Thread: Brookville 32/ Fitting Hood

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Fitting a Rootlieb 4 piece hood to my Brookville 32 roadster,and hoping for comments from someone that has been down this road.

I am using the original style hood lacing, (Vintique) on the firewall. With the lacing in the groove on the firewall the hood does not fit good at all, I can make it fit good by putting a shim under the lacing, the thickness of the shim tapers from .060" to 170" and back to.060" is about 16" long. Doing this the lacing sits very high in the groove and personally do not like how that looks.

For kicks I put the lacing in the groove of the cowl and the hood fits very well. I can easily make it fit great with some very minor shimming.

What is the down side of having the lacing in the firewall groove?

Thanks

First of all, you have probably already found out that Brookville takes some liberties with some of the OEM Ford dimensions.

The best way to make the lacing uniform is to whang it with a hammer to make the thickness more even, then either rivet or screw in place. There is an even better solution, and that's to use some universal "Hot Rod" foam weather stripping that is also distributed by Vintique and others. The Soffseal part numbers are E1078/E1076 and E1083. Tho mine is a '31 Brookville and with a Rootleib 4 piece hood, I too found that the OEM style lacing wasn't the way to make things fit right. If you are worried that it wont stick - believe me, it does as when I did my first pre paint assembly of the car I used some of that foam lacing - it was TOUGH to remove!!!!!!!!!

I'm a "three piece" hood kind of guy, and I will admit that no other single item has consumed more time in my build process than the hood top, sides and mounts.

I really don't see how you can buy a body from one company and hood pieces from another and expect it all to fit without some fab'ing due to dementions. I even went and had a custom sized hood top made that better fit my body belt lines.

But with that said IMO, nothing "makes, or breaks" a roadster quicker than a good fitting hood. So it's well worth the time and your effort.

I am also going shopping for the sides of a three piece since I don't have any and was referred to Rootlieb from Downs.
It's good to know that I will probably be in for a bit of fabbing..

Ron..

I second what John said. Mine was extremely time consuming as well. I would hazard a guess at around 40 hours on fitting the hood. A buddy of mine has even more time in fitting the hood on his '33.

Rootleib manufactures a quality OEM replacement hood - that is unless you do a three piece version or have them build one to your specs. As far as 32steel's problem - there isn't one. It appears that he ordered one from the catalog which is a repro of the OEM. It is a quality piece. The Brookville bodies - well they do leave some room for improvement tho are still the best available for a hot rod in steel. Their hoods - made by - guess who? ROOTLEIB!!!! Then of course - there is a Hagan hood, that is if they've survived the economy downturn.

For fitting a hood - there are too many little points to consider to spell all of them out, but body to chassis, grille shell to chassis, fenders, etc, etc, etc. A tweak here can change a dimension there - or even worse - all of them everyplace. For instance, my car - perfectly aligned in March, way off today and it's a body to chassis change as the webbing and block rubbers settled normally from the weight just sitting there. Now a complete alignment redo - and the car hasn't even been driven yet!!!

Originally Posted by IC2

Rootleib manufactures a quality OEM replacement hood - that is unless you do a three piece version or have them build one to your specs. As far as 32steel's problem - there isn't one. It appears that he ordered one from the catalog which is a repro of the OEM. It is a quality piece..

For fitting a hood - there are too many little points to consider to spell all of them out, but body to chassis, grille shell to chassis, fenders, etc, etc, etc. A tweak here can change a dimension there - or even worse - all of them everyplace. For instance, my car - perfectly aligned in March, way off today and it's a body to chassis change as the webbing and block rubbers settled normally from the weight just sitting there. Now a complete alignment redo - and the car hasn't even been driven yet!!!

Jeez..Dave.. My hood just arrived an hour ago! Does this mean I'll probably go insane? You know how I love to chase gaps right??

Originally Posted by DeuceRon

I am also going shopping for the sides of a three piece since I don't have any and was referred to Rootlieb from Downs.
It's good to know that I will probably be in for a bit of fabbing..

Ron..

Hi Ron,
I don't want to discourage you but looking at your car's photo would scare me! Having done my hood, I don't see anyway that I would be able to do one on "a painted car" without damaging the paint. Way too much bending, tweeking, fab'ing, etc.

Originally Posted by John Palmer

Hi Ron,
I don't want to discourage you but looking at your car's photo would scare me! Having done my hood, I don't see anyway that I would be able to do one on "a painted car" without damaging the paint. Way too much bending, tweeking, fab'ing, etc.

Don't let John scare ya!
Have done many hood fits on finished, painted cars.
Just take yer time and use lotsa Blue 3M tape.
Good luck.

Originally Posted by DA34GUY

Don't let John scare ya!
Have done many hood fits on finished, painted cars.
Just take yer time and use lotsa Blue 3M tape.
Good luck.

AGREE - and be prepared to spend some time with body to chassis bolts!!

34_40 - Insane?? Don't you mean a bit further along!!!

Glad you got it. Quick delivery - have fun and post your frustrations here so we can all have a few yuks on your behalf. And don't forget those gaps

Originally Posted by DA34GUY

Don't let John scare ya!
Have done many hood fits on finished, painted cars.
Just take yer time and use lotsa Blue 3M tape.
Good luck.

LOL......I can see it now......"Mr. Palmer, we are going to put you in The Club Hot Rod wing of our hospital". You will enjoy being committed, with ALL THE OTHER ROADSTER GUYS that went insane trying to make their hoods fit while maintaining the proper gaps.

Just kidding, but remember, it's supposed to be fun.

Originally Posted by IC2

AGREE - and be prepared to spend some time with body to chassis bolts!!

34_40 - Insane?? Don't you mean a bit further along!!!

Glad you got it. Quick delivery - have fun and post your frustrations here so we can all have a few yuks on your behalf. And don't forget those gaps

Now 33 - 40 that's a whole new subject.
I've been buildin for over 40 years and the last 33 I did (2 years ago) Glass body,Rootlieb 4 piece hood, steel aprons, NOS 33 grille, I had well over 70 hrs in fittin the front pieces.

Awwww c'mon guys!!!!!! Sanity and rational thought is terribly overrated anyway!!!!!!

Originally Posted by DA34GUY

Now 33 - 40 that's a whole new subject.
I've been buildin for over 40 years and the last 33 I did (2 years ago) Glass body,Rootlieb 4 piece hood, steel aprons, NOS 33 grille, I had well over 70 hrs in fittin the front pieces.

And it shows! That's a beautiful car! I am sure I'll have that many plus! I've been pulling my hair out just on the inner fenders and the gaps / lines.. At the Burlington show I took numerous pictures of model 40's and the hood, grille, fender gaps. Some were just terrible too! Most of the original cars were easy to spot with the uneven gaps and bad alignment.

Sometimes I feel like I'm being to fussy but, I can't help it! Yes IC2, just comfortably numb for now!

Originally Posted by DA34GUY

Now 33 - 40 that's a whole new subject.
I've been buildin for over 40 years and the last 33 I did (2 years ago) Glass body,Rootlieb 4 piece hood, steel aprons, NOS 33 grille, I had well over 70 hrs in fittin the front pieces.

hey any pro tips on tackling this fit up??? what to fit first??? any certain order?? thanks pete