I've been working on this car for about ten years now and I am finally getting to the point of paint and fitting the body panels i.e. the hood to the car.
I am having a heck of a time and need the help of someone who can tell me what I'm doing wrong...
Passenger side of the hood will fit nicely at the very front and the drivers side is close, but it is too close to the fender. The back of the hood is WAY off. The back of the hood runs over the fender about an inch at the rear near the fender bolt and the cowl vent. The drivers side is off about the same amount in the same direction and I have beat my brains out trying to figure out how to move the hood over at the back, where the hood latches toward the drivers side about one inch... I've tried moving the hood hinges over both ways and nothing has moved in the direction I need it to go. I can move the hood back and move it forward, but can't get the twist out of it, the whole hood wants to move to the passenger side... HELP!

Just a question, have you tried moving the hood on the hinge to pull it towards the drivers side?

Getting a four sided hood gap correct can be frustrating.  First things first...is the hood opening square?  Mount the fenders to the 'A' pillar and correct the fender/door gap.  Loosely install the core support and shim the core support to the frame bracket.  Square the hood opening and confirm fender-to-fender width for the front edge of the hood.  Mount the hood without the front valance (front valance is the first part to an accident so it is not unusual for it to be tweaked).  Without the valance installed, all the hood adjustments are accessible.  Don't be afraid to enlarge the adjustment slots.

The hoods/front assembly on these can be very frustrating.mine is still not correct from when I removed the hood to install a new engine, but mine has never been off an inch, not sure what to suggest there, except I wonder if the hinges got bent..was it together properly when you took it apart? I tweek mine small amounts at the back by literally pushing the hood (tweaking the hinges) to the direction needed. Hard to give an answer without actually seeing it in person, even then still difficult. The problem I've always encountered with the hood, is you move something a 1/16, and it moves somewhere else a 1/4"

Friend was having the same trouble, not dimensions exactly, but could not make it line up.  Found the hole for the core support to be off center almost an inch after much work in that area.  New hole, laid the hood on it's "hole", some shims, a little wiggling and the thing bolted up.  No magic, just have to loosen up everything that moves that keeps it from fitting......

Quote from: Ford Blue blood on 2024-07-09 16:19Friend was having the same trouble, not dimensions exactly, but could not make it line up.  Found the hole for the core support to be off center almost an inch after much work in that area.  New hole, laid the hood on it's "hole", some shims, a little wiggling and the thing bolted up.  No magic, just have to loosen up everything that moves that keeps it from fitting......

And have a bottle of Bayer hand...or perhaps of Southern Comfort! 

Enjoyed Southern Comfort for many years as well as several other bourbons.  If you get a chance to sample other flavored whiskeys, Fireball, Screwball, and Grind are very tasty (Grind is a flavored Rum).  This has nothing to do with gapping a hood but enough sampling and gaps won't matter.

Yes. the core support is the Key to the entire front end sheet metal alignment... It can be very frustrating... and quite possible your hood needs to be tweaked or is very warped.

Quote from: gasman826 on 2024-07-09 22:49Enjoyed Southern Comfort for many years as well as several other bourbons.  If you get a chance to sample other flavored whiskeys, Fireball, Screwball, and Grind are very tasty (Grind is a flavored Rum).  This has nothing to do with gapping a hood but enough sampling and gaps won't matter.

Have tried the Fireball. Can't say I have eve heard of the other two.
And yea...the hood could look real good after a copious sampling! LOL!!!

just my 2 cents,   i just installed a harmonic balancer an took off the hood.  when I put the hood back on atfirst itwas a problem,  what I end up doing was,   ,watch how you put the bolts in the mounting bracket to the hood, theres a lot of adjustment in  the slots,  a 1/16 can make a big diff,  you play with it till u get it  right,  takes  time,  I usually put  the first bolt on,  mark the very front of the mounting  bracket with black felt pin,  and go from there,like I said,  worked for me

Well, since I posted this I've been out in the shop measuring and measuring and more measuring and it seems that the front clip is square within about an eighth of an inch. However in measuring and measuring I've noticed that the drivers fron fender near the headlamp is misformed a bit. It goes normal from the fender bolt near the cowl and working out towards the hood hinges, the drivers side fender takes a hard left about a foot from where it meets the cross piece with the FORD lettering on it and that goes on about six inches kind of wavering back and forth up to where the radiator/core support mount is for the fender, then it takes a sudden hard right and the hood is an RCH away from the fender. It's just something I never thought would happen, but I've got a friend that used to work for FORD back in the mid fifties and the stories he tells of what happened to hoods and fenders on the line made me re evaluate what I was dealing with. Panel fit and finish was NOT what anyone was looking at... So, it is what it is and I will  have to make due with grinding out some holes here and pushing stuff this way and that and hoping for the best. This is after all, my daily driver and was NEVER supposed to be perfect, but a little closer would be nice...
Thank you all for your information and suggestions and support, but I think I finally figured it out...