'47 era Dodge D24 Front Hood Support positioning?

[hbpaints]

Good Day everyone... 

 

So, little bit of an update on my car,

 

Rear seat is in place (modified a rear third row seat from a '90's Econoline van with built in seatbelts to fit), replaced the muffler, brakes are done, tuned up the 6cyl and now just continuing my once over through the car and found my hood wasn't latching down or lining up as I think it should...

 

The car is a US model 1947 D24C with the butterfly hood. 

 

Noticed a large gap between the hood and the front cowl (Windshield area), so started looking a little closer and it appears that I've found the problem, however, I'd just like to get some feedback from others with similar cars as to the proper position before I undertake a resolution process... 

 

The part in question is the front bolt on hood support bracket. The small piece that goes "over" the radiator and bolts on both sides. It appears to be pushed forward by quite a bit, thus causing the gap at the cowl... (See Pictures)

 

I was hoping someone on here could post a picture of what it's supposed to look like, then I can follow it through and actually see what's bent and causing it to lean forward.

 

Thanks in advance... appreciate your assistance...

 

[andyd]

Whilst I can't offer help that directly relates to your D24 I have an Oz 1940 Dodge which uses US sourced 1940 Plymouth parts and has the same type of hood support bracket that bolts onto to sheet metal at the front and onto the radiator support frame at the brackets rear  with a pair of small bolts/screws then the hood centre hinge front bracket bolts onto the radiator support frame.............

.............on looking at the 1st pic you have posted the radiator support frame appears to have a "bow or bend" in its side profile.........now that maybe just the angle of the photo  but if it IS bent then that may cause a gap at the rear of the hood ........

.................I've attached an old pic I have of the engine bay of my car, yep its a hotrod, 318 poly has been there since 1973 but this pic does show the top of the radiator support frame and clearly shows that hood support bracket attached to the radiator frame......although my car has the full length 1940 Plymouth hood as shown(see pic) the bracketry would I think be similar.........

............dunno if this helps or just confuses the issue.........lol.........regards from Oztralia......Andy Douglas

[busycoupe]

It is located by the  front nose piece and the positon of yhe center strip. 

[Sniper]

Could it be installed backwards?  As in the tilt should go to the rear rather than the front?

[andyd]

Sniper.........the radiator support can't be installed backwards as it has a taper on each side that allows the side sheetmetal to attach......see "busycoupes" 1st pic with the single bolt holding the sheetmetal to the radiator surround...........I am curious as to whether the whole front sheetmetal "doghouse" is in fact slightly "droopy" as there maybe sufficent play in the various attachment points to allow the doghouse to droop.........the 1st pic from hbpaints may support this theory and/or does the radiator support frame have some sort or spacer underneath it where its 2 studs go thru the front crossmember........all mopars from this time period I've seen have some sort of spacer or spacer plates that whilst it maybe only 1/4" in height all go towards helping to keep the doghouse level and at 90 degrees to the firewall......more or less............lol.......andyd

[Pauls46P15]

On 3/14/2023 at 8:07 PM, Sniper said:

Could it be installed backwards?  As in the tilt should go to the rear rather than the front?

Looks that way to me too. The bolts are offset to one edge more than the other. 

They're definitely not centered.

[Sniper]

Oh I have seen stuff that could not be installed "that way" installed that way, lol.

 

Years ago one of my duty stations was at an antenna overhaul shop.  I was the satellite antenna "expert", simply because I was the only guy in the shop that had been to that school.  We didn't do the removal or installation nor the transport.  Ship's company did the R&R.  One day we got a call from the chief of a boat be had just overhauled a pair of his antenna on.  One worked, the other didn't and he was raising holy hell about our incompetence.  So my chief sent me to look at it.  In the bottom of those antenna there are two large cannon plugs.  A cannon plug is a metal, multi-pin electrical connector.  These were setup with keys and slots int eh mating parts to only allow them to connect to the proper mating section.  Somehow someone managed to cross connect them.  I sorted it out in less than 5 minutes and all was well.  Went below and told the chief what the problem was and he was red faced.  Went back to my shop told my chief and he had fun ragging the other chief about competency.

 

Cannon plug

 

[LeRoy]

I can tell you from first hand experience that there are a lot of parts on a 47 D24 that cant be installed backwards, but I did it

Edited March 16, 2023 by LeRoy
sometimes twice

[andyd]

If you look at the pic I posted showing the top of the radiator support frame there are a pair of 1/4 UNC captive nuts that hold the bolts for the front hood hinge and in front of them there are two small 3/32 slotted head machine screws that hold the rear of the curved "nose" divider piece.........."busycoupes" pic shows both bolt on pieces in a side view........yes I agree that attaching parts backwards is "possible"....... BUT in this case it would be painfully obvious and as the attachment holes on the top of the radiator support are a pair of 1/4" UNC threaded captive nuts and a pair of 3/32nd holes it would not be possible to swap these ............yeh I have only worked on OZ 1940 Dodge(Plymouth based) cars since 1969............BUT I recognise the same basic attachment setup so feel confident enough to base my comments on this................andyd  

[busycoupe]

I noticed the same thing that Andyd did. I don't think it could be assembled backwards.  However, if you loosened the bolts holding the top frame to the sides of the radiator mount I wonder if there is enough "slop" to allow you to straighten up the  top frame. On the picture I posted you can see that the hole in the radiator mount is slotted.

Edited March 16, 2023 by busycoupe
correction

[Dan Hiebert]

Hbpaints' radiator support is oriented correctly, but it may not be installed correctly.  It should be straight up and down, not canted forward as this one is.  The car does not have an original radiator, which may provide a clue.  The support (frame) is one rigid piece, and while it can theoretically be installed backwards, it would be apparent it is not right as soon as you start trying to hang any other parts on it.  It does look rather beat up around the top, too.  I notice in the bottom photo, at the right of the support where it meets the inner fender, that it is further back than it should be.  This leads me to think the support is not attached to the front cross member correctly, or even not at all.  If you look up into the wheel wells, there should be three body bolts per side (at the front edge of the inner fender) that attaches the inner fenders directly to that radiator support.  If they are not there, or perhaps moved to accommodate the wrong position of the support, there's and indicator of your problem.  Those bolts on the outer top of the frame that attach the top of the fenders are correct but can still be attached that way with the bottom off kilter.  The bolt holes in the cross member to mount the support are oblong, but I don't recall that they're oblong enough to cause that much offset, they're only supposed to accommodate adjusting the whole doghouse to or fro fractions of an inch.  There's no telling why, but there it is.

[hbpaints]

Thanks everyone for the comments.... I'm pretty sure this car has taken a hit in the passenger side front at some point in it's life, so I'm sorting all that out.

 

As per Dan's comment above, it doesn't appear the inner fender is connected to the rad support... I cannot find any bolts let alone 3... lol

 

I'll let you guys know how it runs out... be nice to actually get the hood lined up on this thing properly...