Help! My hood won't close. Installed new cowl seal on my 72 Skylark with GS hood. Now the rear end of the hood sits about 1/4 inch too high. Won't mash the seal down enough I guess. I think I have seen others with this problem. Got the seal from Cars, Inc and looks correct. Have also seen this effect on other 70 - 72 Skylarks. Must be needing a thinner seal obviously. Any remedies? I already tried slicing the tube part from end to end to let it compress easier but didn't help much.
two types of rubber seals sold by most places. Thicker harder rubber type and softer foam type. Maybe the foam type is way to go.
I've heard of the foam type, will look into it. Tried a piece of windshield hose in the gap and it was tight so there is not much space. May have to improvise, hope someone else has already reinvented the wheel so to speak.
Let the car get some sun for a couple of weeks with the hood closed so it will close the gap naturally.
Also consider hood hinges may be out of wack or lost tension. Also make sure wether stripping installed in correct location. Any pictures?
Pretty sure the hinges are OK, stays open fine, and even if I push down it won't go down any further. The location is correct, put the new one in using the old push in fastener holes and can see the rub pattern on the hood. The main purpose of the cowl seal is to keep engine fumes out of the cowl vent where your interior ventilation is supplied from. Also keeps water and leaves and stuff from getting into the engine bay. At least most of it. The hood closes fine without the seal in place but I can smell the engine when I use the floor vents. So I will put something there but not the stock seal, it is just too thick for my hood which is not an original Skylark hood but a GS type, maybe there is a difference. I've seen quite a few with this problem.
Foam seal Jims right, it will "settle" a little bit after a few weeks. The first seal I installed was the rubber, then I changed to the foam seal. Also, another thing to check is the windshield squirter hoses, make sure you dont have the wrong size hose... Good Luck Bert
there is actually the possibility that it keeps more air passing thru the radiator because of the vacuum under the car that is caused by your car moving forward thru the air. (kinda why you actually don't want to open the hood to try to cool a car down.)
Re: Foam seal Thanks, I'll figure something out eventually. I remove the squirter hoses and squirters a long time ago. Hate 'em. never use 'em.
Makes sense, another reason to put the seal back in somehow. Would probably keep that hot air out of the cowl vent and into your car. Make the inside cooler, good idea in the summer for sure.
I always thought the underside of a car is a high-pressure area -- unless you install a front air dam. I bet the cooling system would work better if the engine compartment was vented by some means other than underneath. That's pretty common with many race cars and exotics. Me thinks the cowl seal is there only for the originally stated reason: to keep engine fumes from getting sucked through the ventilation system.
Me thinks the cowl seal is there only for the originally stated reason: to keep engine fumes from getting sucked through the ventilation system.[/QUOTE] That's my main concern, had a 70 camaro that I was fixing up with a built up engine. One hot day I took it for a little drive, came home and my lips were blue. Lost interest real fast and sold it. Maybe thet's why my speling aint' to good any moore.:laugh:
I'm having the same problem, seal looks like the harder rubber style. Anyone know where to get one of the softer foam ones?
the old ones dry out and get really hard. try Metro http://www.metrommp.com/ they also show up at swap meets a lot. if you call them you can have them bring the part you buy with them and save on shipping. I picked up all the seals but top seals from there and all are nice pieces except the door ones don't have the metal in them anymore. anyway the cowl one i believe is a spot on match. except now it uses and includes plastic inserts but it is really soft material.
>>I bought a foam one from OPG but didn't get the chance to install it yet - hopefully I will have no problems with the hood closing. ray:
I ended up making my seal from a garage door bottom seal (soft foam) with a little turned up lip. Did some trimming to get the width I wanted, punched some holes and used the original push in plastic tee thingys. (Learned that term from my wife). Works fine and looks more like a 56 cowl seal. Not correct for sure, but effective. I think my problem is mostly because it's not the original hood, since it's been cloned from a Skylark. And thankfully we have no seagulls or pelicans either here in Ohio. Never use the wipers for that matter either unless absolutely necessary. Brand new windshield for almost a year and have not used the wipers yet. I hate wiper wear marks. I'll stick my head out the window if I have to.:laugh: So for sure don't need those ugly squirters. Again I'm not a correct sort of guy.:spank: me.
