Captain Obvious

What??? You went over my helmet??

Royal Club Shandy: Beer Advocate's rating? 1.65 out of 5 (Awful) Sounds like the perfect beverage to use for the AFM calibration check!

I watched the video. There's a lot of mechanical amplification in the hinges, and that translates to any slop in the holes as well. I think you should take the hinges back off and mess with them on the bench.

Me too. All the (two times) hood torsion work I've done has been OFF the car. There's no way I would ever ever try to put those things together on the car!

Thank you Santa! Now you and I just need to wish that the results of our attempts goes up and is commensurate to the improved quality of our tools.

Yeah, that ain't normal. I know it's a pain in the arse, but how about taking the torsion rods back out and finding out where that 3/4 inch slop is occurring. I've done the torsion bars twice and they're not that bad. Once you figure out how things are supposed to go together, I remember it being a ten minute procedure.

I'm not a body guy, but I don't think that's normal. A little play would be required, but not a lot. How much lifting are you talking about? Eighth of an inch, or three quarters?

Nice! Where did you find that info? Now I just need to translate it so I know what I'm looking at!

Well if it were me, I would do something more thorough, but that's just the way I roll. RTV should work fine if you don't want to do something more glamorous. Just fill in the hole, then add a little more, and then squeeze the flat plate back on. Make sure you don't use so much that it oozes up into the intake stream (or wipe out any excess if that does happen).

Unless the torsion bars are binding somehow/someway, I don't think it could possibly be the issue. They don't do anything to provide alignment. All they do is provide upward force on the hinge. No location control. Just force. Are you sure you have the correct hinges for the car? Did they change anything over the years? How about pulling one of the three hinge mounting bolts out and verifying that the hole is slid all the way to the edge of the slot?

Maybe your fenders are too low?

If that block off plate was simply a flat plate, then it won't work. It's more complicated than that. So was it just a flat plate?

I must've gotten onto the nice list.

Cool. Must just be a trick of the light. I'm also pleased at how close my camera can focus. And in the cases where it can't focus because it's too close, I've found that I can hold an eye loupe up to the lens and decrease the focal length more. For example, here's a shot of some needles I have here:

My pleasure. I can tell you where to find those connections, but I still can't tell you why they're there. Haha! If I had to guess, I would dovetail off something that Chas mentioned... I suspect those connections are some sort of precursor to the valve cover mounted injector cooling fan assy.

Perfect. Only thing that catches my eye though is that it looks like there was some needle rubbing on the first needle pic? The shiny spot up near the hilt on this one? Is that just a trick of the light, or is that a rub spot?

There has been some discussion about that cooling fan motor sub-harness in the past. Unfortunately the pics are dead because photobucket sucks, but here's some threads: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/46256-always-hot-connection-for-radio-install/?tab=comments#comment-420468 https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/52262-recommendation-for-new-radiator-and-elctrical-fan-for-280z/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-478260 I reattached a couple of my previous pics here... The two connections for that sub-harness are under the dash above the passengers right knee. Tucked up to the right of the glove box:

How confident are you that they are the correct needles? I know it can be a little risky (because of potential damage), but unless you are nearly 100% positive they are correct, you might want pull them out of the suction pistons and try to verify the needle number.

Unfortunately Alice's doesn't exist anymore... Here's what's left: However, the nearby church is still going strong: Here's an inside shot (taken from down among the pews) up towards the bell tower where Alice, Ray, and Fascher the dog slept: So is this a record for just how far off target a thread can be jacked?

Sounds like a plan!

Well to be clear... It's a significant amount of extra area. It'll only be a significant amount of extra air if the rest of the system will pull it.

And they all moved away from me on the bench there....

Touché.

Remember that scene at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

Oh OK... I was just kidding. I do have Z parts under the bed. Please don't shun me.