Hood scraping the cowl

[55bern]

I have read here that it seems all Henry J's have problems with the hood scraping the cowl. Anybody ever figure it out or modify the hinges or something? I am really stumped. I am considering trying to fabricate something. I have a 51.

[h-e-n-r-y-j]

Four things that I tried over the years:

1. Two pieces of slip-on, chrome, door edge-type moulding placed on the rear (sharp) edge of the hood so the edge "rolls" over the cowl.  This worked on my gray '51 HJ

2. Adjust the hood so it is as far away from the cowl as possible. 

3. Slip thin rubber shims between the rear edge of the hood and the rear-most support bracket in an attempt to raise the offending edge of the hood just enough to clear the cowl without making contact.

4. Some for the older gents in the 1980's were sold on the double spring technique.  A sort of spring-in-a-spring approach - like an accelerator pedal return spring.

[h-e-n-r-y-j]

Frankly, HJ hood springs are not even required.  They certainly do not assist with the raising of the hood and if you rely on them to keep the hood up or from slamming closed when lowering you will be in for a surprise.  All that they seem to do is to project the rear edge of the hood upwards as the hood is initially raised.  I recall pulling my HJ hoods first to the left then to the right as they cleared the cowl.  Once clear then they were raised all the way.  Usually this was followed by me scraping my head on the hood trim while working under the hood.  Memories.

[Fid]

My '52 Vagabond bears the scars from a previous owner who had not adjusted the hood right. I moved it ahead as far as I could and works fine now.  I cannot do this on my '53 J as moving it ahead makes it too tight for the grill work to go together when closing it.  Now for some reason, the hood on Edgar Kaiser's '51 J (which is really a '53) works fine without scraping at all. I don't know what was done with that one but it's perfect. I recently had the hood off of it because I pulled the motor do so some work. I was very reluctant as it's the only HJ hood I've seen that doesn't scrape and I was afraid I'd never get it back on right again.  I did get it back on right (I marked it before pulling it) and it's as good as it was before. I don't know what was done to it but it's the only newer style J ('52 Corsair and later) I ever saw that did not scrape the cowl.

[Corsairdeluxe]

I have used the additional spring approach with very good results. I also used the shim technique. Enough shims to  help the problem put the rear of the hood up at a disturbing height .I have tried on several cars to remedy the problem by adjusting. I could not. I have had two Henry Js  that I owned from new or nearly so. Their hoods had never been removed . Both of them had this problem.

[Richstape]

I fixed mine by increasing the thickness of the two rear fender bumpers so that the hood sits slightly higher in the rear when closed.