Could I ask for opinions on my hood frame, please?
It’s about to go to the trimmers to have a hood made. Aldridge in Birmingham will be doing the job, and they are experienced in XKs, but before I trailer it up there I’d welcome opinions on the hood frame.
It’s not level in the folded position. The photos show the problem - one side sits down nicely on the B-post, the other sits up around 1.25". It is not possible to push it down to sit where it should. I can see no adjustment to alter this position, and can see no damage anywhere. It was like this when I bought the car, but the hood itself had long gone.
Is this adjustable out by the experts, or do I have an irretrievably damaged hood frame, in the view of our 140DHC owners?
Thanks, Roger
I take it you are certain there is no bent or otherwise obviously damaged piece?
I don’t have a DHC, but my field included mechanical linkages, and this looks to me like a problem in linkage movement. One or more of the swivel points is hanging up in some way, not enough angular movement available. When you put it down, do the parts come together with a clunk, or with a springy feeling?
It’s a clunk, Rob - and no amount of pushing will get it lower. The hang up seems to be at the two bars shown in the first photo above - to the right of the photo, two ‘scissor’ bars cross over, and you can see the shiny bolt head of the eccentric adjuster in the photo.* Those two bars are hard against each other in that position and there’s no way the cant rail will drop down onto the B post. By sheer luck, I have another hood frame coming next week and will try a comparison. I wonder if this has been seriously strained at some time. Somebody trying to lower it whilst doing 60, maybe?
*actually, you can see it better in the last photo.
It sounds like either some spacer in a pivot point is missing, or one of the linkage bars is bent out of it’s correct path or shape. But the other side is probably good. Can you compare each link and see which is wrong? The parts should be mirror images.
Not sure how accurately I could do that without dismantling the frame. I’m sure you’re right, but visually side to side I can’t put my finger on the problem. It’s a strange bend as it must be in the flat axis of one of the bar members, not laterally.
Is the paint scraping somewhere?
How about a picture of it up and one of it half way.
Not paint - I have a feeling the front main head bow, that sits on the windscreen top, is twisted. The two parts that are locking up are the S-shaped side arms that sit on top of each other. They are meeting and stopping any further movement - see photo of the relevant area, and a close up of the two bars lying on top of each other.
I’ll get a ‘up’ and ‘half-up’ photo later.
I’m not sure but it looks like there are a total of four bows including the one that attaches to the windshield.
Each set of links is a four-bar linkage. The main body is one of the links in the lowest set.
Some links are part of two separate linkages at once.
Each link travels in a plane, and the planes are parallel.
Each set of four links moves in a box, i.e. planes in parallel.
In fact all the planes should be parallel.
So you want to look for a link that is moving in a non-parallel plane to the others.
It may be the bow is bent and pulling the link out of parallel.
Or the link itself could be bent.
What a pity we’re an ocean apart, this would be so easy if I was there.
It’s almost worth forking out for your ticket…!
I’ve got a second frame here, but it seems worse than the first, but in entirely different ways. I guess that’s the nature of XKs.
On my original frame, one or two of the rivets are a bit looser than they should be. Is there a recommended way of tightening them, as a long term fix?
Roger:
While I recognize your desire to sort it out yourself, my guess is Aldridge may have an idea as to what the problem is and could perhaps remedy it while fabricating the top?
Chris.
Chris, yes, that’s the conclusion I’ve come to. I am not a trimmer, and have never seen a 140DHC hood frame in the raw on a restored car so essentially I have no idea what I’m looking at. Time to leave it to the pros, I think. I can at least give them two frames to choose from.
Roger