Hood not flush with fenders

I came across this pdf. for body gap tolerances for Ford trucks. Couldn't find any information Tacomas. I would imagine they are about the same. I really don't like to admit it, but Toyota trucks are no longer all that more "cosmetically correct" compared to other brands. My wife's Gen 1 and Gen 2 trucks had a much better fit and finish that my 2018.

Back to to my truck. The hood at the cab is lower than the fender by slightly less than the thickness of a quarter or a about 1/16 inch. (Just within Ford truck tolerances.) If I do make this adjustment, should I use a 1/16" shim? The O'Reilly website shows both circular and rectangular shims. Which would be a better choice for the hood hinge?

TC_Mic...How about a pic of your finished realignment. I'd like to see how noticeable the shims are at the hinge. That's one me reason the body shop guy did not really want to shim my hood. Seems folks are paranoid about any type of repair showing up on a vehicle because it might bring up the question of additional damage.

Final questions... How easy is it to "mess up"? Can this adjustment be done easily by just one person? In the past my perfectionism when it comes to correcting cosmetic mistakes on vehicles has sometimes made things worse. I am quite sure that I am not the only person who has had this happen.

 

I will go out and take a few pics at the edges of the cab and inside the hood. I will post with the pics later today.

I did the adjustment myself in the driveway. It took me less than 30 minutes as I recall and the biggest problem I had was dropping the spacers I was using into the fender. I had to stop and go to the back of the house to get a couple more, I have several in my "junk" parts bucket. If you look at my before pics (post #24 of this thread) you see one side was a bit more than the thickness of the quarter and ther other slightly less.

 

TC_Mic, Thanks for your help. I assume you used the hood support to hold the hood up while you were working on it. How unsteady did the hood become. I don't want to take the chance of twisting the hood, dropping the edge on the cowl or possibly stripping one of the bolts.

 

Not sure if this is what u mean but this is a new 18’ Pro I seen 2 days ago at dealer .

 

That's an example to the front of the hood not being flush with the front of the fender. Adjusting the front rubber bump stops can correct that.

 

My 2018 has exactly the same problem, on the drivers side. I opened the hood, twisted the hood strike on the drivers side out about 3/4 of a full rotation, closed the hood. The front is now even, by the windshield it’s still low by maybe 1/16 of an inch. Good enough.

If I was buying a 2018 and noticed it on driving they would get to fix it before I drove it off of the lot.

 

I did use the prop. I worked 1 hinge at a time, loosened both bolts but only removed 1 at a time. I really had no trouble each bolt has a "seat" on it. Much like this :

I believe this type of bolt is called a shoulder bolt, but I may be incorrect. As long as you have the shoulder/seat of 1 bolt partially within the hinge hole it will give you 0 problems. It really sounds a LOT more complex than it is.

 

I just bought my 2018, and it's good on the drivers side, but a tad low on the passenger (easy to live with since I don't see it). Some colors are more noticeable then others. I test drove a black truck and my eye went right the seam every time, so I started checking trucks on the lot. Most have some degree, sort of depends what color and your tolerance for it. I found to rare to find a prefect fitting hood.

 

Yep, noticed the same thing....mostly on the Sports and Pros. Must have something to do with the extra stamping to accommodate the hood scoop. Most of the misaligned hoods lined up very well with the grill shell. This is what the inspectors must be looking for. When I aligned the front of the hood with the fenders, it opened one side of the gap at the grill shell a very small amount.

 

I would NOT mess with the hood to line it up to the fender for the reasons:
A - a raised hood would miss-align the hood to the nose grille bezel
B - would increase the gap between the hood and the head light
C - also would screw up the fender/hood/head light gaps
D - would raise the hood line over the front bezel and look weird
But is your truck and do as you please.

 

Market Adjustment $5000!!!!!!!!!!!! and BTW that is not an "official" required window tag on the side of the "real" one that is what the Dealers make to look like it is so buyers go "Oh well it is what it is" I would ran out of that Stealer-Ship as fast as I could get out that door! wow that is insane!

 

That's INSANE! My dealer when they still had three on the lot were selling below MSRP.

 

Back to the topic: TC_Mic, Do you have any hood/headlight/grille bezel alignment issues after adjusting the front bumpers and shimming the hinge?

 

I took out this girl, I really liked, one time in my 71 FJ40. I made a turn and snow shot up through the hole in the floor board, that we had cut for he manual trans. It hit her in the face and she laughed. Anyways...hood out of perfect "dress right dress?" I can't get to excited about it.

 

Not at all. My hood DID sit low BEFORE I added.the spacers. Now it sits even front to back and I have 0 gap issues anyplace. I did not changed left to right aglinment. Sorry to hear @Dacon is fearful.
Of course if there is an issue for.anyone you can always remove any shims and be back to the poor alignment it had prior.

 

***
Pics of front, back, side.

 

Mine is similar and its new

 

I had the same thing took it in and they fixed it under warranty.

 

Figure out a way to move the frame...

 

Caution: Pic heavy post... as requested here are pics of my truck's hood after adjustment. I chose to do the adjustment myself because I knew it was not a difficult job. I did not want to take it back to the dealership and wait for hours for them to complete a few minutes work, and/or have to drop it off and go pick it up again later.

Sorry for the delay, had a week full of Mondays at the office and at home. Here are the adjustment pics.





And since @Dacon requested pics as well next post will have pics showing exterior.