Front hood shocks cause hood to lift when closed?
 

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

I wish I knew where you get YOUR hood shocks. Everytime I replace mine, they work for about a month and then they're worthless.

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Let's Roll!
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-Richard
'84 Carrera Cabriolet
'74 911 Widebody 3.6 Project

Jdub,
Seems to me the hood raising back up after reinstallation of the shocks would indicate either deformation of the hinges due to shock pressure or maybe worn pivot points in the hinges themselves. I bet your "pre-loading" idea will work.
Just be very careful in your alignment, or you could end up in the situation I'm in with a hood that will not open.
Good luck, Marty

Marty:

Yes, I read your post after posting my own. I went over the directions for the SC via the Bentley book and in no uncertain terms the book was pretty clear about never loosening the front latch and shutting the front hood completely. They show a diagram about how to drill the front bumper area or somesuch to release the latch.

You know, I thought this problem was limited to the Triumph TR6. There are exhaustive notes about setting up a safety latch for just this problem.

Good luck on your situation and let us know how it turns out.

Jw