[theastronaut]

With the firewall finished, I moved on to assembling the panels to start correcting panel fit and gaps. I mounted the cab back on the frame along with the front clip after blasting the header panel and doing a bit of initial straightening on the inner fenders. The fenders and radiator support are aftermarket and the fit so far is really good, I haven't had to do any cutting, bending, or slotting of holes to get them to bolt together.




The new hood hinges held me up from getting the hood mounted. The old hinges were super worn and sloppy so the hood would never stay in alignment if they were reused, and reproductions were available. Their fit left a lot to be desired... with the mounting flange flat against the firewall the lower mounting hole was off by half of the bolt diameter.




Tilting the hinge to show how far the flange needed to be bent to align the lower mounting hole.




When the two bolt holes on the main flange were lined up the inner mounting flange was also off; not just width-wise but the shape of the flange didn't match the angle of the firewall.








The curved lip on the back side of the inner flange interfered with the lip on the firewall so I reshaped it and ground it back to fit better, and so the edge had a shape that flowed better.




After about 40 trips between the firewall and vise to tweak the flanges into shape the hinge finally fit flat against the firewall and all four bolt holes were in pretty good alignment. Now when the bolts are tightened the flanges won't pull or twist the firewall out of shape, and won't chip the paint from the edges digging in.








Same process on the other side.