The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop HOOD ALIGNMENT.

I HAVE A 51 1/2 T CHEVY PU. IV SPENT HOURS ON TRYING TO GET MY HOOD TO SIT EVEN WITH THE OG FACTORY GAPS. BUT IT SEAMS TO STICK OUT OF THE SIDES.AND SEAMS TO BE TO WIDE. ON 1 SIDE..

im no expert by any means, but know these hoods can be tricky. i had to tighten/losen the brace rods, that go from firewall to fender on each side, to adjust the gaps. i don't see where there is much adjustment in the hinges, but i may be wrong. someone else help :confused

It's a two-man operation to get the hood to fit tight against the cowl. The shop manual gives instructions on the procedure, but I'll try to summarize:

With the hinge bolts loose and the springs hanging free, lift the hood and set a block of wood between the front of the hood and radiator to keep it at an angle. Have a buddy push the hood back toward the windshield as far as it will go while you tighten the hinge bolts from under the dash. This should set the hood tight against the cowl seal, and you can adjust from there. If the rear corners are poking out to the sides, you can remove a couple spacing washers from the lateral hood braces and increase the tension across the back of the hood.

My hood sat up near the cowl..until I asked
the same question to a fellow bolter and he
told me to slot the hindges..were it bolted
up to the firewall..and that was the answer
to my problem..I could then adjust my hood
to where it met the body...don't know if this
will help.. but I thought it was a good tip..

Make sure the hood is attached to the hinges with the proper shouldered bolts. With regular bolts the fit is too loose and it will be harder to make it look right.

Frank - Fittin' hoods on '47-'55 trucks is a miserable undertaking no matter how you slice it. Usually, when you get one side perfect, the other side is way out. Then when you get both sides perfect the cowl gap is out. This is made worse if you have disassembled the truck and done some body work on the fenders and grille area which will also affect fit.

There are four separate factors in hood fit that come into play in my experience (GMC): the firewall braces as mentioned above will open and close the fender gap full length but do nothing for areas that are not fitting, the washers/spacers under the lower radiator support will help to tweak some of the fit in the front of the fender to hood fit but a little goes a long way, the hinges and bolts will also but I've not heard of slotting the openings and just loosening the hinges generally will let you tweak it some, and the inner fender bolts must be loosened and then retightened when you have the line between the fender and hood the way you want it. It's a balancing act.

Remember that these trucks were often not tight from factory and a small tweak here and there on the truck will wreck havoc on hood fit and seams. Remember to loosen the fender to inner fender bolts too as they will have a little bit of slop to help open or close that gap some.

Jim Shekell is a guy who's been building custom AD trucks for over 30 years and he told me that he has trucks that he will only show with the hoods open because of this problem.

Know that you are far from alone in this problem.

What a nightmare aligning front fenders & hoods to the AD cab. The darn things came off the assembly line with crummy fitting hoods! It gets even worse if parts have been mixed & matched over the years. I still run across the occasional truck that will not line up no matter what is done [ short of breakin' out with a big hammer & a cuttin' torch ].
Alignment is really simple...... Tony has the initial hood to cab sequence down. Next install all 200 bolts & nuts & screws on the entire front sheetmetal assembly loosely & slowly tighten each nut just alittle as you push & pull & lift & adjust & cuss at the sheetmetal fit . It could take a whole weekend with 3 people & you may not get it right. On the other hand I have put together a few trucks that fit perfect the first time I closed the hood. Good luck.