I recently put my hood and front fenders back on as Im trying to get my car ready for paint. I went ahead and used the hood hinges I had. They really werent that old and I didnt think they were in bad shape. Well, I was having the typical problems that we all experience with these hood hinges. So I bought some of the Dynacorn heavy duty ones. I did have to source them from 2 different suppliers. Everyone only seams to have one side in stock. Fortunately the Dynacorn are popular and it wasnt hard to locate the correct sides.
The hinges were obviously from different lots. There were small differences between the two. Nothing huge, but I did notice that one of the hinges had ever so slightly smaller bolt holes than the other.
Ive changed hood hinges before by myself and dont recall it being to difficult to do with the hood already on the car. Like everyone else, you just do one at a time. Don Rush at WCCC has a really good video of how to approach it as well. But I recently saw on here someone who used an engine hoist to put on a door. That gave me all the inspiration I needed, because I was doing this by myself again.
I found a the middle of the hood when it was opened and screwed in two J bolts into a rafter right in the center.
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A couple of ratchet straps and I was golden.
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I just removed one hinge at a time and let the straps do all of the work.
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So some of the issues that I ran into were binding of the hinges. I was raising the whole hinge equally straight up to get the proper alignment of the hood, cowl and fender. What I didnt realize was that the front of the hinge needed to drop and the rear stay raised. Every time I closed the hood I was getting really bad binding of the hinge. Once I figured this out it was a matter of leaving the front and middle bolts loose and snugging up just the rear bolt. Close the hood (no binding) see how much to raise the hinge. Made my adjustments and from there I tightened down the front and middle bolts. Once I had the right hood height, I then lined up my gaps between everything. The other thing that was helpful was to remove the main latch pin and let the secondary/safety latch keep the hood closed. Once I had my gaps, I put the main latch pin in and adjust it.
What I really like about using the straps was the the hood just floated and really didnt move off mark much at all. When I was first trying to raise the hinges straight up, the straps allowed me to completely loosen all the bolts and move the hinge in small increments without fighting the weight of the hood.
Not really any thing great in here. Just thought this might be helpful to someone who doesnt have another pair of hands around.
The hinges were obviously from different lots. There were small differences between the two. Nothing huge, but I did notice that one of the hinges had ever so slightly smaller bolt holes than the other.
Ive changed hood hinges before by myself and dont recall it being to difficult to do with the hood already on the car. Like everyone else, you just do one at a time. Don Rush at WCCC has a really good video of how to approach it as well. But I recently saw on here someone who used an engine hoist to put on a door. That gave me all the inspiration I needed, because I was doing this by myself again.
I found a the middle of the hood when it was opened and screwed in two J bolts into a rafter right in the center.
A couple of ratchet straps and I was golden.
I just removed one hinge at a time and let the straps do all of the work.
So some of the issues that I ran into were binding of the hinges. I was raising the whole hinge equally straight up to get the proper alignment of the hood, cowl and fender. What I didnt realize was that the front of the hinge needed to drop and the rear stay raised. Every time I closed the hood I was getting really bad binding of the hinge. Once I figured this out it was a matter of leaving the front and middle bolts loose and snugging up just the rear bolt. Close the hood (no binding) see how much to raise the hinge. Made my adjustments and from there I tightened down the front and middle bolts. Once I had the right hood height, I then lined up my gaps between everything. The other thing that was helpful was to remove the main latch pin and let the secondary/safety latch keep the hood closed. Once I had my gaps, I put the main latch pin in and adjust it.
What I really like about using the straps was the the hood just floated and really didnt move off mark much at all. When I was first trying to raise the hinges straight up, the straps allowed me to completely loosen all the bolts and move the hinge in small increments without fighting the weight of the hood.
Not really any thing great in here. Just thought this might be helpful to someone who doesnt have another pair of hands around.
