The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop GMC Gapazoid problems -- hood fit (gaps) issue

The photos that I posted with this thread are shown with the hood springs detached and the hinge bolts loose. This is the closest I can get on the gaps. This truck was purchased with the entire thing blown apart and so this is the first time it's been put together this far. Any suggestions are welcomed.

The gap at the cab looks good. I think the core support needs to come up.

That will raise the front of the fenders along with it and the top of the grille should rotate slightly back at the same time and clean up the hood/grille line.

Edit: The grille might need to come forward a hair as well.

Any pictures of the top hood to cowl gap?

Hood to cowl gaps, I feel, are good

Did you check out the tech tip for AD Front Clip Alignment?
Here is a [LINK]

I would argue the hood to cowl gaps are too close or too tight. You will get chipping of the paint when flexing occurs while driving. In fact, is there a chip in the middle picture? I would second the suggestion to look at the tech tip, as posted by Phil.
Kent

The chip occurred installing the hood when the blankets slipped. I did go through the "tech tips" several times., good stuff. So I worked on the right side for a while till I couldn't take the 95 degree Temps in the shop. I now have about a 1/4 inch gap on the hood to cowl. A much better gap at the rear hood to fender, but the front gap is still the same. Again, this is only the right side. I'll have to try again later. Thanks for the input guys

The hood gaps look fabulous! Hard to eyeball the rear gap by eyeball from a picture, but if you say "about 1/4", then well done.
You have successfully completed the adjustment of the hood. A milestone in my humble opinion.
Now you just need to do step two of the front clip alignment job. That is, make the fenders and sheet metal above the grille fit snugly under your perfectly aligned hood.

Well I spent about an hour and a half on the fender gaps this morning before it hit 95° again. Per the tech tips, I got the rear of the fenders fairly well gapped. But the front gap on the passenger side is still too big, I can live with the driver side gaps. The tech tips really don't talk about getting the front of the fenders gapped properly. I don't know if the Chevy is different from the GMC but the only way to raise the front of the fenders would be to unbolt them from the radiator core support. Then the bolts wouldn't line back up

Paul, I renamed the title of this thread so maybe more will chime in with some suggestions. It sure does look like it just doesn't really fit. Remembering how you found this truck, you've come along way -- and so close! You'll get this issue solved. When it's this hot outside, good time to research.

It appears to me that both fenders are splayed out at the front. I would loosen all of the fender bolts front and back, and the bolts that attach the fenders to the side brackets near the top of of the radiator support.
I would also loosen the fender bolts along the sides of the radiator support so that when you shake the front clip it sloshes left and right.
I would then start by tightening the fender bolts which attach the fenders to the side of the radiator support. With everything else loose as a goose, that should allow you to bring the front of the fenders in and up to fill your hood-to-fender, and hood to upper grille panel gaps.
You will also want to loosen the bolts which hold the bottom of the radiator support to the crossmember. This will allow you to move the radiator support to the center position and give you even gaps where the fenders meet the nose of the hood.

I don't know about the chevy, but the GMC radiator core support has ears going out to the left and right in which the fenders bolt up to, so there's actually no leeway on that. But 52 Carl, what you made me think of was the splayed aspect of it. So what I did is, I took the hood support out that is on the front, which the hood latch bolt screws into and I bent it out about a half an inch reinstalled it into the hood that pushed the hood out on both sides. I like the results. I may play with it a little more, but for a driver truck, I can live with it.
Thanks for everyones input

Nice job. Looks a lot better. I have to do a little of that to one of mine. I like how that turned out.

That looks great to me. Nice job!

Well done, Grasshopper.

I never thought about spreading the hood. i'd be scared to try that with that pretty paint, but is sure looks nice now!

Splayed out!

Once road a horse, went by Old Paint, with splayed out legs and swayback. She run so low to the ground, why, I had put foot pegs on her so my feet wouldn't drag on the ground...
You gotta do whatchya gotta do.

Yeah, I thought splayed is what you do to a dog or cat but then my wife corrected me and said no, that's spayed