I took some new pictures last evening to better illustrate the issue. There is indeed a "plate" installed on the underside of the hood to tie the two halves together, but it doesn't look anything like the factory bracket in the repair manual (see attached picture).
The passenger's side hinge is mounted as far aft and as far down as it can be. There is no further adjustment that can be made to move the this hinge rearward or down at the cab attachment point than it currently is.
I would also like to note that when you pop the hood, it likes to jump to the driver's side by about 3/8" of an inch at the front-center. When you close and latch it, the latch pulls it back (towards to the passenger side) to center it.
Again, it only does this with the passenger's side hood support spring installed. If I remove the passenger's side hood support spring, the hood lines up properly in all aspects (which leads me to believe the hood itself isn't tweaked, but perhaps I have something worn out that is allowing the spring to manipulate the hood on its own improperly).
1948 Chevy 3100 Thriftmaster pickup Old skool engine swap ('54 pass 235) Four on the floor 12v conversion
