into the same spots during the various stages including paint. You may still need to do some bodywork/filling. But you should be able to it very close with bumpers.

Yeah I guess that is another great option— I just wasn't sure where to source a bunch of different sizes. Did you source them from McMaster—Carr?

[edwardb]

Yeah I guess that is another great option— I just wasn't sure where to source a bunch of different sizes. Did you source them from McMaster—Carr?

Yes, the ones I have are from McMaster. Just checked, and I have a couple that required 9/16" high, or slight trimming with those. Nothing in the kit like that. Used these: https://www.mcmaster.com/9540K22-9540K22.

[Alphamacaroon]

Thanks again edwardb— I'll order a few of those and give it a try.

[Paul G]

Well this thread has been a big help, I've been busy with work quite a bit this year as well as life. I've been looking for a little motivation to tackle this on my kit and this help give me the push I needed. I modded my nose hinges a little more, add the splash guards that attach to the pontoons and the nose 85% better fit aleady. The light at the end of the tunnel is turned back on. As for the struts where they attach to the fiberglass, I was thinking (can be dangerous) about adding a strip of 1/16 thick in aluminum barstock to re-enforce the fiberglass where the strut mounts, to help spread the load from the strut? With a little luck I'll pull the nose yet again and see if it is doable. It look like one of my hinges I will need to make the pivot hole a bit longer. Thanks all

[freds]

I'm having a hard time positioning my hood far enough back to align the rear arch of the wheel wells with the pontoons. My body is as far forward as it pretty much can be (hitting the front cockpit uprights). And my hood is pushed back as far as it will go in the slots in the mounts. I know there are a thousand different ways to tweak the body to get things to line up, but I think in this case I'm pretty limited because I'm bottomed out on both adjustments. It only needs to go back a small amount (¼" or less maybe), but even this small amount of misalignment is really easy to spot in the wheel wells. The weird thing is that it is possible to force the hood backwards by hand to get them to align, but then as soon as you let go, it misaligns. Since I know the front mounts aren't moving my guess is that it's slightly flattening/deforming the wheel well arch. What I'm basically saying is that the hood pins might be able to do what my hands do— to force the whole thing back some and keep it there— but it seems like I should be able to get it aligned without their help.

I figure the two options I have are to cut longer slots in the hood mounts, or to make hood mounts that are slightly thinner (front-to-back-wise). Any other ideas I might be missing? Has anyone else run into this problem?

Check my post #430 on this thread.Not knocking any of the many solutions members have come up with. But my opinion is that adding the strut between the DS and PS mounting points of the air struts balances the forces in a very simple way and it immediately fixed the issue without any further work or reinforcing. The slots in the side walls of the cooling air duct have proved to be totally insignificant.
fred