Hood Results (long-ish)
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2001 10:47 pm
I think I ought to start this off by stating what we were working with when
we did the work:
My car: '91 Legacy N/A wagon L
Ian's car: '93 Legacy Turbo sedan (I didn't catch the model, Ian?)
Here are the basic findings:
In short, they don't fit. They don't even fit well enough that you could
bubble-gum/duct tape/bond-o the thing to fit.
Suprisingly enough, the main difference that prevented the hood from fitting
Ian's car, had nothing to do with the lip (yes, there is a lip, more on that
later). The main problem is the hood from the '91 is about an inch shorter
than the '93.
First off, we took pictures of our cars "as is". Then we took the hoods and
layed them side by side on the ground, and on top of eachother, took more
pictures. Flipped them over, took pictures of the latch. I have to stop and
say, at that point when I saw the latches I thought "Gee, that latch is
different than the other one, but that's an easy fix. Just put a shim under
it and it'll work fine. Or order the other latch..."
Otherwise, I thought the hoods were 100% identical at this stage of the
game.
Then we moved Ian's over to mine, now Ian's is not the hood Dave intends to
mold, but I had to see what mine would look like with the vent. It bolted
right up - no problem. Put the hood down to latch it, which it indeed
latched and:
"Holy cow! That thing doesn't even remotely fit my car!"
The differences were a complete shock. There was a gap that began at the
hinge between the hood and the fender that grew to about 2.5cm at the widest
point. The end of the hood extended over the front of the car by about 3cm.
And the gap was more severe on the passenger side than the driver side.
However, I'm willing to throw that fact out the window, as the whole purpose
for me buying a new hood is to replace mine where it was dented from a
rear-end accident inflicted before I owned it. I suspect the cause of the
larger gap on the passenger side may have been due to some slight alteration
in the frame as a result of the accident.
So at this point I was thinking: maybe cut some metal plate for an adapter
on the hinge to move the hood forward, put a shim under the latch and maybe
it would work. Then the lip came into play...
Then we put my hood on Ian's chasis which would be the result of purchasing
a hood from Dave and putting it on a later model car (whatever year the
change over was made?). The hood was just too short. I already mentioned
that, but it really caught me off guard when it was on Ian's car. The lip
that everyone talks about is definitely there on my hood. Ian's hood is flat
all the way around the leading edge - no lip. His headlamps were slightly
different, as was the grill to match. The length was all wrong, the gap
above the headlamps is due to the lip, which actually isn't a lip. Think of
it as they cut out a little of the hood to make room for the lamps. The hood
on Ian's didn't have the curve cut out of the hood for the headlamps. On the
older car the lip is actually there to close the gap on the grill. Ian's
lamps are different so my hood created a gap above the lamps.
Sort of an different way of looking at the problem, but I call 'em the way I
see 'em. Ian's being the newer car, clearly something happened during the
more recent model years. Subaru lost their headlamp provider, or found a
better one - who knows. But the finishing edge on Ian's was straight as an
arrow. Mine actually fit flush, but the gaps over the lamps was too much.
My hood + Ian's car = too short! We didn't even bother to bolt it in after
looking at his hood on my car, we knew the jury was out. So there it is in
print, for what it's worth. I had to take analog pictures (read: developer
film) so I'll get them developed tomorrow and scan them in at work if all
goes well...
In conclusion: Could one possibly purchase a hood from Dave, new headlamps,
a new grill, a new latch, have some metal shims cut for the hinges and the
latch and make it work?
I don't know.
We didn't swap lamps and grills to see, but I have to ask: If you are going
to that much trouble, why don't you save the $$ and go buy a new one from
Subaru? Because at that point, you might as well just kick in a few more $$
and go get a new mold made for your model year and sell copies to everyone
on the forum and get something that fits properly, if fiberglass is a
must-have.
01 = my two bits.
-Sambo
<begin flame war>
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we did the work:
My car: '91 Legacy N/A wagon L
Ian's car: '93 Legacy Turbo sedan (I didn't catch the model, Ian?)
