Quote:
Originally Posted by RicksGTO
as far as the Formula hoods bowing or not, I have always felt it was based on the hood hinge adjustment. Depending on how the front and rear hinge to fender bolts are adjusted up/down, there is anywhere from no upward force to a decent amount of force in their "resting" position. I have a bulge free Formula hood on my '72 and I can temporarily put the bulge back in it just by adjusting the angle of the resting position of the front and rear hinge to fender bolts. The hood pops up more easily when it's in that upward angled position because that angle of the hinges is adding updward force on then hood. That's why the bulge is usually right in front of the forward hinge to hood bolt.
Keith is correct that the closed hinge itself, when in the closed/resting position, is not exerting any upward force by itself. But the angle of the hinge to hood plate can be if it's angled too far upward in the front, because you basically have to slightly bend the hood every time you close it to engage the hood latch. Once the bow get's into the hood/under support, adjusting the hinge to fender bolts to correct the angle of the hinge is not going to fully fix the bow. My hood took close to 400lbs. in the middle of it on saw horses for around a year to get it straight again.
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Rick, Good points. Agreed - hinge alignment / orientation is definitely another thing to pay attention to when setting up a hood on these cars.