Remove hood from a Toyota solara?

Answer 1

After searching through the entire factory service manual I can't find a step by step procedure for removing the hood (only for disassembling all the parts) so I suppose it's assumed to be one of those 'intuitive' items. Let me wing it here and hope someone else does a proof read and perhaps they'll spot something I've missed. This will be based on experience removing hoods from other vehicles, not my Solara. 1. Very important, mark the location of the hinge bolts. Use a marker to note the alignment of bolt to hinge and any brackets. This will help you line up the hood on reassembly. 2. Disconnect the windshield washer hose 3. Find a broom handle or other support to hold the hood up and remove the clip attaching the hydraulic support from the hood. Disconnect the support. 4. With a helper (or two) holding the hood remove the four bolts holding the hood and hinge together. Note, you might want to loosen one bolt and remove the other on one side then move to the other side, remove both bolts then go back and remove the final bolt. That'll help your helpers a little and possibly prevent damaging movement of the hood (it doesn't take much). 5. With the four bolts removed your helpers can lift the hood free of the car and put it someplace padded and safe. Installation is the reverse but do your very best to hit the alignment marks on the hinge bolts before trying to close the hood. Even a tiny bit off can skew the assembly sideways enough to damage paint when the front edge of the hood hits the fender or headlight assembly.