Hood alignment

[94RT10Ohio]

A recent post had me thinking about the alignment of my hood. Everything is great excpet for the gap along the top of the drivers headlight. It gets larger as you go towards the driver side wheel. I have seen this on many Vipers. Is this just the hood itself loosing its shape a little? Is it correctable? I can push down on it and it looks great, but there is no latch at that position to adjust. Car has not seen any accidents, only paint work was the nose for stone chips and the sills. Seen in the pic below, almost like it is raising a eye brow.....

 

[STUGOTS]

mine did that as well (due to a small accident before I got it) and the Wizard did wonders with her, as a matter of fact in order to get mine perfect I need to buy new hood hinges and radiator shrouds then im gonna have Chuck get her perfect.

 

[STUGOTS]

when their hand built this is what ya gotta go through

 

[97 B/W GTS]

I thought I was the only one with that problem...

I adjusted the two front hood latches so that it didn't hold the front of the hood down so tight...it used to lock into place just a little below "flush". After I did that (adjusted it for a "flush" fit), the large headlight/hood gap went away.

 

[hemibeep]

the actual headlight is held in place with four bolts. they can be shimmed. BUT, it would then have the headlight rising out of the bumper cover. On Gen II there is also a rod that goes from frame rail on a diagonal to the little "wing" edge of bumper closest to the outside. You should be able to look straight down at the outside of light to see if the Gen I is similar. There would be two bolts in a long slot. this supports the outside edge of rad shroud and is adjustable. hoefully the Gen I is similar. If you could loosen those, then adjust the shroud upwards it would raise both the light and bumper cover upward towards the hood. Don't know if this helps, but its worth a look.

 

[PDCjonny]

Welcome to the group. Here is my hood and I hate the 1/2" gap where the hood meets the side of the front facia but mine is even on both sides. The center of the hood is tight, maybe slightly below level. I can't see any easy way to close this gap up. I have seen worse, and I have seen a lot better on other Vipers.

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[95Viper]

I have a larger gap on passenger side, I've given up trying to care once I made sure the inner part wasn't hitting headlight and the bumpers were in place.

 

[TomSlick]

Check out the new Viper Mag. in the back there's a picture of the two brothers that have Vipers. Those hoods are perfect, but I don't see how mine could get any better. I have the 1/2" gap like ViperJon's.

 

[scottgf]

Been there...Done that......

Do a search using the words "hood gap" Lots of info...
Mine was WAY out of wack....got back pretty good now...not perfect but good enough for me....
Cheers,

 

[STUGOTS]

Guys trust me it is NOT only gen 1's.

The Wizard did wonders, well as much as he could do without new hood hinges and springs since there shot.

I bet if you gave hime a call he'd have some great tips for you, he did an awesome job on mine.

 

[GoldenVenom]

I have the same problem on my 02 ACR which I bought new. But it has the larger gap on the driver side and the passenger side is about 1/3 smaller. However the hood closes perfectly.

 

[steel snake]

Besides idle hang this problem seems the most common. Mine's the same as 94RT's. Luck of the draw. I don't worry about it too much. Sometime I might get really ambitious and do a facia/headlite job, but I'd rather be driving. As yet nobody has said " I love your car but what's with the big gap on the driver's side?

 

[PDCjonny]

We have way too much time to dwell on crap like this in the winter I guess, never bothered me till someone mentioned it... Not to mention how anal most of us are about the car's looks.

 

[thebigsnake]

With enough real world driving over *** holes etc. the hood alignment will suffer. Not to mention the rockers and wheel edges. That's probably why Dodge redesigned the hood anyway. Can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

[94RT10Ohio]

Update on this topic....

I was able to "even out" the gaps, basically closing the gap SLIGHTLY on the drivers side and opening the passenger by adjusting the front hood latches. While it looks better since both sides are now the same I have seen better. I tried other configurations of the front latches, they will not yield a better fit than I now have. So the question is how does one get the "perfect" fit?

Current situation.... The gap between the lights are good and at the inside part of the lights it is good, it just expands slightly going out. So giving it some thought, what would hold up the outter part? The only thing I could come up with is the actual hood hinge. I have yet to dig into this but it almost seems I would be able to loosen the hinge from the car, not the hood, and lower it slightly. This should not affect the gap between the lights as the front latches and rubber stops keep that. Does this sound correct? Does the hinge attach to the car in a way it actually has a little play up or down?

 

[AJ]

as per the wizard (my 02 has the same problem on both sides) the whole front facia, headlights and hood hindges are adjustable/shim-able... i have yet to play with mine, but i did some snooping and it looks tedious, but doable...will share some detail when i get the time to do mine...

alex
few cars

 

[big-n-italian]

One of my winter projects was exactly the problem you have. My body panels lined up ok, but I had uneven and goofy looking gaps around one of my headlights. I decided to look at the headlight as the problem, and figured out that the headlight had been replaced at one time, and when it was re-installed, they did a horrible job aligning it back in. In fact the headlight only had (3) nuts holding it in place instead of (4). Anyway, after a lot of shimming and wiggle work, I finally got it to look right. Take a look at the headlight too - maybe it needs the work instead of your body panels/hood..??

 

[scottgf]

Ok,
Here is my quick and dirty fix.....
Loosen up the facia bolts in the wheel opening area...Take a floor jack and push up on the end of the facia in front of the tire....tighten up the bolts.....Cover the jack with something soft and dont crank the jack too much.....
Thats what I did...probably the Wizard will cringe thinking how I did this, but it worked....
Cheers,

 

[PDCjonny]

I'm interested in hearing any and all remedies that people have tried so lets try to keep the topic around. I'm sure there are many of us who would like to get those gaps closed, or at best straightened up. I lowered the rubber hood bumpers down, thinking that maybe they were too tight but didn't do anything. I can't lower the hood latches as the hood is already slightly contacting the headlights on the inner curve. Short of taking off the front fascia and lowering the headlights, I don't see any fix by adjusting any hood mechanics.

 

[sniper1]

If I'm not mistaken there are 10 adjustment points on the Gen I and Gen II hoods not to mention the hindge attatchment points. It is a teadius sometimes frustrating ongoing process but take your time if you end up doing it yourself. Some things to watch for is the alignment lines with the doors as well as the the front facia corners and top front of the facia and finally the the spacing between the hood and the cowl. I'm still tinkering with mine from time to time when I get really bored. Good luck

 

[PaViper]

Holy Crap...this thread is three years old

 

[sniper1]

Holy Crap...this thread is three years old

yeah I mis-posted it on the wrong thread oops