Hood aliment issue..

[72bigred]

Hey all, I boggled and wanted to pick some brains.. ended up painting without aligning the hood as I was having Willie rebuild them. Now I am stuck, not my first or 10th rodeo but this has me boggled. As you can see I'm squared up with my cowl panel and things are really out of line.. if I make any attempt to fix the gap on the right side I hit my cowl panel on one end and have 5/8 gap on the other. I restore alot of abody cars and often move the core support for some adjustment but the room to move them on these trucks is limited.. anyhow here are some pics for your pondering..

Any attempt to close the gap at the cowl just adds to the nightmare up front. I at one point has her closing with horrible looking gaps. Fenders are square or at least close enough.. I can get the left side gap nice but I'm way out on the pass and against the cowl.

[72bigred]

Attempting to keep her square with the cab/cowl gives me these gaps period. I can get decent gaps on the fenders but that throws me off at the grill and cowl. The way she looks I want to move the whole core support to the drivers side 3/8 of and inch although the perches just won't allow..

[RustyPile]

I'm not a body man so maybe I'm way off base.. Have you tried adjusting the cab at it's frame mounts?? Looks like it may not be sitting square on the frame.. Also, is it possible the frame horns where the core support attaches are not equidistant from the frame centerline??

[Warrens69GMC]

Of all things, try popsicle style sticks. Loosen the bolts that hold the hood to the hinges add popsicle stucks to the cowl and the driver side and massage it over , slightly lift and tighten the bolts, repeat

[HO455]

Are there any aftermarket parts installed? Including hinges?

[72bigred]

All factory parts and factory hinges rebuilt by Willie. Fenders measure equal distance from the body, hood square to the body yet not square to the fenders.. im beginning to think the hood has a problem but it was in nice shape before paint.. maybe it had an issue but no noticeable things as it was being prepped.. the hood is the variable here in that it was purchased from another rig as mine was just to beat to deal with.

Moving with shims is a good fall back I have used a few times but I do not habe the play, she will just spring back.

[MySons68C20]

Just my gut but did you X dimension the frame? If the frame has a tweak in it that would throw off the core support which ties to the frame etc.
Little stuff below is magnified above. Try doing the X dim on the hood and see if that's out of whack.

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by RustyPile

I'm not a body man so maybe I'm way off base.. Have you tried adjusting the cab at it's frame mounts?? Looks like it may not be sitting square on the frame.. Also, is it possible the frame horns where the core support attaches are not equidistant from the frame centerline??

I tend to think this might be the issue also. I have done some and it does not take much shifting of the cab to throw the panel alignment off. If you had the cab off for painting or replaced the mount bushing with fenders off, I think I would check the cross measurements.

[GASoline71]

How are the core support mounts? Cab mounts can be square and you'll still be off if the core support mounts are shot.

Gary