C3 Corvette HOOD ALIGNMENT

If a door, hood, or any other panel gap is not consistent, your car will never look one hundred percent right. This is especially true on white cars.
The hood of my 1981 C3 Corvette never looked right. I have no idea if it has been this way since day one or if external factors made it look totally out of whack!
I know for sure that the delaminated headlight reinforcement did not help the situation, but I will never know the whole story.
Regardless, all I can do is try to make the gap where the front edge of the hood meets the nose of the car, as close to perfect as possible.
To accomplish this, I fabricated a couple of shims using gasket material since it was the only thing available at the time. Plus, the gasket material is easy to cut which made this project a bit easier.
As the video shows, I closed the unsightly gap pretty darn well, and while a better and more permanent solution would've been to completely disassemble the Corvette's front end to reglue the metal reinforcement bar properly, a project of such magnitude would've taken months.
This was a good and quick way to make the car more presentable so I chose this approach instead.
And the results prove that I made the right choice.
So if you want to align your C3 Corvette hood to make it look as close to perfect as possible, this video is for you!
Thank you for watching! 🙂👍🏻
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DISCLAIMER: Even though I like to wrench on my Corvettes and most of my videos are of a how-to nature, I am not responsible nor liable should you decide to follow my musings on the subject.
I am a self-taught DIYer. If videos appear to give technical how-to advice, that is not my intention.
Working on a vehicle can be dangerous. If you're not confident, qualified, or lack the tools to do the job correctly and safely, hire a mechanic.
#c3corvette

[@hanscramon9040]

The C3 : - pure art on 4 wheels.

[@davidkrull]

I was yelling out, "go ahead and make 3 of those!" as you were cutting that (first) shim. Such great videos - thanks!

[@ajmaresca2165]

With each repair, replacement and adjustment on your 81 it's looking better and better. As you said the fit and finish was never perfect in the first place. Nice job.

[@76vette]

Thank you! 😊👍🏻

[@janthom91]

The alignment isn`t perfect because the front bumper support is sagging. The rubber mount that is underneath the emblem on the nose is probably flat. And the nose on these cars also sags if the car gets a small impact on the nose. The panel gaps on your 81 is way better than most of these rubber bumper cars but it is possible to improve them further. I can tell that the nose is sagging from the alignment of the doors (only the front upper half is off) and the front of the hood. To fix this you would have to loosen the bolts holding the bumper support to the frame (only loosen, no need to remove them). It`s the bolts that you see in the wheel wells either two on each side or all four, don`t remember any more. Then you put a jack under the front bumper and lift the nose until the gaps are good. Then you tighten the bolts. You probably don`t need to replace the rubber mount, just adjust the bumper to compensate for the missing height of the rubber. If you want to replace that mount you`ll most likely have to take the bumper cover off. We did this to my 1980 in 2010 or 2011 and it has held up well. We need to do it to the 81 that my father and brother bought also. Same gaps in front of the hood and on the top half of the front of the doors.

[@76vette]

Excellent information. Thank you! If I decide to keep the ‘81 it’ll be very helpful to know how to correct this issue. 😊👍🏻

[@russellboyd-jb8jv]

DUDE, YOUR VIDEOS KEEP GETTING BETTER AND BETTER, I LOOK FORWARD TO EVERY VIDEO, YOU PRODUCE.RUSS BOYD, LIVING LARGE IN KEY WEST FLORIDA, WITH MY 1977 TORCH RED CORVETTE...

[@76vette]

Thank you for watching! 😊👍🏻

[@jameshamby1898]

Enjoy watching your videos. I have 4 C3 s, and therefore I’m always tinkering with them. Got the dash out of my 78 right now.

[@76vette]

Thank you for watching! 🙂👍🏻

[@davidmcmenamin9701]

Good job. Keep up the good videos. You always give me great ideas for the fit and finish on my C2 even tho I do not have a C3.

[@76vette]

A brother from a different mother. Thank you for watching! 😊👍🏻

[@musclecarmitch908]

Awesome job and tips on correcting the alignment!👍

[@76vette]

Thank you for watching! 😊👍🏻

[@goldenknight007]

Ring ring, this is the Corvette museum calling, can you please show us how to restore properly?

[@alzg8779]

Great Information Luis...Thank you!

[@76vette]

Thank you for watching! 😊👍🏻

[@user-ub7eb9cf9v]

Good job nice way of fixing the problem. Did you sell it yet

[@76vette]

Thank you! 😊👍🏻 Not yet. Still want to take care of a few items.

[@user-ub7eb9cf9v]

@@76vette Luis did you do any paint correction on the car?

[@76vette]

@@user-ub7eb9cf9v I’ll have a video on polishing and all of that stuff. I’m no pro but it turned out pretty good, IMO anyway. 😆👍🏻

[@swann747]

I was thinking the hood could be shimmed with window packing which comes in various thickness and is already cut to pass by the bolts, just slide it in.

[@Vaddag_Germany]

Hm…the gaps in US cars are usually somewhat „unusual“ :-) sorry, but i could not withhold this common prejudice 😅