1981 hood nose to low

On my 81 the very front of the nose is about 1/2" too low. Can this be adjusted with hood bolts or is body work needed?

Adjust the hinges. If it can't be adjusted with them without throwing the rest off, the glass may have come loose from the header bar. Check if it's still attached.

The header bar is a metal bar below the fiberglass (section above the headlights) that glues to the fiberglass. If the glue gave up, it'll allow the body to rise making your hood look like it fits too low in the center front.

To raise the hood, you insert shims between the hinges and the hood.

big2bird said:

To raise the hood, you insert shims between the hinges and the hood.

Click to expand...

Problem is...that raises all of the hood in the front...not just the point. Front point of hood being low relative to the bumper/nose, as stated above, the header bar has separated and needs to be re-glued. But you state that the "nose"? is to low? What part?

It's just the very point of the hood, not the body. If i were to adjust the hood so the nose came up 1/2" the sides of the hood would also rise and be to high.
The nose in front of the hood has been bumped and has to be repaired so i think it raised that part of the body so it's above the hood.
I've had a couple estimates and it's $800-$1000. There are some small chips on the drivers side around the door handle.
There is some small fiberglass swirl in the rear by the gas cap.
I was told that they could fix the chips, match the paint but they would have to paint from the rear of the car to the front of the drivers door.
If the nose of the hood were worse i might have it done for a good price.
I would like to paint the whole car with the original paint if possible but money is an option because i had a serious back injury that put me out of work.
It is just an 81 anyway. I love the look of the C3s. To have the body work completely done and an original paint with clear coats it would probably be about $4- $8,000.
My income does not allow that and the car looks very good from a couple feet away anyway. If i was gonna show the car and i was still working i might consider going all the way with it.
My back is getting so bad now it's hard for me to drive now anyway.
If my smart Grandson keeps his grades up and gets himself into a state College and does well I'll probably give him the car and he can fix it and have fun doing it.
I gave my son an 86 Cadillac coupe that was beautiful but it had a 4100 piece of junk engine and cooling system in it and it was a lemon.
It like the Vette is a car ya have to really think about before ya put to much money in it.
If the Vette was one of the more rare Vettes it would be different.
As you can see the pics of the car it looks very good as is. I may just fix the nose of the body and let Josh fix the rest as i would at his age and enjoy doing it.
I will look to see if the hood can be re-glued but it's not that important.
Thanks for all the advice from all you Vette lovers.
If i get a decent amount from Workman's Comp I will have the car completely done but it would be tough to give away if i did that, but if it is enough incentive for him to do well in school i figure it's just a car and well worth it.
Mike in Garden Grove California.

Yep...sounds like the nose has separated from the header bar. With the hood open, push down on the part of the nose next to where the point of the hood is. If it flex's downward, there is separation. You can also look from an angle and see the bar. Have someone else push down on that area. You'll probably see what is separated. It's a cheap fix. Some bonding glue and some good plastic ratchet clamps:thumbs:

jcgodale has a good point about the header bar, but I had the same problem with the hood on my 81 and it wasn't the bar being disconnected. A better description is that the point of the hood dives off too much. The rest of the hood lines up with the body all the way around until it gets 8-10" on either side of the center point. My solution was to build a custom hood that made up some of the difference and hid the "dive".

The hoods are either made wrong or we have alingment issues with the clip. I did the best I could to get my clip to door gaps as good as I could, but this could have left the nose a bit high guess. I took the easy way out with the hood mod.

Here is a pic. Follow the line across the front of the hood and you can see what I am talking about.



If I were to do this again, I would incorporate a zo6 type opening down low to help the transition from the body to the hood.