[munch]

I am trying to put the hood on my 1930 Coach and it is kicking my butt.  Every adjustment I make throws something else out.  Does anyone have a trick they can share?

[themoose]

Munch

What area is giving you problems. I had to shim the body and the radiator support to get the right gaps. Get the cowl to hood line where it should be and then work forward from there by moving the radiator fore and aft and shim up or down to get all the gaps right. If you don't have enough movement in the radiator to get the lines right you'll have to re-shim to body to change the cowl angle and start over. If you do have to shim the body to change the cowl angle make sure you do all the body mounting points or you door gap will go out. It's a lot of fun.

Moose

[munch]

Thanks Moose, I'll give it a shot...

[EDNY]

Like Moose said....I found out that those car body panels weren't made with precision.   You probably need to adjust the body to frame mounts to basically twist the entire body etc.  I finally made my hood about 3/8" longer on the passenger side.

I raked the body and had to extend my hood 5" so I could lower the radiator in front of the cross member.

[munch]

That looks awesome EDNY, I don't think I have those skills but I will figure something out.

[TFoch]

Munch,
What I did to get mine in the ball park was put the hood on the car and place some masking tape just under the hinge on the hood side and the grill then repeat it just above the bottom of the hood side and grill.  Then I pulled the hood off and measured those areas on the hood.  That allowed me to adjust the grill to the dimensions I measured on the hood.  All this was done with the fenders off to make it easier.  Then I can tweek it during final assembly.
Tom

[munch]

Thanks guys, I got it close.  A little more fine tuning.

[munch]

Guys,
This is where I am.  Looks like the cowl needs to be lowered or the radiator raised.  I don't know how high the radiator should be, now it sits on top of the Kugel front end with maybe 1 to 1 1/2 spacers. 
As you see when I gap it on top to line up, the sides kick back from a gap at top to none and even overlapping the cowl at the bottom.
The front body mounts do sit on 3/4 rubber spacers for cushion, maybe that is where I started to go wrong.  Very frustrating...


(Munch I resized the pictures -EDNY)

[munch]

Sorry about the pictures, I will try to resize them.

[62131]

Munch   In your last picture I see that your rack is behind your cross member, Is there a reason that you put it in the back instead of the front of it?  The reason I'm asking I'm getting ready to put my cross member in and my rack will be in the front.

[TFoch]

Not sure if it helps but my rack is behind my cross member on my 33.  Mine is a TCI Front End.
Tom

[munch]

Its a Kugel front end and that is the way I got it

[themoose]

The original body mounting pads are about 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick. That could definitely make a difference. I also used a Kugel rear steer IFS. I was able to notch the existing front cross member and mate the Kugel assembly into it which made the assembly extremely strong. Here is a picture of the assembly and as you can see the original radiator support uses a 1/2 rubber pad. Maybe you can get some idea of the the spacing of the support by seeing the distance between the top of the frame and the ends of the support where the fender brackets mount
Moose 

[TFoch]

I had to notch mine too for the original radiator mounting bracket.

[62131]

I purchased a JW Rod Garage front cross member it shows the rack in the front does anybody see a problem that I don't see by doing this.