My guess, and I can't stress 'guess' strongly enough, is that these springs may have been there to take up the slack in the hinge rivets during the hood adjustment phase.
The later instructions for the hinges made later without the springs involves putting a 4" wood block at the nose of the truck, them push down on the rear of the hood until it contacts the hood seal, then tighten up the hinge bolts. This procedure was specifically described to take up the slack in the hinge rivets.
