The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Hoodwinked! It's stuck on the cowl ...

Tried to adjust the hood on my '49 GMC PU and now its stuck hard against the cowl and won't move without chipping paint and bending metal.
I followed the shop manual and a good online post, by removing the bolts to detach and lower the springs, loosening the adjusting bolts, undoing the latch in front, pushing a little, lifting a little, and ... And now its jammed tight.
My guess is that there's not enough gap between the cowl and the hood's trailing edge. The hinges are made to lift first then let the hood slant upwards. But the hinges don't lift until it slants right against the new paint and everything. It might be possible to lift the hood by hand then position it, but once it's up how do you get the hinges to work as designed again?
(Before anyone says it, let me admit that the first lesson here is when installing a different hood on one of these trucks, adjust 'er BEFORE YOU PAINT!)

You could try sliding strips of cut-up milk jugs into the seam before you open it so the hood rides against the plastic instead of the paint. That's how you install motorcycle tires without gouging the rim.

Are these new hinges or old? Old ones with worn pins and springs never sit right against the cowl.

The hood is the hardest thing to adjust on these trucks. Its truly a pain. There's a reason they changed it in '55.

I tried to adjust my hood and couldnt get it right. Where do you find the instructions for adjusting the 47 - 53 hood.

I don't know how to adjust your style hood, but I always put masking tape in both edges of any newly painted panel I fit.

Hey Retread sounds like you have got yourself into quite a pickle!Is there any way you can come from underneath,up through the inner fenders,beside the engine with a long extension and loosen the hood mounting bolts or the hinge bolts to move it forward?.Grab a trouble light and take a look!

There mounting bolts inside and outside the cowl on each side. The inside bolts are no problem, but the outside bolts are flush against the inside of the hood. I think even if I could get a long open end wrench on them, there'd be no place for them to go.
I was thinking about two people getting on each side of the hood, near the cowl, and lifting up the trailing edge of the hood. The problem is that it clamshells open before lifting up. It's supposed to be the other way around, lifting up first so that the hood and cowl don't start off scraping metal to metal.
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm still thinking on it.

Im for the plastic milk jug strips. Can you squeeze them in there,,VERY carefully,,and then lift the hood?
Good luck,Marty

Here's a confused PS. What I said is not true. The mounting bolts (I haven't seen them for awhile) face into the engine bay, but they're flush against the cowl, not the hood. It would be a tricky maneuver.
I think the solution is in the geometry of the hinges.
I used to have a '49 Chevy coupe with a column shifter. Every so often the transfer rods that redirected the column shift moves to shift the gears would get double jointed and not do anything, and I would have to pop the hood and wiggle them back and forth to line them up. That always embarrassed me on a date. Looking back, though, maybe I impressed the girls with my mechanical wizardry.
Fancy fix or not, that's why I think the problem with the hood hinges is their geometry. Too bad I can't get in there and wiggle the tar out of them.