A body hood hinges WTF?!

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George R

George R

Mopar Nutcase
Joined
Oct 29, 2007
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Location
Trumbull, CT
After saying the design sucks, can anyone tell me why the drivers side hinge on my Dart bows out before it actually comes down with the hood? I want to reinstall my fender, but I need to get this resolved first.

I replaced the worn and loose rivets with bolts/jamb nuts, but that didn't help. The pass side is perfect, but the drivers side is screwed up. I appears that the top piece of the hinge (the part that bolts to the hood) actually bends a little as I try to close the hood from full open. It will bow out far enough to scrape the fender before the hood starts to come down.

If I don't open the hood all the way to full open it seems to work better but not 100%. I have a replacement hinge, but the thing is full of rust pits so I would rather use my original if I can to avoid having to refurbish the rusty hinge.

ANY help will be appreciated!!!!!

George
69 Dodge Dart
 
It sounds like your D.S. hinge has been bent at some point and is wanting to do it again. Any way you could post a picture of it in it's worst shape?
 
Laying both hinges side by side I see no difference at all in the top part that bolts to the hood, but the next link down (the one with the spring on it) is bent slightly. I drilled off the rivet, and bolted it to my original top piece. I can't put the hood on to try it because I'm working alone, but I did notice that the hinge assembly rocks side to side on the body pins. How much movement in this area is considered normal?

Is there any other ways to attach the hinge to the car besides the crappy push fasteners?

Thanks for the help guys.

George
 
Swap out that hinge buddy.... No sense in wrestling with it if it's not operating properly. As a side thought...how'd the metal UNDER that hinge? Is it solid, or could it be flexing? These cars rust in the damnest places....
 
Hi John,
The metal on the car is solid; no rust or rot at all. I'm just a bit miffed as to why one side is perfectly straight through the arc of the hood movement and the other side is giving me fits.
I wish some of you guys lived closer. I could sure use an extra set of hands here sometimes. My 8 year old son does what he can, but he can't help me reinstall a steel hood on a car that is on jackstands. LOL

I'll swap out the pretty hinge for the ugly hinge and reinstall the hood. If it works OK, I'll have to remove the hood again, restore the hinge, and put it all back together again.

Thanks for the input guys.

George
 
Dude, that's half the fun of restoring old cars! At my day job I put `em back together and send them out to get busted up again. But the Barracuda... man, I wish I had used velcro when I put certain assemblies together! Want to know how many tach brackets I've made, and thrown away so far? And I still haven't made one I like yet! And don't even get me started on that damn headliner! It's become my achillies heel.... I get a sick feeling whenever I think about it. And I have to deal with it ...REAL soon!

BTW: How far are you from NYC? I have no clue where you are in Ct.
 
Yeah, I guess you're right John, but I want to keep this project moving so I can paint this car and reassemble it. I wanna cruise with it this summer! LOL

I live in Trumbull, which is the first town north of Bridgeport CT.
I-95 to exit 27A, and its about 10 miles north from that exit on RT25.
Total distance from the city is about 50 or so.

George
 
I'll have to plan a road trip some weekend.... 8)
 
for mounting hinges i took a die and cut threads on the post just enough to put a nut on but only cut it so it will get tight before the hinge does its got to pivot
 
I suspect sometime in the cars history that hood hindge was blown out.
Those that dont know better would grab a hood at one corner instead of the center when closing. Its happened many times and on some vintage GM products the right or should I say wrong force would bend a hood rather than blow out their hindge.
Unknowing kids would get hired as gas pump attendants and straighten the mopar hindge they bent enough to keep the job while others would bend a hood and hear... "You're fired"
 
John, George is about 30 minutes from me. I think we need to have a lunch get together one day.
 
George

I had the same issue with my Dart. The factory design sucks for sure but it's all we've got. I fixed mine the same way 340jeff said. I used a dye and threaded the studs that the hinge mounts on and then used a nylock nut to thread onto the post. I tightened it down just far enough so that when I opened the hood which will cause the nylock nut to turn with the hinge, the nut was almost tight against the hinge. When you close the hood the nylock will again turn with the hinge but only as far as the hinge rotates. I have mine adjusted so that it is fairly snug in the open position so that when its closed it isn't to loose. These hoods are a pretty big and heavy piece of metal and I found that the clips just wouldn't hold the hood secure when closed and when driving down the road I could see the back of the hood by the cowl kinda jiggle a little bit going over bumps in the road and it drove me crazy. Now the hood stays nice and still and opens and closes just fine!

Hope this helps!

Ron
 
If you get rust in the hinge spring it can cause it to bind. I spray mine down with WD40 every once in a while.
 
