Coupe 65 hood question

[Cincy123]

After getting the hood situated and the gaps acceptable, I mounted the hinges and adjusted everything to about 1/8-3/16 gap all around. After then installing the gas struts, my gap between the hood and the body increased to about 3/8-1/2 inch when I closed the hood. I tried loosening the two main bolts on the hinges and re-tightening while someone pushes the hood back against the force of the struts which helped some but not enough. I know this has been brought up before in the forum, if anyone has any additional suggestions as how to close this gap I would welcome all comments! I have not yet installed the front locating pins supplied by FFR, is that what typically takes care of this issue? Should these pins be located and installed with the gas struts off then put the struts back on to see how things line up?
Thanks!

[Jeff Kleiner]

Install the pins and their tapered receivers and adjust accordingly with the struts disconnected.

Jeff

[Cincy123]

Ok, thanks Jeff

[edwardb]

x2 Jeff's comments. I experienced the same thing. About had a heart attack... The alignment pins in the front of the pontoons will keep the hood from being pushed. At first, with the gas struts reconnected, I found I had to push the hood up and over the pins. Over time, it's lessened. I fabricated slightly heavier pins out of 3/8" SS bolts. Just because. But I suspect the supplied FFR parts would work OK.

[Ron J]

After getting the hood situated and the gaps acceptable, I mounted the hinges and adjusted everything to about 1/8-3/16 gap all around. After then installing the gas struts, my gap between the hood and the body increased to about 3/8-1/2 inch when I closed the hood. I tried loosening the two main bolts on the hinges and re-tightening while someone pushes the hood back against the force of the struts which helped some but not enough. I know this has been brought up before in the forum, if anyone has any additional suggestions as how to close this gap I would welcome all comments! I have not yet installed the front locating pins supplied by FFR, is that what typically takes care of this issue? Should these pins be located and installed with the gas struts off then put the struts back on to see how things line up?
Thanks!

Hi, I'm sure you have thought about this, but I will mention it anyway. I have a Gen 2 Coupe and did not have any issues maintaining gap alignment of the hood after installing the gas struts.

I first located the hood mount gas strut studs as specified in the manual.
I made sure the hood would open just past the balance point to ensure the hood would stay open without the need for the struts.
Before installing the struts, I set hood/body gaps and hood wheel opening alignment with the pontoon leading edge.
After all of this, I then located the frame mount gas strut stud bracket. It should be located such that the centerline distance between the two studs is "greater" than the centerline distance of the compressed gas strut. This will prevent the strut from "bottoming out" when compressed. Otherwise binding of the hood will occur when the hood is closed causing misalignment. I made a wooden jig to help locate the frame mount stud.

I didn't want the front acorn nut hood locating pins to "force" the hood into alignment. The locating pins should keep the hood from shifting during operation of the car.

The following pictures show the "jig" I fabricated to help locate the frame mount stud.
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