Hood framing

[ben23f]

Hi all,

I was just wondering how people went about fixing the cross piece under the hood? Both hoods I have seem to have had heavy loads sitting on top and bend the cross frame down and it has separated from the sheet? In the centre there is about a 1 inch gap??

Any tips or ideas?

Thanks

[Flaggoni]

I was gazing forlornly at my hood brace just last night.
I did a lot of backhanded heavy smacking with a heavy rubber mallet.
Was very noisy, but didn't help much...
Thinking if I can locate the heavy person who originally sat on the hood, I will position him across the engine, then slam the hood on him, thus popping the braces back perfectly.
I'm hoping you will try this first and report your results.
Thanks , Mild Bill

[jwgreen]

My hood is also slightly dipped in the middle. I think I am going to have my body guy do the same thing I had them do to my hardtop which was bend some small square tubing to the correct shape, then weld it in at the edges. You have to be careful not to weld it in the middle because then if your hood or top flexes it will wrinkle it . The sheet metal needs to be able to move a little. Anyway this is probably what my solution will be for my hood and has already been done on my top. When I get home I will post some pics of the top.

[ben23f]

I was thinking maybe gluing some strips of high density foam in the gap... hmm have to think about this more

[jwgreen]

Here are a couple of Pic's of the Hard Top Stiffner that I had installed on mine. I will be doing the same to the hood to make sure it holds its shape and doesn't sagg anymore.