I bought a 32 roadster fiberglass car with no hood. I already had a (supposedly) 32 hood laying around, so i decided to put it on the roadster. It is wierd! Doesn't fit that great on passenger side but pretty good on drivers side. It seams to me that the side panel of the hood back where it meets the cowl has a slight curve but the body where the hood side meets the car is straight? Are 32 hood side curved where they meet the body?
Not really-----This is where "shimming" comes in for hood alignment. You just have to play around with rubber or neoprene shim tubing for desired fit.
My 32 had the Rootlieb hood set up, I changed the radiator from a Walker to a Afco Aluminum, what a nightmare, brackets slightly different, had to correct/modify, I spent off and on probably 12/16 hours realigning hood gaps, shimming, etc. I never got it as good as it was but then checked hood gaps on other 32's at shows and noticed very few fit real good, exceptions, real nice high dollar pro built cars. by wicarnut posted Aug 24, 2013 at 12:03 AM
You will also find that each side of your body is different. Henry's were too. Getting both sides the same will be a LOT of work. Probably easier to get the body, frame and grille shell as square as you can, then fit each side. Can't see them both at the same time anyway.
As Deuce Daddy points out it's all about shimming the body. Every shim installed or removed affects another part of the car such as door gaps and trunk fitment. It took me a couple of days to get my '32 body and hood aligned to where I was happy. The picture of you passenger side looks low to me, you may need to shim it up, that will close the gap some. It can try your patience, keep at it. Post some measurements of your hood and we can check if that's part of the problem.
You can sometimes get it right by adjusting the radiator support rods. and the radiator bottom mounts. It works for me.
Curved? In what sense? As far as i'm concerned the trailing (and leading) edges of the hood sides are straight, as should be the cowl where the hood sides sit. The hood sides when fitted should bulge out slightly / pull in toward the bottom) to match the shape of the cowl but the hood sides themselves return to being flat when not fastened down. The cowl banding or whatever you're using (silicon hose works in the cowl groove - not trad) gives the required bulge in the hood sides. Chris
I put a straight edge on the trailing edge of the hood sides and they both have a curve in them they are not straight?
I have spent a entire day adjusting the hood on a 32 Ford, sometimes they almost fall in place and other times they can be a down right nightmare. HRP
you could possible have a 33 Ford Pickup hood side if no amount of adjusting helps the fit. The pickup side had a curve to it along the bottom to fit. 32 hood - 33 Pickup Hood -
I'm dealing with sort of the same issue. The original hood seems to be too long. It's a fiberglass body. I think I may have to move the rad/rad shell ahead about 1/2'+ to get it to fit. I have quadruple checked and the body is mounted on the frame correctly
your issue might be in the body itself. Depending on who made the body, it could be slightly longer than a original 32. I know alot of the glass bodies have lengthened the doors, but it wouldn't be surprising if its slightly off. Depends on the level of tolerance they had when they made the molds for producing the bodies.
Chinese proverb...som ting wong. Is the length from bottom of the body belt line the same on right and left
Sincere apologies - I've just checked mine and they're not quite straight. A straightedge placed on the surface and sighted on the top and bottom corners of the trailing edge reveals that the hoodside protrudes rearwards by 3/16" . Hope that helps some. BTW mine are either originals or older repops and fit nicely to a Brookville 3w with an original firewall. Chris
FWIW : Even if the shape of the hood top is out, it may affect the alignment of the side panels..........
Don't know if this will help you, but I just went out to the garage and measured the Rootlieb hood on my '32. The very top of the hood side is 33 and 3/16". The very bottom measures 32 and 5/8".
Do you have an original frame? I have seen aftermarket frames with too much rise in the front. A friend had to bend the front of his down to get the hood to fit. I would try to fit the top and mark where the belt line is on the shell. Try to fit the sides alone to the cowl. The repo hood sides are flat and they should have a gentle curve to match the cowl and shell. The bare hood sides will tell you if the frame is off.
Andy brings up a good point. At one time they were selling Deuce frames with an exaggerated rise in the front end. Do you know anything about your frame?
What kind of mounting legs does this body use at the firewall location, any photos? This (may) have an affect on hood fitment. Also, as was stated, if the radiator/crossmember is off, from that point on it will be difficult to align grill shell to cowl correctly. You also need to be able to stand back some distance to make sure the junction of the hood to cowl does not appear like it has a "broken back", meaning the hood looks like it is going either uphill or downhill. I recall reading a statement from one of the big name shop guys about it taking a couple days to get this right.
1932 Ford hood measurements from Rootlieb Rootlieb will make hoods to buyers specifications. One persons 32 hood dimensions may not be identical to another persons 32 hood or Fords. Not all original Ford body panels were dimensionally identical to each other, they were mass produced and way too many things could have affected a manufacturing change in dimensions 88 years ago.The pictured dimensions are believed to be the factory dimensions. As shown by the picture and measurements the hood sides are not square top to bottom or end to end so trying to fit the irregular shaped hood side into a dimensionally square opening (straight body cowl edge to straight radiator shell edge) will be difficult. As stated by others getting everything to fit will be time consuming. Getting perfect gaps is way more than Ford did in 32.
Wondering where the 22" starts ( center of the strip or the edge off it) and where ending ( is the side body line included or not)..the same 13 1/8" How it's measured
On the last several steel bodied cars I've built we had to ad and subtract from the sides and on 2 we pie cut the hood tops, all this to get the perfect fit. Then did my chopped 5 window and the Rootlieb 25 louver gennie hood fit perfect as made. They're all different.
The Jalopy Journal
