My dad has a 1984 in the neighborhood of 60K miles. He's noticed a problem lately around one of the hood hinge mounting spots. I haven't seen this yet, as he's in Pennsylvania and I'm in Iowa...but I'm heading back there for Christmas and hope to get more details then.

The problem as best as I can describe it is this: I guess there are some threaded studs in the hood itself, and the hinge mounting plate goes over these studs and secures with bolts? Those studs are coming loose out of the hood. No body shop wants to touch it b/c they say it would be quite cost prohibitive to fix. Is the only solution to replace the hood, or is there something else we could do?

I'd really like to straighten this out, as that and the overdrive are the only real issues with it. I've already ordered a relay and hope that's the problem there. If I can get these two problems solved, I may be purchasing this Corvette from him!

Thanks in advance -
Tom

The hood, being fiberglass, is like most fiberglass hoods in that it has a metal backing plate/rib modled inside of it, threaded with holes to take the mounting bolts to the metal hood support hinges/brackets. Sounds like these bolts are coming loose, and the question is why? Maybe they just virbrated lose (does happen). Maybe they have rusted (also happens). Or maybe the threads in the backing plate has stripped (if so you MIGHT be able to re-tap them to a larger size and replace the bolts with a larger diameter to six this, but I doubt it: because, a body shop has looked at it and said they don't want to touch it/would be expensive.

Body shops are relucatant to take on work that has a STRUTURAL nature. For this reason, my guess, and the worse case, is that the metal backing plate has started to rust out inside the won-t rust fiberglass. This does happen to some fiberglass hoods where water gets in under the hood but I haven't heard of it happening on a stock vette (seems to happen on cheap aftermarket fiberglass hoods). Regardless, although theoretically you could try to replace the metal backing plate [saw open the fiberglass surrounding it with a dremel or skip saw, remove the rusted metal plate, install a new one, fiberglass over it again] body shops don't like to take on fiber- or plastic repair work where the damaged part is structural: they just want you to replace it (there is too much liability if the thing breaks). They have a point, too, because while you can fiberglass and sand the repair smooth and paint it, can you make it as strong as original, too?

So, I'd scout the surplus yards for a replacement hood. It should not be too expensive and if you are really lucky, you might find one in the right color, and not too differently faded.

i have new hood for 1984