340jeff said:
for mounting hinges i took a die and cut threads on the post just enough to put a nut on but only cut it so it will get tight before the hinge does its got to pivot
Click to expand...

416stroker said:
George

I had the same issue with my Dart. The factory design sucks for sure but it's all we've got. I fixed mine the same way 340jeff said. I used a dye and threaded the studs that the hinge mounts on and then used a nylock nut to thread onto the post. I tightened it down just far enough so that when I opened the hood which will cause the nylock nut to turn with the hinge, the nut was almost tight against the hinge. When you close the hood the nylock will again turn with the hinge but only as far as the hinge rotates. I have mine adjusted so that it is fairly snug in the open position so that when its closed it isn't to loose. These hoods are a pretty big and heavy piece of metal and I found that the clips just wouldn't hold the hood secure when closed and when driving down the road I could see the back of the hood by the cowl kinda jiggle a little bit going over bumps in the road and it drove me crazy. Now the hood stays nice and still and opens and closes just fine!

Hope this helps!

Ron
Click to expand...

Good ideas guys..................I used a hose clamp. Lol!
 
I agree, the threaded hinge studs sound like a good idea. I haven't had any problems with any A-body from anything other than rust, and that was only one car. I do know, as someone said, that if you get a little rust on the pins for the hinge, that it gets sticky and can tweak a hood hinge pretty easily.
Someone make a day trip out there and bring some extra hinges. Nothing worse than having to do a two man job with one man.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the tips.
I'm gonna have to wait for a while till I get some more hands up here to help with the hood on/off, so I'm probably going to blackout the wheel side of the inner fenders as well as the rad support, then spend some time reassembling the front suspension. Maybe by then I will figure out what I can/need to do with this bullshit hood hinge. Can ya tell I'm bitter?? :D LOL
It'll be a little easier for my 5ft tall wife to help with the hood if the car is 8in lower to the ground!
John, I would NEVER ask you to drive all the way up here from NYC to help with a dumb car, but you, Adam, and anyone else from the board is welcome here any time. I'm almost ALWAYS home on the weekends working on the car, and this weekend will be no different. Just let me know when you're plannin to pay a visit and I'll stock up on beer and munchies.

Thanks for the hinge tips and tricks. I'll see if I can't re-engineer this thing and make it work right.
Right now I miss my Corvette hood hinges! LMAO. Naw, not really.

George
 
Hey, if I'm gonna drive up there, we should make good use of the time together! I don't drink and I constantly watch what I eat. But wrenching on cars is a pleasure...

BTW: One of these days I have to scan some of my "fat" pictures.
You wouldn't believe what I used to look like.
1293.gif
 
Well that makes 2 of us John; I don't drink either. In fact, I don't know how people can swallow beer. I think it's horrible! LOL
I lost just under 30LBS myself over the last 2 years, so I don't overeat either!

Like I said, anyone is welcome to come over and help do whatever you feel up to. I painted the engine bay and the inside of the front fenders last weekend, and would like to hang the fenders on the car before I paint the body so I can get the metallic to lay evenly. I can't get the fenders on with a bum hinge, so I'll move on for a while until I get it figgered out.

George
 
On the mopar site bigblockdart a guy drilled out the rivits that hold the hindge parts together welded a bolt and used a nut and a nylon washer .
 
I did that already Scamp. Thanks for the input though. That did take a lot of play out of the fitment, even though I think you'll be able to see this modification through the door jamb, but.......
Anyway, the uppermost part of the hinge (that bolts to the hood itself) is the part that is flexing. I dunno if it is fatigued metal, a previously bent hinge, or if something else is causeing this part to "give". I was thinking of welding a "stop" on the hinge to keep it from opening the last few inches. That would make it a LOT easier to close from full open, and eliminate most of the flex, but I don't want my hood to be lower than all the rest at a car show if parked next to other Darts.

I'll get it fingered out, but the bigest obstacle is getting my squeeze to help installing and removing the hood. She doesn't mind helping, but she can't really reach it too well, and it is quite heavy.

George
 
Is there any way to weld a thin piece of metal on to give it some backbone.
 
Those bolts screw into a block that is nearly impossible to replace. Repeatedly installing and removing the hood, deck lid, or most any body panel is not a good plan.
 
Hi Was the hinge bending/flexing before you took the car apart? If it wasn't doing it before it doesn't sound like a hinge problem. Just a thought. Good luck. Bobby
 
George: Try taking the hood up almost to that breakover point then spray the WD 40 to it and work it up and down many times. I had a stiff hinge also and that fixed the problem. Don't spare the juice. So what if it drips out the bottom. Like Fastback said. Good luck
 
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