When opening and closing the hood on my 78 DL 4x4 wagon the hinges don't seem to be attached to their pivot anymore. I have to pull outward on the hood while lifting to keep it from catching on the wipers.

 

Anyone have some insight onto how this assembly works and how I go about getting access to them.

You have to remove the grill under the wiper arms. You will mostly find that the spot welds broke on the hood bracket. It will either need re-welded, or screwed down.

Total blow out of the metal around the mounting brackets. I think the pivot froze up and someone forced it. Too bad I don't have access to a welder any more. Wonder if fiberglass would work?

 

I don't think fiberglass would effect a lasting repair. You may be able to screw down a large piece of thicker metal and somehow reattach the hinge to that without welding.

 

Mark

mmmm cancer....

 

 

Giant, Ive got a welder + other fun metal working tools.

 

Ive even got a new plasma cutter on the way. Its in the mail, should be here in a week or so.

 

That repair is going to take some extensive surgery. Let me know it you want to attempt it. Or I could send you in the right direction for repair.

 

There are a couple of top-notch machine shops here in town that could fix you right up. The one on the south end of Moscow, Mundys is my machine shop of choice. great guys, quality work. I get all of my steel stock there, and toss a bit of work if it isnt something I can handle.

this is the wagon with the mangled hood right? im thinking after it got tagged the hood wouldnt open and was forced cause that doesnt look like rust damage what i would do is take a chunk of 1/4 inch plate and brace along where the hinge should mount then mount it to the 1/4 inch plate would require drilling 4 holes in the car where its not damaged and 2 holes in the plate done deal and a rather strong fix but then again i like to build things to the point of overkill i made seat mounts out of 3/4 inch plate once

Idasho- we might need to set up a weekend to play around with the welder. I'd love to mod my seat so it goes back a bit further too. I did this on my old mazda and it's pretty easy, just weld some bar or angle between the mounts and the seat to move it back a few inches. Its a PITA to work a clutch in this car when you are 6'7"!

 

bonvo- Yeah, same wagon that has the smashed in hood. Didn't even consider that the two could be related! I'm thinking 1/4" plate would be a bit overkill since its still only attached to sheetmetal but otherwise thats pretty much what it would take to fix it.

Im out of town the next few weekends. Hit me up in a month or so to remind me (if you still need it fixed by then).

 

I have a couple of rigs to pull into the shop for serious work, but I should be able to sneak yours in before then.

 

The snow isnt flying just yet!!

Giant, Im in town. Hopefully through winter. Let me know if you still need help with that hood.