The nose (The front bumper cover) sits HIGHER than my hood does right in the center, but it lines up with the flip up lights just fine. Take a look at these pictures, I'm not sure what I can do, the car is getting painted soon.. Will the body guys be able to fix this??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THIS is where I think the problem area is.

 

But it doesnt make any sense because the fender still lines up PERFECTLY. Look.

 

Is the hood lined up with the headlight covers? There are 2 adjustable rubber stops under the front of the hood. They screw in and out to adjust the closed height of the hood.

If the hood is even with the headlight covers, you can try raising the hood latch. If you remove the plastic "parts tray" in the middle under the hood you can loosen the 2 bolts that hold the hood latch in place and raise it up to try and get the hood even with the nose.

 

Under the hood? Do you mean that big area around where the hood latches too? Could you show me a pic maybe? I'm not too sure what you mean, as I've really never done that before.

 

Oh and not trying to change the subject, but I see that like 99% of firebirds, including my own, have bends and warps right at the front of the hood, near the nose, as mine does, WHY?? Is it easily fixed? I plan for mine to look cherry, this is kind of a nessesary step, thats why I want to line my hood up right.

 

The red circles in the pic below highlight the rubber bumpers I mentioned. These adjust the closed height of the corners of the hood. The green circle is the bolts on the front of the hood latch. Loosening these bolts allow for adjustment of the latch height which should allow you to adjust the center of the hood when its closed.

As for why the hood is warped and bent, I can only speculate on that. I have never owned a Firebird so I'm not sure what would cause that. Just as a guess, I would say its from the previous owner(s) pushing down on the center part of the hood to latch it when closing the hood.

 

the hinges that hold the hood to the car have slots that the bolts go through. try loosening them and sliding it forward a little. if they are already all the way forward, remove the hood and grind the slot a little bit longer. thats what i had to do. it looks like your passenger side is farther back than your driver side.

 

Would adjusting the actual LATCH do the same thing? on the hood? I removed the two bolts, put a washer under each, and it seemed to make a difference, a slight difference at least. Would this work the same??

As I raise the hood up to the nose however, it seems to be coming out of line with the head lights.. problem??

 

Yes, hood appears to be skewed a bit.

Also does this car have a steering brace. Was wondering if maybe over the years without a brace it slightly tweaked the front end?

Also note nothing (even if it says so) is direct fit for any car. Every car is different, body guys can do wonders though, I've seen full car disassembles just to align or re-align body parts. It happens, but looks small enough to fix rather easily. Its all in small increments, plus having 2 people hold the hood in place while you bolt it tight again for alignment helps.

 

:/ So what do you think I should do? I'm getting it painted soon, and all the little body work done (Little dings and such), should I just wait untill then?

 

Bummp?

 

Raise the bump stops. This will raise the hood to sit mroe flush with the bumper.

Skew the hood counter clockwise (2 buddies to help while you tighten bolts) this will align the hood to the center of the bumper, then its all about fixing those fenders, as I don't have a gap like you do. So with that said maybe the bumper is sitting forward a bit? Giving that slight gap between the hood and bumper. That or move the hood forward a bit more.

My stock IROC hood rear left and right corners are flush with the top fender corners but my Daytona hood rear corners from Hawks sit forward (towards the front bumper) from the top corner of the fender. So my new hood seems like its smaller than a stock hood length wise, but its all in fitment, and the whole, nothing is direct fit, even if its made for the car..

 

I figured instead of raising the locking mechanism for the hood, I would lower the ACTUAL latch (that is connected to the hood) by unbolting it, and putting a couple of washers under each side, it worked wonders, its still not perfect but I'm MUCH happier, it looks much more flush. I will get some pics tommarow. Thanks for all the suggestions guys!