It takes two people to undo the hood due to its heavyweight and shape. Put blankets or pads on both fenders and cowl before lifting the hood off, to keep dust from touching the shell and paint. Mark around bolt heads with something that will show up during reinstall, then remove any cable or wire hangers that get in the way. Help keep the hood balanced while your helper removes clips and weakens the support strut with pliers, eases out hinge-to-hood bolts or nuts, and fixes the shims before lifting the hood off. Just like taking the hood off, reinstalling includes putting any plastic spacers precisely where they used to be. To fix the hood's forward and back position, take off the hinge-to-body bolts and put a line around the entire hinge plate to measure how far you move it. As you loosen the bolts, move the hood into its right position, and be careful while lowering the hood to test if it aligns correctly. You can adjust the entire hood latch assembly to slide up-and-down and sideways on the hood strikers if needed, moving it around until the hood closes tightly and matches the shape of the fenders. Mark the latch bolt locations with a line, then free up the bolts and reinstall the components into the right position before tightening down the bolts again. To make sure the hood is perfectly square with the fenders, move the hood cushions on the adjusting screws until they are even, and put shims under the rear hinge plates when you need to. Before long, coat the hood latch mechanism and hinges with white lithium grease to keep them from freezing or wearing out.
