Help needed with 1991 K5 hood adjustment

[RJB44]

I was wondering if anyone can help me with some info on adjusting the hood. As you can see from the photos I added, my hood is misaligned on the driver's side. It was this way when I got the truck and I never got around to trying to correct it. There is a 3/4 inch gap between the panel and the bottom of the hood (front) and a slight gap along between the fender and hood. It’s odd that there is so much of a gap in the front, but not as much along the side. Not sure how to get this all even.

Thanks for the help.

 

[tRustyK5]

The hood is only part of the problem from what I can see. It appears the fender to core support isn't correctly lined up. In your first picture you can see there is a small notch in the fender, and the top of the core support is slightly below that...it should be slightly above that.

There isn't a ton of extra wiggle room for those bolts though...are these aftermarket fenders?

You can see the top of the hood and the top of the fender lines up fine.

Gonna snap a couple of pic's of two of my squares to show you what I mean.

Rene

 

[tRustyK5]

OK, here are both sides on my '83 that I know is factory GM sheetmetal and has never been wrecked.

Maybe this side is more clear...

Here is my '90...no guarantees on factory sheetmetal...but the headlight surround is busted just enough to show what I mean clearly.

Rene

 

[AJMBLAZER]

The hood could also be tweaked/bent. Mine was like that. A friend who does body work just pulled down on one side and pushed up on the other, adjusted the hood stops, and viola! Much better.

 

[RJB44]

The fender is aftermarket and was replaced a short time ago, however this was like this even before replacement, when there was a GM fender there. I don't want to have to remove the fender or core support to correct this. even if I can make it a little better, that will be fine with me. I was hoping some proper adjustments would work for me.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Is the hood square? Are the bumpers at the correct height to hold it up evenly?

 

[tRustyK5]

The fender is aftermarket and was replaced a short time ago, however this was like this even before replacement, when there was a GM fender there. I don't want to have to remove the fender or core support to correct this. even if I can make it a little better, that will be fine with me. I was hoping some proper adjustments would work for me.

Proper adjustment would be to loosen the fender to core support bolts and see how much you can get it to move. At the front the hood is right where it needs to be (top of fender to top of hood is same/same). The back of the hood you should be able to adjust pretty easy. It's a flat hinge bolted to the side of the hood and there is adjustment room on that area. Loosen the bolts and move the hood down on the hinge plate a little...snug the bolts and close hood to check. Repeat until it's where it needs to be.

I'm curious how the door to fender gap is on the driver's side...

It appears to me that the fender was never correctly installed/shimmed. It's a pretty truck, it would bug me a lot to have that goofy gap up front.

Rene

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Ahem...you guys are assuming the hood is square.

Is it square/level? Mine wasn't and didn't close correctly like he showed until my buddy did his tweakery and viola, sits almost correct.

 

[tRustyK5]

What you're missing is if the hood is dropped in that corner so it sits nice to the core support/grill there will be a 3/4" drop from fender edge to the top of the hood. Have a good close look at the first pic, and you'll see the top of the core support sits even with the small notch in the front part of the fender. Now have a look at the pics I posted and you'll see how it's supposed to fit.

The problem is mostly in that area, minor hood fitting will fix the rest once that issue is taken care of.

Rene

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Ahhhh...good point. Still, check the hood. Didn't notice mine was tweaked for a while.