Thread: Brookville 32/ Fitting Hood

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Originally Posted by IC2

AGREE - and be prepared to spend some time with body to chassis bolts!!

34_40 - Insane?? Don't you mean a bit further along!!!

Glad you got it. Quick delivery - have fun and post your frustrations here so we can all have a few yuks on your behalf. And don't forget those gaps

Now 33 - 40 that's a whole new subject.
I've been buildin for over 40 years and the last 33 I did (2 years ago) Glass body,Rootlieb 4 piece hood, steel aprons, NOS 33 grille, I had well over 70 hrs in fittin the front pieces.

Originally Posted by DA34GUY

Now 33 - 40 that's a whole new subject.
I've been buildin for over 40 years and the last 33 I did (2 years ago) Glass body,Rootlieb 4 piece hood, steel aprons, NOS 33 grille, I had well over 70 hrs in fittin the front pieces.

And it shows! That's a beautiful car! I am sure I'll have that many plus! I've been pulling my hair out just on the inner fenders and the gaps / lines.. At the Burlington show I took numerous pictures of model 40's and the hood, grille, fender gaps. Some were just terrible too! Most of the original cars were easy to spot with the uneven gaps and bad alignment.

Sometimes I feel like I'm being to fussy but, I can't help it! Yes IC2, just comfortably numb for now!

Originally Posted by DA34GUY

Now 33 - 40 that's a whole new subject.
I've been buildin for over 40 years and the last 33 I did (2 years ago) Glass body,Rootlieb 4 piece hood, steel aprons, NOS 33 grille, I had well over 70 hrs in fittin the front pieces.

hey any pro tips on tackling this fit up??? what to fit first??? any certain order?? thanks pete

Originally Posted by prpmmp

hey any pro tips on tackling this fit up??? what to fit first??? any certain order?? thanks pete

The first trick is ----






Ya gotta hold yer lips right.

Originally Posted by prpmmp

hey any pro tips on tackling this fit up??? what to fit first??? any certain order?? thanks pete

Originally Posted by DA34GUY

The first trick is ----

Ya gotta hold yer lips right.

Don, the new guy, prpmmp, is here trying to learn, he asks a legitimate question from a pro builder with 40 years experience and that's the best answer you can give? I'm sure there are others here that would also benefit from all your experience. You aren't expected to give a 'step by step' tutorial on fitting a hood, but I'm sure he would appreciate solid, useful advice instead of a joke with a . Maybe pro builders like yourself feel they should get paid for the knowledge they've learned from the school of hard knocks but isn't helping the new guy get headed in the right direction a step in keeping the street rodding tradition alive?

Mike

Maybe I can shed some light.

There really is no cut a dry system to body to chassis alignment but the first steps are after you have the car assembled completely and on the ground with the wheels and tires you will be using :

1. Make sure the body is final bolted to the frame using the correct blocks, webbing and pads. It should be done, IMO, several days prior to anything else to allow for settling (where I'm currently in trouble)

2. Install the grille, shell and radiator (filled of course)

3. Install at least the hood top(s). This will give you your base for body detail lines. At this point you may have to shim the grille/radiator assembly or possibly even the body to achieve reasonable alignment.

4. Install the hood sides - and not to make light of it, you may end up redoing everything you did previously or at a minimum, tweak it some.

5. If you have an 'A' or '32, everything should be coming around at this point. All you need to do from there is to decide how close is good enough.

I spent (too) many hours doing mine during the initial build up - then blew the entire car apart for paint. I reassembled it as close to exactly the same way as it came apart, tweaked it, it looked fine, now after sitting a few months, have to redo it - and another XX number of hours to go

A '33 or '34 Ford, 34_40 can share his pain. He and I probably looked at 50 of that vintage last Saturday at NSRA Burlington and every one as far as I could see had something that was off. Then there are '40 Fords -----

Originally Posted by IC2

Maybe I can shed some light.

There really is no cut a dry system to body to chassis alignment but the first steps are after you have the car assembled completely and on the ground with the wheels and tires you will be using :

1. Make sure the body is final bolted to the frame using the correct blocks, webbing and pads. It should be done, IMO, several days prior to anything else to allow for settling (where I'm currently in trouble)

2. Install the grille, shell and radiator (filled of course)

3. Install at least the hood top(s). This will give you your base for body detail lines. At this point you may have to shim the grille/radiator assembly or possibly even the body to achieve reasonable alignment.

4. Install the hood sides - and not to make light of it, you may end up redoing everything you did previously or at a minimum, tweak it some.

5. If you have an 'A' or '32, everything should be coming around at this point. All you need to do from there is to decide how close is good enough.

I spent (too) many hours doing mine during the initial build up - then blew the entire car apart for paint. I reassembled it as close to exactly the same way as it came apart, tweaked it, it looked fine, now after sitting a few months, have to redo it - and another XX number of hours to go

A '33 or '34 Ford, 34_40 can share his pain. He and I probably looked at 50 of that vintage last Saturday at NSRA Burlington and every one as far as I could see had something that was off. Then there are '40 Fords -----

thanks!! pete

To answer your question, cover the grill shell, the front of the cowl, the areas in front of the doors where they meet the firewall as well as any other place that can get scratched with blue painter's tape, and then cover that with duct tape. That way you can protect the painted areas from scratches. Then you can carefully fit the hood. It helps a lot if two people can work on it at the same time.