so I picked up a new hood for my iroc the other day and got it on... the crunch inthe center of the old hood wasnt that bad, but when we got the new(used) hood on, turns out something is definitely amiss.

The passenger side headlight bracket is bent and the frame around the lights is broken as well, but I couldnt see anything across the bumper cover that would cause this large of a gap.

Anything in particular I should look for to get this nose bent back into the right position?

the gap is a little smaller on the right and left side and it looks like its in the correct position out by the headlights, so it seems just the center part is smushed.

 

heres what the original damage looked like

 

you may have bent the radiator support as well....why else would the headlight brakcets be broken on the passenger side? maybe with the hood in the up position you can look across it and see if it still looks straight....remember....all those body parts were connected when the hood got bent......they might all be tweaked a bit.......

 

good point... I was looking for vertical damage.. It very well may be more horizontal.... Going to be doing plugs, Wires, Cap and rotor tomorrow so I'llbe sure to take a good look in that direction as well.

(BTW.. I bought it like that.. I wouldn't do that to my car. )

 

What year hood did you get? The early IROC hoods do not fit nearly as well as the '88 and up ones. I tried a '85 hood on my '89 and it left a gap just like that.

 

no idea. I was under the impression that they were all the same

 

The hood on my 86 fits very tight and its original as far as I know.

 

I think hes saying 82-87 hoods are slightly different than 88-92 ones. I havent run into anything else that differentiated hood years on camaros.... THe gap is only in the middle, the edges line up just right. I'm fairly certain something is bent behind the bumper cover.

 

You probably have the hood too far forward on both bolt on connections (to the fenders and to the hood itself) as well as having the headlight brackets too far back and way too low - you'll need to go under the air intake (if you have tpi) to access the inner headlight bolts. there may be damage under the bumper cover too! the section of plastic that purtrudes out from the bumper itself that in essence keeps the bumper cover from coming in closer.

 

Looks like the headlight panel is pushed down to me as well. I'd start there as the hood looks good on the fenders. Two 10 mm bolts on each side just under the air filter panel or close out panel should give you quite a bit of movement in the headlight panel. L shaped brackets from headlight panel to rad support may be bent a little but that doesn't look too far out of alignment.

 

+1 on the radiator support. I just got a new hood too and it has strange gaps but it is from an 82.

 

Radiator support seems fine. I pulled the air box off and took a look inside. THe composit bar the headlights mount to is all tore up and the brackets that attach on the passenger side and in the middle are twisted up.

Once I pulled those off, I was able to push the nose up enough to get to about a 1/4-1/3" gap along the hood. So looks like a trip to the scrap yard is in order.

 

Turns out all three brackets across the nose were bent. Picked up replacements at the junkyard, got em put on and now I'm sitting at less than a 1/4" gap... I'm sure once I replace the headlight bar I can get it a bit tighter.

THere is a small ding int he radiator support after all. Its pretty minor though, just dentin in a smidge at the driver side bolt that holds the hood latch assembly. should be able to pull it when I take apart the front end to replace the headlight bar.

 

Pics looked like whatever you hit went over that panel. When you install the new headlight panel, you may want to loosen the bolts from the fender to the rad support about half way down the fender. They are pointed toward the rear. They will have to be tightened from underneath after the headlight panel and front cover are put on. Only loosen them enough to get the fender to move in and out. There is also a brace on the bottom of the fender that will need to be loosened. Most of the time these are loose anyway, self tapping. The reason I say this is from previous experience where the fenders have been pushed out by the headlight panel when the panel has been pushed back enough to break it. Hopefully the tops of the fenders aren't pushed out but you did say, and in the pics, they look pretty good.

BTW Looks MUCH better