Gramma's Car: the new project!

[njsteve]

I test fitted the new hood today with the help of my daughter. The fit is too tight on the driver's side. I'm going to need to pull out the diver's side fender a little so the rear spear of the hood doesn't rub as it passes by during closing. I think there are lot of bolts that need loosening to do that. I tried removing the rear cowl top fender bolt and the loosening the door jamb bolt but the fender didn't budge at all.

[jasonL78]

There should be a bolt on the firewall also and you will have to crack or loosen all the bolts on the inner fender to get the fender to move out. Once all the bolts are tightened its now the structure of the front of the car. For now you may be able to put a body shim behind the hood hinge to push it to the pass side if you have room.

[njsteve]

Originally Posted by jasonL78

There should be a bolt on the firewall also and you will have to crack or loosen all the bolts on the inner fender to get the fender to move out. Once all the bolts are tightened its now the structure of the front of the car. For now you may be able to put a body shim behind the hood hinge to push it to the pass side if you have room.

Thanks. forgot about that bolt. Once that was loosened was able to move the fender over a little bit but of course it then rubs the top of the door edge when it opens. And the hood stills rubs the inner flange of th fender back by the windshield as it passes.

I ordered a set of Goodmark reproduction hinges from rockauto and they should be here this weekend. I have a feeling the 43 year old hinges have a bit too much side-to-side play in them. You can really move the hood laterally quite a ways, when it is articulating.

[njsteve]

Originally Posted by jasonL78

For now you may be able to put a body shim behind the hood hinge to push it to the pass side if you have room.

That worked! I put a 1/16th shim between the hinge and fender on both driver's side hinge bolts. The hood now clears the fender now when you open it. I took the old girl out for a run today since it was sunny and 55 degrees. Started right up. Boy this motor can run! And the wide open throttle noise coming out of the shaker is soooooo much louder than the old Formula hood setup.

I just spent an hour getting the solenoids and brackets hooked up inside the shaker. Next thing is to do is get the wiring plugged in and the Turbo 400 kickdown switch installed on the gas pedal bracket under the dash. (the 1971/72 setup employed the Turbo 400 kickdown switch as the on/off power supply to the shaker solenoid. Very ingenious of the engineers to have thought of that. It works much better than the carb-mounted switches, plungers and solenoids used on the 1970. :-)

[njsteve]

Anyone have one of these little firewall ground strap connector clips? It screws to the firewall and allows the braided copper ground strap (that goes to the shaker base) to be removed without unscrewing the bolt. They were used up until 1974 on all sorts of GM cars. It's #46 on the chart but it shows as a non-serviced part. The part number is 8900232.