Here are the basic findings:
In short, they don't fit. They don't even fit well enough that you could
bubble-gum/duct tape/bond-o the thing to fit.
Suprisingly enough, the main difference that prevented the hood from fitting
Ian's car, had nothing to do with the lip (yes, there is a lip, more on that
later). The main problem is the hood from the '91 is about an inch shorter
than the '93.
First off, we took pictures of our cars "as is". Then we took the hoods and
layed them side by side on the ground, and on top of eachother, took more
pictures. Flipped them over, took pictures of the latch. I have to stop and
say, at that point when I saw the latches I thought "Gee, that latch is
different than the other one, but that's an easy fix. Just put a shim under
it and it'll work fine. Or order the other latch..."
Otherwise, I thought the hoods were 100% identical at this stage of the
game.
Then we moved Ian's over to mine, now Ian's is not the hood Dave intends to
mold, but I had to see what mine would look like with the vent. It bolted
right up - no problem. Put the hood down to latch it, which it indeed
latched and:
"Holy cow! That thing doesn't even remotely fit my car!"
The differences were a complete shock. There was a gap that began at the
hinge between the hood and the fender that grew to about 2.5cm at the widest
point. The end of the hood extended over the front of the car by about 3cm.
And the gap was more severe on the passenger side than the driver side.
However, I'm willing to throw that fact out the window, as the whole purpose
for me buying a new hood is to replace mine where it was dented from a
rear-end accident inflicted before I owned it. I suspect the cause of the
larger gap on the passenger side may have been due to some slight alteration
in the frame as a result of the accident.
So at this point I was thinking: maybe cut some metal plate for an adapter
on the hinge to move the hood forward, put a shim under the latch and maybe
it would work. Then the lip came into play...
Then we put my hood on Ian's chasis which would be the result of purchasing
a hood from Dave and putting it on a later model car (whatever year the
change over was made?). The hood was just too short. I already mentioned
that, but it really caught me off guard when it was on Ian's car. The lip
that everyone talks about is definitely there on my hood. Ian's hood is flat
all the way around the leading edge - no lip. His headlamps were slightly
different, as was the grill to match. The length was all wrong, the gap
above the headlamps is due to the lip, which actually isn't a lip. Think of
it as they cut out a little of the hood to make room for the lamps. The hood
on Ian's didn't have the curve cut out of the hood for the headlamps. On the
older car the lip is actually there to close the gap on the grill. Ian's
lamps are different so my hood created a gap above the lamps.
Sort of an different way of looking at the problem, but I call 'em the way I
see 'em. Ian's being the newer car, clearly something happened during the
more recent model years. Subaru lost their headlamp provider, or found a
better one - who knows. But the finishing edge on Ian's was straight as an
arrow. Mine actually fit flush, but the gaps over the lamps was too much.
My hood + Ian's car = too short! We didn't even bother to bolt it in after
looking at his hood on my car, we knew the jury was out. So there it is in
print, for what it's worth. I had to take analog pictures (read: developer
film) so I'll get them developed tomorrow and scan them in at work if all
goes well...
In conclusion: Could one possibly purchase a hood from Dave, new headlamps,
a new grill, a new latch, have some metal shims cut for the hinges and the
latch and make it work?
I don't know.
We didn't swap lamps and grills to see, but I have to ask: If you are going
to that much trouble, why don't you save the $$ and go buy a new one from
Subaru? Because at that point, you might as well just kick in a few more $$
and go get a new mold made for your model year and sell copies to everyone
on the forum and get something that fits properly, if fiberglass is a
must-have.
01 = my two bits.
-Sambo
<begin flame war>
------------------------ ---------------------~-->
Monitoring Service trial
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Gi0tnD/bQ8CAA ... /XoTolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
To unsubscribe from this group, please send an email to:
BC-BFLegacyWorks-unsubscribe@egroups.com