Cervinis Hood Fitment

[007Stallion]

First off, I hope I’m posting this in the right section.

I just purchased a Cervinis Mach 1 hood which was delivered last week. So the other day I was test fitting the hood on my car before giving it to my body shop guy and the pictures below show how well it fits…or not as the case may be.

I cannot seem to get any more adjustment out of the hood hinges/mounting holes. Is there something I’m missing or was this hood made out of whack?

I’m hoping someone has an idea as to what might be going on here. I messed around with this hood for over two hours and can’t seem to get it to align any better. For $800 plus shipping, I expect, no demand, a better product.

I contacted Cervinis and they asked me to send pictures and they would get back to me. Cool. Only problem is I am only home one entire day a week, so I don’t want this dragging on for weeks if I can help it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Robert Larimer]

Have you loosened the fender bolts to get better alignment between them and the hood? It also needs to go forward more.

 

[007Stallion]

Thanks, I have not loosened the fender bolts as of yet. Didn’t want too many variables before I understood what was going on.

Yes, the hood needs to come forward on and move towards the driver’s side, like a right hand twist. But there is no adjustment range left in the hood hinge bolt holes. I thought about enlarging them with a step bit to get more adjustment range.

The OEM hood fits very well as is, I was hoping this hood would as well.

 

[MrBhp]

It's common practice at autobody shops to tweak the hinges in order to make the hood lay as close to correct as possible. That's the first thing you do. After you've got all you can from the hinges, you start moving the fenders. If you end up moving the fenders, just barely loosen the fender bolts and tap the fender with a rubber mallet. I don't know if that hood will be stiff enough to tweak the hinges. You may need to install the original hood to get the hinges to cooperate, then put the new hood back on.

 

[007Stallion]

Appreciate the responses, I’m not much of an auto body guy, I’m more mechanical. I’ll try to get the fenders tweaked.

A few questions:

Is there any merit in enlarging the hinge to hood mounting holes?

Can the hinge to fender bolts be tweaked to get some adjustment there?

Thanks again!

 

[MrBhp]

The best/most adjustments are to be had in bending the hinges. You just open the hood enough to grab each side in the front, and push the hood the direction it needs to go. I've done this procedure at least a hundred times. If the entire hood, not just the front, needs to move to the drivers side, you'll need someone to push on the back end of the hood in the desired direction while you push on the front. This is how hoods have been aligned at the manufacture since the advent of hinges. From the pictures it looks like your hood needs to move about 1/16 in the back and 3/16 in the front.

 

[007Stallion]

MrBhp, thank you for the suggestion. I searched and searched looking for helpful tips like that and couldn’t find it anywhere.

I put the OEM hood back on and did as you suggested, got a little bit of movement. Took that off and very slightly bent each hinge the way I needed it to go. Put the fiberglass hood back on, it’s a lot better but not exactly where it needs to be. Almost need both entire hinge assemblies (about the center point, looking from the top) to twist to the right a little bit.

I also loosened the fenders up and shifted them, but didn’t really get much adjustment.

Thinking I might step out the mounting holes a little to be able to shift the hood a bit.

The right side needs to move to the right about 1/8 at the back and maybe come forward a 1/16 to 1/8 at the front. The left rear at the back needs to move to the right about 1/8. Just had a thunderstorm move in so, I’ll have to get back to it later.

Here is some updated pics. Thank you for all the suggestions.

 

[Laga]

That’s a bummer. I got the Cervinis Mach 1 hood for my 05 and it fit perfectly out of the box with zero adjustments. I bought mine painted though. I doubt that makes any difference.

 

[JC SSP]

Always loved the NASA inspired MACH1 hoods! NICE CAR!

 

[MrBhp]

You're getting there! That's a major improvement.

 

[007Stallion]

That’s a bummer. I got the Cervinis Mach 1 hood for my 05 and it fit perfectly out of the box with zero adjustments. I bought mine painted though. I doubt that makes any difference.

That was pretty much why I went with Cervinis Mach 1 over Trufiber A29 because everyone raved how perfect their fitment was out of the box. Well that and the Trufiber A29 in carbon fiber is OOS and I have no idea when it will be back.

That’s a nice car!

 

[007Stallion]

You're getting there! That's a major improvement.

