71 914 hood alignment issue

[vipergreenT]

My hood does not line up on my 914. Everything appears good from the hinges to the latches. It is about 1/4" off corner to corner. the hood is tight against the driver side front corner around the headlight and hood edge and has a gap on the passenger side and is tighter to the top passenger corner near the windshield. almost like the chassis is off a little. The latches don't allow for adjustment and I am getting concerned that there is another issue. I can see no sign of prior accident and the car has a very nice body. I even tried a different hood as I have access to one that is very clean and the same issue. Any idea's??
Thanks
Steve

[John Rogers]

Well, since the hood does not generally get tweeked to cause uneven gaps, it is usually the front part of the car. Check the areas around the headlights, where the spare tire goes and at the bottom of the bulkhead to make sure both sides are exactly the same. Over the years, most 914s that have been driven hard and had any auto-x use will have the body get tweeked. A final thing to look at is the mounts for the t-bars when the car is sitting on a level garage floor and measure them to see if both sides are the same.

[vipergreenT]

Thanks, Are you talking about the rear torsion bars? I will get a closer look tomorrow. The hood is straight from what I can tell. If the body is tweaked is there a fix? I would assume it could be put on some sort of body/frame alignment machine?

[ABEARAUTO]

first thing i would do is cross measure the front bulk head structure, from the right hand cowl at fender to the left hand bump stop center, than the left cowl to right fender, see what that measurment is if square than hood should be adjustable, remove upper latch to make sure it is not causing the hood to be pulled to the left or right, if front cross measurment is off by more than 1/4 inch than you have a problem, hope this helps, Steve