I got the drivers side fender finished up last week.
After that, I decided to mount the new Ringbrothers billet hinges and see how she opens and closes.
Well guess what, yep it doesn't line up. Surprisingly, I am not shocked. The silver lines are where the hinges hit the hood. You can see the nutserts in the hood. Not even close!
After measuring a factory hood, and comparing the hinges to factory ones, it turns out that the fenders are to blame. The mounting pads for the hinges are not formed correctly. If you are using factory stamped hinges, you could probably make them work. But, when you are using a stiff precision piece like the Ringbrothers hinges it's got to be better. We spent 3 hours just bending and tweaking the mounting pads on the fenders so the hinges go up and down straight and on plane. Then after a lot of thought and staring we decided the fix was to move the nutserts in the hood. Right or wrong off we went! Out with the old.
I then made new plate that I welded nuts to the back side of in the new locations. Clecos hold everything in place while marking, drilling, and welding.
Done, hopefully this weekend we'll see if she bolts up. It was too late to continue last night. Hopefully the front clip saga is coming to an end!