Fastening the hood down

[dmclvr]

My DeLorean's hood only fastens in the middle, at the mechanical latch. The two nobs built into the car at the corners of the trunk cavity (near the windshield- Green circles) don't actually fit into the v-notches on the underside of the hood (Yellow circles).

How hard is this to fix?
How does it actually lock into place? Does the v-notch actually bend the rubber nob to fit over it?

[Michael]

They are not supposed to fit, if they do you are in trouble. Those are catches to keep the hood from coming through the front windshield in the event of a collision. The stops do need to be adjusted so the up and down play is out but the only catch is the one in the middle. Once you get that sorted out and the stops adjusted, report back with any fender/hood alignment issues and we can address those if need be.

Judging by the "clean spot" on the underside of the hood, they look to be set correctly.

[dmclvr]

Ok, that sounds not so bad. I've just noticed that the hood doesn't seem to settle down fully when shut. The rear corners seem to sit a quarter inch or so above flush. It's a little concerning to me since recently after heavy rain, I got some moisture in there.

[Michael]

Fixing alignment issues:

http://dmctoday.com/showthread.php?1...Hood+alignment

[Andrew]

Michael is 100% correct. Those little hood catch brackets are your best friend in a front end collision. If you've ever seen a DeLorean that was involved in a front end collision with a buckled hood, those brackets are the reason. Without them your body and head could go their separate ways! They literally are a lifesaver.

[Jonathan]

Ok, that sounds not so bad. I've just noticed that the hood doesn't seem to settle down fully when shut. The rear corners seem to sit a quarter inch or so above flush. It's a little concerning to me since recently after heavy rain, I got some moisture in there.

If the corners are sitting a bit higher than they should be, it could also be that the middle is being pulled down a little too far. You might be able to adjust the latch mechanism up slightly so that when it grabs the hood and locks it down, it isn't so far down and doesn't lead to the corners flaring up.

You can do a similar adjustment with the lower engine cover in the back, except back there you can make the hook extend further or shorter. Up front, I don't believe you can adjust how much the hook extends, but you can manipulate where the receiver end (latch mechanism) sits vertically.

Striker pins do something similar as well with the doors. When the latch grabs the pin into that second click position, if the pin is too far inwards but still close enough for the latch to grab it and lock it, it can suck the door in a little too much and you'll see the door edge not sitting flush with the quarter panels.

[dmclvr]

Thank you, everybody.

[Mike Griese]

This can happen if you open the hood by grabbing the corner of the hood and lifting instead of reaching over and grabbing the center where the catch is. The twisting force from lifting at the corner bends the hood a bit over time.

[Michael]

This can happen if you open the hood by grabbing the corner of the hood and lifting instead of reaching over and grabbing the center where the catch is. The twisting force from lifting at the corner bends the hood a bit over time.

I don't subscribe to this no more than I believe the hood X is from people sitting on the hoods or eyebrows are caused by headlight heat. I believe the seal is too thick and since all the tension is on the center latch, it pushes the hood up at the left edge because of the extra "leverage" from the fuel and brake fluid location cutout. I have all but solved the issue in the link with no shimming the fender or adjusting the doors to match the fender you just shimmed. This is ironic in that the approved method from gurus is to drill your hood catch even lower, which increases the tension not only on the cable but the hood itself making the problem you were trying to solve even worse.

Hood X' s are from the fiberglass and stainless shrinking and expanding at different rates, if the 2 were not glued together at every square inch, this would not be as huge of a problem as it is. You tell me that the person that sit on the hood made the entire X appear as well as the front brace and the fuel filler cut out all perfectly uniform from front to back and side to side?

Eyebrows are from the same problem, heat and cold cycles cause the fascia to deform, it's just coincidence that it is over the headlights. Actually it's no coincidence, it would be if the warpage occurred over the dims and not the rarely used highs.

[Shep]

On the subject of Hood X's, further proof it's the way it was made: they existed throughout the entire production run, even before each car was completed. This is not something new, and they had different terms also -- the "cruciform" was "telegraphing" rather than the "X" is showing. Now, there's other reasons sitting on a hood is bad (the metal rivets on denim pants...), but causing a more pronounced "X" is just... It is also why I will not get my own X hood fixed. Back when Nick Sutton was here as his book came out, I PM'd him about the so-called "hood plugs" on my own VIN, an early one made back in (likely) March that has severe X hood these days. My to and from are below, in full minus a sliver of each asking about another part of the book.

Nick,

I bought VIN 559 about a year and a half ago, and there's one thing that is still a mystery to the car. I talked to Tony Swann about this, and he didn't have the answer. DMCH's museum department never got back to me (either time I asked), and the thread I made on the subject was a bust too. There are four 3" plugs (the same as used next to the gas cap) on the "X" brace of the hood, in addition to four 1" plugs on the outer edges of the hood, all on the underside. I took a picture of the plugs in question and circled them here:

Hood_Plugs_Circled.jpg

(Non-circled version attached)

Tony Swann said he had only seen these on a handful of 500 series VIN's, and that they were mostly on 600 series and 700 series VIN's, but did not know what their purpose was. From your time at DMC, do you remember why this was done to these hoods? The leading theory seems to be to test hood light wiring, but there's no corresponding hole at the base of the trunk for the wiring to go through on the passenger side, and it also doesn't explain the four outer 1" holes, nor why it was done to more than just one hood. Could it have been a production error of some kind, or did it serve an actual purpose? Any insight you could provide would be very, very helpful.

Thanks in advance!
- Shep

Shep,

This question you pose is certainly a dilemma. You may know that cars around the time of your VIN spent some time in the development shop VIN557 for instance and earlier three cars spent time in the training building being prepared for the press day (march 1981?). Also please note that the early cars had hand layed GRP structures for the hood cruciform rather than SMC panels. This is because the tooling at the moulder Ferrozell was not completed until Feb 1981. Is your cruciform GRP or SMC - not sure how to tell you how to spot the difference. Hand lay would be rough rather SMC which is moulded and smooth.

But neither SMC or hand lay cruciform came into the factory with the holes in them - these were added in the factory and the 3" plug just happened to be handy as one already used in another application.

As for the reason for the holes - I just don't know - but they were added by Chris Bradley and his team in the development workshop.

One of the problems we had with the cruciform was "telegraphing " this is where on a cold morning with the hood closed you can see the outline of the cruciform through the hood. We did some development on this at Dunmurry but this doesn't answer why more than a handful of cars were modified for the cruciform holes. Regrettably Chris Bradley died 10 years ago so I can't refer this question to anybody.

If I think of anything I'll let you know.

regards

Nick

I followed-up asking for his permission to share this and he granted it. Essentially, my hood's quirkiness with the plugs seems to have been just an attempt to resolve the issue, so I kept it.

Glad you explained the "V" slots though, that's one that always confused the hell outta me, I had no rhyme or reason why that "V" should exist if it was supposed to stop the hood from closing and the opening direction didn't line up with it. Duh, crumple zone, man that one flew over my head faster, higher, and more uncaring than a fighter jet.