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I removed the hood today and the hinges appear to be bent.
Are they suppose to be bent for the slight curvature of the hood and cowl?
I was going to pound them flat but I think it will mess things up. Are they made this way?
Anyone have info on this or pictures their hinges or of new hinges?
Let me know your thoughts
Robert

This is the passenger side outer edge of hinge. Notice the curve.



Passenger side inner edge of hinge. Notice it is straight.



Here is a straight forward shot. See how the hinge pin is straight and the bolts are not even.

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Unhinged pic.





Drivers side is bent slightly different.

Robert,

I think they are supposed to be that way (bent as in your pics). If not then mine are bent the exact same as yours. I've seen others at swap meets and they were also the same as ours. Let's see what the rest of the crew has to say.

regards,
bob

They should be flat,mine are bent too. I found a pair to buy that were flat. If yours were flat you would have a gap between the hood and cowl and the paint woudn't rub off.

Hi Guys,

Well......Being the true "non-believer" that I am.....I went out and took some pics of my hood hinges. First thing I noticed was that the bolts on the hood side are different from the bolts on the cowl side. I never noticed that before. In regards to the hinges......both sides are bent identically, meaning bent up more on the outside than the inside...which corresponds to the way the hood bends. Thinking they were supposed to be that way I looked up the PN in the ORD 9 thinking there would be different part numbers for each side. There was only one part number for each piece of the hinge. So I'm wrong again.

So corrected I sit. But I'm having a hard time figuring out how those hinges could get bent. I mean the hood raised all the way to the windshield, so it can't be bent over backwards....and the hinges are like a quarter inch thick steel, so if the roof fell on a GI while he was working on the truck I'd expect the hood sheetmetal to buckle, not the hinges to bend. But maybe the curved sides of the hood make it stronger than the hinges. If that's how they get bent then it looks like mine fell on soldiers while they were working on both sides of the hood.

I don't know.........any thougths??


DSC03955 by w30bob, on Flickr


DSC03954 by w30bob, on Flickr

So If these are indeed bent could they have been bent from lifting by only one side of the hood by one person walking the hood back to the windshield? Would it be enough twist on the hood to bend a hinge? Maybe this is why the hoods had the handle installed for lifting in the center of the hood. Like Bob said the hinges are very thick and would take a bit of force to bend. Mine also have two styles of bolts. The hinges are the same but are installed in reverse so the pan head of the hinge pin faces inward. Anyone else looked at the their hinges?

More likely they were bent because the hinges rusted stiff and they bent when someone opened the hood. I have had both flat and bent hinges on a variety of M37s that were rusted hunks. The opening of the hinge provides a big mechanical advantage that could bend the hinges. I have had hinges off the hood in a vise that it took pounding the flats with a hammer and lots of Rust Buster to free up. In the process the hinge can get bent but not uniformly like these. Opening the hood could easily have done the unifrom bending. They are supposed to lay flat if not bent.

Hi Guys,

DAP....I hear what you're saying, but in my case my truck was never a rusty hulk like you're talking about. There are no signs of rust anywhere on those hood hinges. Not saying you're wrong, just that in my case I don't think that was the scenario that bent the hinges. I honestly don't know what it was. As for picking the hood up from only one side....that's how I do it. There doesn't appear to be much force on the hinges (if they're free) when lifting from only one side. The hood twists a little, but there isn't much resistance to it lifting up. But what DAP said got me thinking. I can't say for sure what happens when the hood hinges are rusted tight....they probably do bend, but when I got my truck one of the toolbox doors on the front side of the bed was pretty rusted tight. Despite that, I was able to slowly pry it open, squirt some loosening juice on the hinge and slowly open and close it. It's a very tight hinge and runs the full length of the door, yet despite the fact that it was rusted shut....it didn't bend at the hinge or the door the first time I openend it dry. The hood hinges are a "looser" design, but I'm sure that under the right (bad) conditions those hinges could rust solid.

Again, not saying they shouldn't be flat hinges.....I'm just having trouble figuring out how they bent the way they did. Thanks for the inputs.

regards,
bob