fiberglass hood.....nature of the beast?

[jon_eds]

Mounted my new fiberglass hood and all my gaps and everything is good to go but it is bowed in the center / sits higher than the fenders in the middle about 3/8 of an inch or so. No matter what I do it still does the same thing. Pretty sure I already know the answer but is there any way to manipulate / massage a fiberglass hood?
A friend that's a body shop guy says its the nature of the beast and will get better or worse with changes in weather.
Any tips or tricks? Or if I used original hood latch equipment and fabricated some brackets under the hood and mounted the hood pins half way back on the hood, how would that look you think?

 

[ol gray mare]

Check the rubber anti rattle bumpers on the fenders to be sure they aren't holding the hood up. They caused my glass hod to bow in the middle, I replaced them with the adjustable ones from the Dorman's catalogue.

 

[Crush]

do you have hydraulic hood shocks? if so was the hood designed for that or did you install some reinforcements along the edges of the hood? I hav e a 66 mustang with a glass hood and weakened springs on the factory hinges and it bows in the middle like you are explaining. for this reason some hoods have the reinforcement built in and some vendors have a reinforcement kit to prevent it. it is usually easier with a glass hood to not use shocks and stick with the prop rod. if you do not have shocks and the hood is bowed then you can sometimes put heavy weight right on top of the bow and support the hood front and rear to make the bow lay down and push a little farther downso when you remove the weight it will spring back up to where you want it.

hope that helped

 

[jon_eds]

It's one of the hoods that have the reinforcements under the hood. I did have the shocks and homemade hood shock mounts, took them off and tried putting weight on it, had the weights on there a day and it helped quite a bit, gonna try it for a longer period I think that will eventually get it. And think I'll just stick with the prop rod.