Hood adjustment

[Emeraude]

I am in the process of fitting the hood on my 21 touring. I need to raise the cowl to make it fit. My question is do I just loosen the front body bolts or all body bolts?

[Jim Sims]

I am pretty sure you have a sagging frame. Quite common for T's. No good way to raise the firewall and body.

[Norman Kling]

You can raise the front of the body. Usually one side will be lower. However, when you raise the front of the body, you will need to change the position of the body at the point where the doors are attached or latch. So be prepared to shim up the cowl and then if the door is high at the latch side of the door, you will need to lower the body right under the hinge of the door and perhaps raise it at the latch. Then the rear doors will not fit, so need to make adjustments there also.

Best fix is to straighten the frame, but that would require removing the body and work with the frame until it is straight. Then you will still need to fit the body to the frame, but probably not as much adjustment unless the wood blocks have been altered to fit with the crooked frame.
Norm

[Jim Sims]

On a 21 you can raise the body a foot and it will still not fix your hood problems. The hood sits on the fire wall and to move this you will need to modify the frame to firewall mounting brackets. The frame is usually bent about where the motor mounts are located. I have straightened several frames using a chain 2 blocks of wood inside the frame and a hydraulic jack while body is still on the frame. My guess is the bottom of the hood is overlapping the radiator shell.

[Wayne Sheldon]

Frames bend for a variety of reasons, and these cars have had nearly a century or more to suffer the effects of all of them. Accidents and collisions cause certain types of bends, twists, kinks,along with all sorts of alignment issues. Rough roads were bad enough, but use over terrains that a modern Jeep would have major trouble with caused all kinds of damage. Bad repair work often weakened the frame over decades of hard use, leading to further damage. But the cause of most of the common damage found on most model Ts, is design. As a long-time fan of Henry's wonderful T Ford, I must stress that it was not "bad" design, just a fact of the car was not designed to be "bullet proof" forever! There are nearly as many good straight surviving frames today, ones that did not need significant straightening, as there are cars with sagging or bent frames. At the swap meet I went to yesterday, a long-time good friend of mine was trying to sell two of the straightest most pristine model T frames one could ever find. I have a couple myself that are not quite as nice, but nearly as straight in my parts pile.
The two heaviest parts of the car, the body, and the engine, meet in one short section of the frame. Between the firewall, and the area around the transmission pedals, heavily used or abused cars tended to sag. Careful shimming of the body mounts (as Norman K mentioned) can improve the situation quite a bit. But as Jim S says, straightening the frame is better. It can be done under an assembled car with some difficulty. To truly get a frame right, it is best to remove most parts both above and below, to better measure and check for square as well as examine all rivets.
There are many ways to handle this. Everything from large steel beams, event heavy wooden beams, to solid anchors in a concrete floor, on down to a couple jacks and gravity. There are many differing opinions on whether heat should or should not be used, the fact is there are advantages and disadvantages both ways. Either way can be done with excellent results. Generally, some force more than gravity is needed in conjunction with jacks placed under the sag. Come-alongs, chain pullers, along with jacks or hoists can offer good results.
Extremely important! You may be pushing and pulling, shaking and twisting nearly a ton of automobile on unstable jacks. Be careful with where YOU are, and have backup supports in place.