What causes the warped hoods on the chevy;s. It bends right near the fold.
CK5
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warped hood
- Thread starter wazzabie
- Start date
sled_dog
1 ton status
Metal fatigues from the strong springs over time. That and if the hinges rust up a little bit, it just adds friction to the whole thing making it that much harder to close the hood, more force = more likely to bend. It sucks, but thats the way it is. They make those hood stiffeners(personally I'd just weld a piece of flat stock along the edge myself), or you could eliminate the springs and put a hood prop on(though not having one sure is nice).
rusty hinges!
The hoods on most 73-87 GM trucks are bent due to the hinges being neglected as far as oiling them!--that,combined with the built in "crumple"zone made into the hood just after where the hinges bolt on,a built in "weak spot",so the hood folds up,instead of coming thru the windsheild and decapitating the riders in the cab,is why they fold in half so often..
They make "hood stiffeners" to make it bend less easy,or you can add some "beef" to it some other way..be aware it might defeat the saftey factor they built into the hood!..I just drown the hinges with oil,and be careful when I shut my hood..its not bent yet!..but my 74 K20 I had,had a bent hood,and lots of iron bars added so it wouldn't bend again!...glad I never crashed it!
The hoods on most 73-87 GM trucks are bent due to the hinges being neglected as far as oiling them!--that,combined with the built in "crumple"zone made into the hood just after where the hinges bolt on,a built in "weak spot",so the hood folds up,instead of coming thru the windsheild and decapitating the riders in the cab,is why they fold in half so often..
They make "hood stiffeners" to make it bend less easy,or you can add some "beef" to it some other way..be aware it might defeat the saftey factor they built into the hood!..I just drown the hinges with oil,and be careful when I shut my hood..its not bent yet!..but my 74 K20 I had,had a bent hood,and lots of iron bars added so it wouldn't bend again!...glad I never crashed it!
R72K5
Banned
yep it is due to both,m ppl neglect to maintain hinges and there are crumple indentations on these hood underside just in front of the hinges, yep
so its no wonder this happens all the time, ive had a few trucks with bent hoods, pretty commonly seen,
dont need the braces if ppl would just oil the hinges, its cake walk to do, its not hard, it only take about two minutes to do, literally, and youll prevent a ruined hood/hinges
anyoen who reads this should drop everything right now and go freakin oil their hinges,
not WD40 water crap.. but with something good, like penetrating oil spray, or actual oil, orf tranny fluid, whatever, oil all the pivots and rivets, everything, and while youre at it, soak your door latch mechanisms real quick, lift and lower the hood a few times real quick and open and shut doors real quick too, after oiling, youll be glad..
so its no wonder this happens all the time, ive had a few trucks with bent hoods, pretty commonly seen,
dont need the braces if ppl would just oil the hinges, its cake walk to do, its not hard, it only take about two minutes to do, literally, and youll prevent a ruined hood/hinges
anyoen who reads this should drop everything right now and go freakin oil their hinges,
not WD40 water crap.. but with something good, like penetrating oil spray, or actual oil, orf tranny fluid, whatever, oil all the pivots and rivets, everything, and while youre at it, soak your door latch mechanisms real quick, lift and lower the hood a few times real quick and open and shut doors real quick too, after oiling, youll be glad..
I take spray lub and spray my pivot points on my hinges every oil change.
Yep, rusty, sticky hood hinges. 
The original hood on my '75 is still straight. 
The hood stiffeners can get ya killed in an accident. GM designed the hood to kink at that point in a collision. If you look, you'll see that the hood is not as wide as the windshield. If the hood can't fold, then the last thing that you ever see could be that hood coming straight back towards you at very high speed...
The original hood on my '75 is still straight. The hood stiffeners can get ya killed in an accident. GM designed the hood to kink at that point in a collision. If you look, you'll see that the hood is not as wide as the windshield. If the hood can't fold, then the last thing that you ever see could be that hood coming straight back towards you at very high speed...
If the hoods bent on '81+ trucks, it's because of hinge problems.
The '73-80 trucks were DESIGNED that way, that's the fold point for front end collisions. With that setup though, it fatigues the hood in that location and they fold.
THOSE are the hoods that the reinforcing kit is designed for. '81+ doesn't need it.
The '73-80 trucks were DESIGNED that way, that's the fold point for front end collisions. With that setup though, it fatigues the hood in that location and they fold.
THOSE are the hoods that the reinforcing kit is designed for. '81+ doesn't need it.
beater_k20
Banned
sled_dog said:
keep the hinges clean and well lubricated and you wont have a problem at all. adding the stiffeners to the hood is plain retarded. they were put there to allow the hood to bend in the event of a front impact. adding metal to eliminate this crush point eliminates the bend of the hood, and there's only one place for it to go, straight through the windshield. when it goes through the windshield it carries pretty big potential to decapitate or otherwise severly injure front seat passengers. i like my head too much to bolt those pieces of crap on there, so i'll continue to perform a little bit of preventative maintnance, keep my hood nice and straight, and my head securely attached to my body.
i have seen them in demolition derby trucks climb the windsheild bars or wires, only to find out after further inspection that they were reinforced. we use either 3/8" strap steel, or 6-8 strands of #9 black annealed fence wire run between the dash and the roof, havent had one come through yet, but have had a few try.
spearchucker
1/2 ton status
Remove the springs and mount some lift shocks in their place instead.
Good discussion.. Now that my drivers side is bent what can I do to unbend it? It doesn't really effect anything other then reminding me that I bent my own hood. I'm sure that I oiled the hinges before. I do remembr the hinge getting stuck when I closed the hood. One keep pivoting and the other got stuck.. so I should have done this every oil change.
There needs to be a best practice list for K5's.. so things like oil you hinge every oil change will be known.
There needs to be a best practice list for K5's.. so things like oil you hinge every oil change will be known.
