I would like to remove the hood of my 325is to detail the engine compartment. Any easy way to do this with out having problems when I reattach it? As in alignments. The doors come off easy with the hinge pins, but what about the hood? How can the cosmoline be removed?
i'd imagine it'd be a bit tetchy to re-align the hood after it's been un-attached, OTOH if you want to get after your engine-compartment to that extent, another hour or so to get the hood re-positioned will be worthwhile to crown your efforts! Me, I've had the engine steam-cleaned a few times, most of my efforts in there were confined to replacing the fusebox cover after i'd broken its latch (again). Where you'll also want to give attention to your hood-latch control (at left-knee in the driver's seat), lately my hood-latch cable's return-spring isn't doing its duty - I can't get the hood to lock down until after I've manually pushed the cockpit hood-release lever back into 'closed' position, this is prob'ly due to a bit of corrosion in the hood-latch cable, or mebbe its return-spring is tired. A-and while your hood is loose, don't forget to remove the hood-liner & maintain the windshield-washer-fluid nozzles and the washer-fluid hose. I recall one fall season where chipmunks got loose in my garage & the vermin munched my washer-fluid hose! I say, invest in a garage-patrol cat!
yes.. cat! darn hard to train them not to leave pawprints on the car... very effective rodent control though, as long as they're raised by a mother cat who trained them to hunt. Aaaaanyway... I haven't had too hard a time removing and reinstalling the hood, I just tried to make sure the hood was in exactly it's original position by getting it lined up w/ where aged paint and dirt marks showed the mounting brackets to be. Seemed to work ok for me. You might try marking the bracket position on the hood w/ a fine-point sharpie in a few choice spots, or maybe some blue masking tape if you find the marker idea too permanent. Try the cosmoline question in the detailing forum - I think it can be removed, but I don't know what would be best to use - Griot's probably has something appropriate for that.
If it is safe for the paint, you can use Mineral Spirits to remove cosmoline. (I am assuming this is the same stuff used to store guns in?) I just don't know if it would be safe for the car's finish. EDIT - Also gasoline, diesel fuel, bore cleaner can be used, but again I can't tell you if any are safe with the paint.
On E30's, the valve cover/cylinder head/engine are often coated w/ cosmoline, which yellows and looks fairly abysmal. Not sure if whole engine bays got cosmolined, maybe so.
