Please tell me how to keep hood in place over lower fireback on VC encore 2550

hi everyone, i'm new here, this is my first post....
i have a vt castings encore 2550 and recently bought replacement lower fireback & hood, i got the lower fireback in -stays in place with little iron wedges, that's good...BUT the HOOD sits on little nub like things and after burning stove a couple times (low heat like manual says to break it all in)
the hood has warped a bit and falls off it's little nubby 'keepers'....My question, how do you keep the hood on? can i use furnace cement? or what?
also the enamel has some chips on it, is there a way to 'fix' this? my stove is blue enamel.

I want to say i read lots of this site tonight (spent hours here reading before i signed up) and I am impressed...thanks for hosting and participating in such a great forum!

Please send me some suggestions how to get the hood to stay in place...I asked cozy cabin whom i got parts from and they are useless....they say they sell parts,not fix stoves. wont buy there again.

blessings to you all and thanks in advance.
bunny in southern vt usa

I am an old-tyme poster here who has not posted in awhile. I run a model year 2000 Encore 2550. I am willing to bet that you are not actually getting the hood to seat correctly on the fireback. Due to issues I had a few years back, I had ripped apart the back of the stove a bunch of times and came to the conclusion that properly seating the hood is more art than science. I have found that magic position between seating one side solidly, properly "canting" the angle of the hood (pulling up on the bottom of it and angling it in relation to the back), and finding that the other side simply slips into place solidly only when that right combination of angle, and "pull" (slightly pulling the first firmly set peg side to the opposite side ever so slightly) is found... and then the opposite side goes "thunk..." And you know it's right because it just works right. I think you will find that "AHA!" moment if you play with it. Deep breaths... take your time. I must say, I have like a 5mm tolerance where it works every time. You just have to find that sweet spot.

AGE