[Jdub]

Short story is that the front hood on my '78sc didn't fit well when I bought the car--the back section is raised up from the wiper deck section directly in front of the windshield. So yesterday I removed the hood shock struts, loosened the hinges and 6mm hexes (hinge to hood, NO washers/shims between the hood and hinge) and got a very nice fit. Tightened everything down, and checked again--looked perfect.

Well then I put the hood shock struts back in and whatdoyouknow the hood is back up a bit! Now I know these shock struts are very, very strong, but enough to do this?

My plan is to now perform the same procedure but to artificially lower the front hood at the hinges further than before, basically "preloading" the hood so that, once the hood shocks are back in, the hood will rise to the correct level. What I'm saying is that the hood will be set too low to account for the pressure of the hood shock struts.

Any tips or tricks on this one? It actually wasn't very hard to do all this so I'm game to take another shot at it.

Thanks in advance,
Jw