Front Hood gap questions-in Chicagoland

[John's 1995 Venom 550]

My car has approx. 1.25-1.5" inch gap on each side in front of the hood where it meets the front fascia. I had a new hood put on and it is gapping too much for my liking. I took it to the dodge dealership in McHenry and their viper tech did not know how to adjust the hood. Is there someone in the chicagoland area that knows of a place that will do adjustment to the hood.

Thanks,

John

 

[Jerry Dobson]

John,
WOW!!! That is a big gap. My problem gap is on the side where it meets the hood. I have a 15mm gap. But your 1.5" is about 45mm. But I think yours is on the top and mine is one the side?

We'll lets just say my car has the same problem. Not acceptable. I have been planning the repair for several weeks now. Tonight I will start on the project. I will take photos and give a full report on what can be done. The factory uses shims in many areas to get everything to fit. Even round holes become ovals to get things lined up.

Most of the cars that have the large gaps appear to have the headlights too low. I will have to see how this works out keeping the hood inline with the front nose.

I talked to a Viper Tech here in KC that pulled the front body panels off of a car. He said it was A LOT of work to get everything back in line. Many hours of trial and error. Most of the shops are in it to make money, so they can't spend the time to get it perfect if any of the parts were ever removed.

Has anyone out there done this yet? Any tips?

 

[Janni]

You can do it yourself, but it likely to be a lesson in frustration. However, with gaps the size of the ones you are talking about - it may be worth it. I wonder, is it possible that it is the wrong hood? Is it a smoothie? I cannot imagine stock parts being THAT far off.

That being said, the hood is non-adjustable. 4 bolts hold it on. Probably a good thing - as it is too large to manuever around for adjustment. You can, however, adjust the front fascia quite a bit, as well as the headlights.

The factory does seem to use quite a few shims...

The front fascia can come off in one of 2 ways - the easy way involves just "peeling" off the skin, and leaving the front bumper bolted to the frame horns. I am not sure how much flexibility this gives you forward and back, though, but it is how they do it at the factory. The fascia is VERY flexible, so you should be able to get some decent adjustment. MAYBE you can get more front / back adjustment by removing the entire front bumper assembly, but that is a royal ***** to get off - especially 2 bolts to the inside of the headlights that must be accessed by going in through the small and painful opening between the hood and fascia. The headlights have quite a bit of adjustment - three screws can help you with forward, back, twist and up / down.

Be forewarded, adjusting one of any of these will invariably mess up something that you thought you had right already.... Kinda like the ld Rubik's cube- sometimes you need to go backward to go forward.... Good luck!

 

[dansauto]

I have not found a way to align headlamps w/o removing bumper. Pain in the butt!! I aligned the headlamps to hood first then cover to headlamps.

 

[tristan rizzi]

Possible solution....

I have a 94, and have adjusted the headlights a few times without removing the front fascia. If you push on the fog lights they should pivot at the top (inward) as they pop out of the groove that holds them on the bottom. Next remove the rubber inspection boot right in front of the front wheels. Then you can get to the bolt holding the fog light in place and remove it. Once that is done you can reach in with a rachet & extention with a 1/2 (i think) socket and remove the three nuts holding the headlights in place. On my car they used U shaped shims to line up the headlights. On a sperate note when removing the bolt holding the fog light in be careful not to drop the "2" plastic shimms...they can be a bear to find. If you have any specific questions please email me, and I'll be happy to elaborate

Tristan

 

[GTS Dean]

Hmmmmm. Isn't it *4* nuts that hold the light pod down? 3 along the wheelhouse front splash shield, 1 bolts thru a tab off of the upper frame horn. The worst one to get to is the inboard rear, whether the fascia is on or off.