Shout out to madstad.com

Thank you Cody at madstad..dot com....for the extended hood hinge link replacements....nice voluntary customer service....

Well, first of all I’m not exactly sure what was/is going on with my hood....the front latches will not latch if I gently shut the hood...PERIOD.

Second, while driving at 70 MPH the passenger side of my hood was flapping up and down because only the top drivers side latch was holding it....3 were not....so I don’t know now if my hood is in a twist...

To get the to part of my my spoiler to line up and be out far enough to look presentable I had to shim the top drivers side mount out using 3 lock washers (about 1/4”)

I also had to mess with the bolts on the drivers side hood hinge mount...the one that bolts directly to the hood, if you know which ones I’m talking about..if those are loose or the hood is not complyetly down tight on that mount I had trouble with the top drivers side latch releasing properly...

As I said before my dealer told me they had a really hard time lining up my hood.....which leads me to believe my SS could have some front end damage which is causing so many hood alignment issues. They have the round rubber bumpers on the dash cut in half, meaning they are only sticking up 1/4 -3/8” up instead of full factory height which is probably a 1/2”.

There is also a big gap between my hood and the dash of 1/2-3/4”...which doesn’t look like it should be that large...can anyone verify how big their hood/dash gap is?

I can not be 100% sure my frame has not been twisted and nobody is going to admit it was ever wrecked before I bought it if it was...it was never titled but they sold it to me as “used” with 700 miles on it.... Which I still can’t understand why.... I do not believe they were the original dealer of my SS...meaning I think they somehow acquired it from another dealer for some unknown reason...I can not verify that either...or was it a demo?

I removed my front spoiler to tow my SS. And since I put it back on my hood/spoiler alignment hasn’t been right..I can not get enough movement back and forth to bring it into the position it needs to be in...to look visually correct.

Cody suggested I try the new links that were slightly shortened (1/16”) because he said that might help it close better.... I just got them yesterday and haven’t changed them.

That said I have always had an issue with the closure shock rubbing the frame and the linkage not being able to be installed as directed...I didn’t mention that to him.

So with all of this said....my hood alignment problems started long before I installed the extended hood hinges. Which I highly doubt is the reason for my problems...