How to align hood?

With all that experience I'm hesitant to help because you've probably gone through the usual, but just in case: To start, have you gone through headlight adjustment of shining lights on a wall at 20 feet and measuring height of beam to specs and adjusting?

Once past that, is hood resting on rubber stoppers as designed and are all rubber stoppers in place?

Lastly, is it possible when the hood was being held up by it's kickstand that a downward force twisted the hood and can fixed by twisting it back? Once you reply to these I'll try out some more crazier ideas, but let's get through the easy ones first.

 

See the Repair Manual (more info), under Vehicle Exterior: Engine Hood/Door: Adjustment. The centering bolts used at the factory have to be replaced with standard bolts with washers (part number 90080-11206, formerly 91621-B0816; see catalog Figure 53-02, Hood & Front Fender) before making adjustments. The Repair Manual also gives the standard clearance ranges between the hood and the body at several points and a step-by-step adjustment procedure.

 

Here's the excerpt regarding the hood alignment. There's a mention of:

A bolt without a torque specification is shown in the
standard bolt chart (see page SS-2).

I''ve included that chart in the excerpt, not clear what bolt class would be applicable. Maybe @Elektroingenieur can shed light?

 

I recommend only the Toyota bolts with washers listed in the catalog, purchased using one of the part numbers I mentioned in post #3, which specify all relevant properties.

I’m not aware of a current, public cross-reference between Toyota part numbers and bolt sizes and classes. It used to be that the class, diameter, and length were encoded in digits 6, 7–8, and 9–10, respectively, of the part number, but that’s no longer true. Here, from some of the superseded part numbers, I can make an educated guess that the hood hinge bolts are M8-1.25 × 16 mm, strength class 6T, but please don’t rely on that.

As much as I don’t like to give Toyota an undeserved monopoly on fasteners, I don’t know of any published information showing how their bolts, nuts, or screws—made to proprietary Toyota Engineering Standards—are, or are not, equivalent to items of similar sizes made to JIS, ISO, DIN, ASME, or ASTM consensus standards.

With an example in hand, it’s easy to measure its size, check its thread profile, and note the gross appearance of its surface treatment, but other properties, including some that may be critical to vehicle safety and durability, such as tensile strength, proof stress, and hardness, are more difficult to determine outside the laboratory.

Every Toyota Repair Manual has a chart (“How to Determine Bolt Strength”) showing Toyota’s markings for strength classes 4T through 11T, but the manuals don’t explain what those classes mean. I imagine the 4T, 5T, 6T, and 7T designations may have been inspired by the (now-obsolete) strength classes defined in the Annex to JIS B 1051-1991, “Mechanical properties of steel bolts and screws,” which explains, “The number of the class indicates 1/10 of the min. tensile strength, in kgf/mm², and the letter T means that it is the tensile strength.”

Without a public document to confirm that, explain how Toyota’s own standards might differ, or describe what other properties their design engineers may have relied upon, I couldn’t say that it would always be safe to replace a Toyota fastener of their strength class 6T, for example, with one of strength class 6T as defined in the former JIS, or of property class 6.8 as defined in the current JIS B 1051 or ISO 898-1 standards.

 

I am wondering whether the hood is original equipment aluminum; or is it a cheap aftermarket part made of steel which does not have the correct dimensions.

 

You don't happen to have a copy of the gen 3 Hood Manual by chance do you and if so, can you post please?

 

I think that would be in the separate body manual, which I don’t have. I’ll take a look in the Repair Manual, though.

 

2010 hood adjustment exactly the same as the hood pdf above.

 

I guess my only question is regarding the gen3 plastic or maybe that's ice cold rubber over part of the fender just above the hinge where a bolt is hiding that holds the fender to the hinge. How does that plastic-rubber material remove?

Once that last of the upper fender bolts is removed, peeling the fender back very carefully to access the two hinge bolts to completely replace the hinge. Where care must be taken under the front side window where the fender hooks around a bolt I'm guessing.

Great to know for the gen3 in detail as well if I ever need, now that I own both gens.

Appears the gen2 bolts the hinge the same way to the frame using two bolts and the gen3 to the frame with an additional one bolt on top of the hinge where the fender bolts to it under some plastic or frozen rubber.

Interesting alignment of both hoods as well using the upper bolts only and that makes sense. Thinking consideration to align the headlight maybe if moving the fender and headlight when replacing the hinge entirely. Great info.