I took a look at the hood of the 'Teg the other day and realized something. The hood is right in-line with the major airflow of the car. You can see what I mean from a lighter-colored model (pic from Wikipedia):
The gap doesn't sit tight -- there's a rubber seal, but daylight can be seen through mine, which means cold air has to be rushing in.
I really need to seal this up for the cold, and this is one piece of several planned. Any suggestions???
I worry about building up too much of a gap for aero. It might be possible to weight-down the hood or adjust the mechanism to close tighter, but I don't know if those are viable options...
if it is small enough you can fill it smoothly with caulk.
clean the area where the caulk will be attaching, spray some wd40 on the bottom front edge of the hood and fill the gap with white (black) silicone caulk and make it smooth with a finger. Wait till it cures before opening and open carefully. It should release from the wd40 side and leave a nice custom smooth looking seal.
you could also use colored duct tape, or move the latch mechanism that sits in the radiator core support down further. Don't forget to adjust the rubber spacers by screwing them down once you do this.
If you get the soft squishy type, it should compress to form fit without increasing the gap...
Someone in another thread mentioned using expandable spray foam... Put plastic wrap (spray with some cooking oil so the plastic releases) where you don't want it to stick spray the foam on and close the hood - let it cure and lift the hood... Seems like it should work
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It has a rubber seal, but over the times the body panels have been removed and put back together (hail damage repair, ice impact repair), things don't line up like they used to. The rubber is a bit worn and squished too.
Good suggestions so far. I like the idea of tightening the gap with movement of the latch, and using something foamy to seal the deal up front. Along the sides, I might try the caulk method.
I owned two Integras and with some shimming of the bumper-cover up (with washers underneath it), and with some adjustment of the hood latch down, you can make your gap smaller. In more extreme cases, with the bumper cover off, you can bend up the upper rad support (quite easy to bend it really) slightly to further reduce the gap. The rubber seal sometimes does get a little flattened but usually it's not the only reason for the large gap.
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