I wonder if the hood is adjustable on the hinge? If, with the hood closed, and if you disconnect the struts, if you loosen the four torque bolts up if the hood would slide back towards the window, and then tighten the torque bolts back up.. What do the lines look like on the front of the hood?

 

Same thing happened to mine with my Teraflex hood struts. I only have use of 1 arm so taking them off really wasnt a viable option. (try opening the hood with one hand, it sux..lol) However I was advised to put these on and it would fix the gap:

http://www.warriorproducts.com/instr...ENT_PLATES.pdf

That just seems like too much work for a little gap no one notices but me. I can def see how these would work though.

 

Boom! Perfect solution. OP, probably best to replace the stock hinges and then add the reinforcement. You can get color matched paint almost anywhere. You could probably find hinges at a salvage yard in your paint color as well.

 

Thanks for the post... yep, way too much work for me as well, besides, I haven't welded anything since Jr. High School metal shop. Anyway, I'm not so sure it's the hinges at this point. It almost looks like most of the bend is at the mounting bracket and underlying sheet metal. When I push and pull on the hood, all of the flex is in the sheet metal where the bracket meets the skin.



I'm now thinking of fabricating a couple of 1/4 in shims and placing them between the mount bracket and the hinge.

So, did you remove your struts? If not, has your gap/bend increased over time?

 

You may be correct, I've got a can of OEM paint standing by. I'm going to do some testing and may just shim it. I'll probably know what I'm going to do by tonight. I'm a little OCD, it's driving me crazy. -- Thanks for the comments.

 

No I left them in. it has not gotten any worse.

 

That's comforting. I'll make the shims and see what happens. Thanks for the info. I'll post the schematics if they work.

 

Awesome thanks

 

How about that!? I too noticed a gap between the hood and cowl, slightly larger on the passenger side, but assumed it was just a poorly fitted hood from the factory. I just disconnected my lift struts and closed the hood. Gap be gone! When those struts are compressed, and the hood is closed, they exert enough pressure to flex the fairly thin sheet metal the hinges attach to along with the hinge itself. I taught myself to ignore that gap for a few weeks. Now that I know the cause I'm not sure what to do. I REALLY like the lifts, but I really DON'T like that gap. Please don't judge. My JK has A/C and heated seats, why shouldn't it have hood struts? That hinge stiffener is looking like the solution for me too.

 

Just seems like so much work. I guess if you have welding skills, go for it.

I've exchange a couple of emails with Warrior Products (the maker of those stiffeners), they make a set of 1/8 in spacers for use in conjunction with their hi-lift mount. I may just stack 2 sets of them and see what happens. They run $14 a set...still pondering. Please let me know how yours turnout.