Thanks to your suggestions. LOL.

I’ll work on it more tomorrow and hopefully get everything squared up. Then I can start on getting the hood latch and hood bumpers adjusted.

 

[Laga]

One thing to remember, be sure to check to see if the CAI box will seal against the new hood. Mine does not. I had to add a piece of insulated plexiglass to keep the hot air from under the hood out. It makes a difference. https://www.s197forum.com/threads/interesting-cai-observation.140561/

Be sure to post photos after the paint.

 

[007Stallion]

Well…I think was able to get it adjusted about as far as I’m going to, especially since the body shop will need to take it off for paint. I think the rest of the necessary adjustments can be found in tweaking the bolts securing the hood to the hinges.

My son and I spent the morning loosening and adjusting the hood hinge to inner fender mounting bolts. We also got a little bit of tweaking out of the fenders. Never would have thought this would be a family project with my wife and son over several days. LOL. Probably spent a good 6 hours on this.

Updated pics below. You can see it’s still a little too close to the RH fender at the front.

 

[007Stallion]

One thing to remember, be sure to check to see if the CAI box will seal against the new hood. Mine does not. I had to add a piece of insulated plexiglass to keep the hot air from under the hood out. It makes a difference. https://www.s197forum.com/threads/interesting-cai-observation.140561/

Be sure to post photos after the paint.

Thanks Laga, I will be sure to check that out. Car currently has a BBK CAI put on by the PO, planning on a JLT or Steeda CAI in the future.

I’ll definitely post some pics once I get the car back from paint and install the Cervinis B2 front chin spoiler I have for it. Plan is to have the hood painted like the ‘71-‘73 Mach 1’s and add some hood pins.

 

[gbstang]

Interesting, Though my 2011 Shelby had a Tru-fiber hood, my 2008 had the Cervinis hood. I had to adjust fenders slightly, hood bumpers up front as well as the latch to accommodate the hood. Any after market body part will require some tweeking, sometimes its just the hood at the hinge other times its all over the place..It is worth the pain in the end..

 

[Juice]

I got the Heat Extractor from Cervini. Body shop did all the work, they are a vendor for them.
I would rate fit & finish 9 out of 10. Hood is also a few pounds heavier than my stocker was.
What you got is as good as mine fits.

 

[thailand]

If I may make a suggestion...I saw you had mentioned hood pins.
If you are good with the fitment, I would install hood pins before painting. Any "mistakes" can be fixed, and painted on top of.
If the paint/body shop is doing it, then don't mind me

PS: I have the same hood and the Drake pins look great and fit perfectly.

 

[bmeaggie]

First off, I hope I’m posting this in the right section.

I just purchased a Cervinis Mach 1 hood which was delivered last week. So the other day I was test fitting the hood on my car before giving it to my body shop guy and the pictures below show how well it fits…or not as the case may be.

I cannot seem to get any more adjustment out of the hood hinges/mounting holes. Is there something I’m missing or was this hood made out of whack?

I’m hoping someone has an idea as to what might be going on here. I messed around with this hood for over two hours and can’t seem to get it to align any better. For $800 plus shipping, I expect, no demand, a better product.

I contacted Cervinis and they asked me to send pictures and they would get back to me. Cool. Only problem is I am only home one entire day a week, so I don’t want this dragging on for weeks if I can help it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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I purchased one of their hoods a few years back and installed it myself in my garage. I know I had to play with hinges… can’t remember details, but in the end fit is perfect and they also matched the color very well.

 

[Whpony96]

There is NOTHING wrong with your new hood it's the way the Mustang is built, not one leaving the plant are exactly the same. Adjustments to fit are 100% normal. I'm so anal it took me 10+ hours to get my Cervinis 2000 Cobra R hood aligned on my 1996 GT. And I know for a fact my 1996 has never been in one accident.

On the S-197 If you remove both front fenders you can access the hinge to body bolts. And that's the ONLY way you can access that one bolt on the hinge to body. But you really should not have to do that, but it is possible.

Your doing great on the adjustments. I would loosen the passenger side fender and pull it away from the hood up by the headlight a bit more. Remember the hood moves when driving down the road you don't want that freshly painted hood touching the fender at all.

Also, You can have the body man shave off some material off the hood to get that perfect fit if need be.