The Cal-look Lounge

Phone keeps ringing at work, but not during lunch break, so my mind wanders off again. And after seeing Tom Wheatley's pic of me driving past at EBI, I felt like posing this question:

How come all the nice cars have got really tight hood gaps? I'm referring to the fact that I can run my little finger in between my hood and the front clip and the hood is slightly higher than the area below the windscreen.

When checking out the Aronson/Holmes replica at EBI, I forgot to check out many things but I notice that tight look of the car's front. And I think the way the hood shuts really contributed to that!!

To illustrate I have copied the link of his photo, hopefully this make sense:

(http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/268158_2195966266670_1472635879_32521291_2000966_n.jpg)

I think a lot of it has to do with repro panels. Mine has a nice gap one side (genuine quarter panel) and a bigger gap the other side, where the quarter was repro. Doesn't help that it was built up with one hood (genuine), then swapped for a "better" one which turned out to be repro...

Speaking of that, you should see mine... huge gap between the hood and under the windscreen... >:(
If you have a car that had an front accident in the past (like mine) chances are big that you will have problems with gaps, unfortunately.
Nothing that a dedicated bodywork specialist couldn't cure, but that could be costly, especially if you use OE panels.

My front consists of all original panels but the car suffered a bump more than once in the front.
Been thinking of opening the slots in the hinges where the bonnet bolts on, that should give me more room to adjust the hood downward.

good point.

In most case's the car has been hit, Open hood and take out the spare tire. See if there is any buckle's in side panels. I made a tube that goes from bumper bracket to bumper bracket and I push on that till hood lines back up and theres a even gap.  I take the shifter inspection cover off and push off beam and tube I made with porta-power . Or you can tie car to something heavy and pull on a old bumper bracket. Make sure you dont over pull and kinda hammer on kinks while you have tension on front of car.

Anytime you see an arch in the hood gap, in other words, the gap increases in the middle of the hood length, the front end sheet metal is probably too short or compressed. As you push the hood close, and latch it, the hood will arch in the middle. Interesting that you mention Scott Bakken's car as it was clipped during the build phase by Scott, but as you can see, it all fits nicely now. Hood gaps is one of the areas I really look at when deciding if a car is worthy of a photo session, along with sagging doors and mis-matched apron lower edge and the fenders.

Most of the time when a vw gets hit in the front the nose drops and gaps get wide on bottom, And I always pull upward and out at the same time on damage till 1/4s aline with a new or good used hood. They buckle and dip right around center of wheel arch, And top door hinge move back and door will drop when you open door. I alway take the striker off door jam , So door hangs freely and you pull till door raises in rear. The ole saying every action theres a reaction.

That's one area I wasn't thrilled with on AssHull's car. One side fit "ok", the other... not so much.

One thing I've noticed is that pre'67 cars are much more prone to it than late models. Maybe the shorter lid is just a littl bit stronger and less resistant to bowing?