55 pickup hood alignment

flathead4dr

flathead4dr

Senior Member
Does anyone out there have some tips on fitting the hood on a 1955 pickup. I'm putting one together that has been taken apart by others. When closed, the hood seems too long and sticks out past the fenders in the front. Also, the hinge arms don't want to let the back of the hood down to the cowl like they should. This could drive a guy to drink !

Bill
 
I gave up on mine and went with the forward opening hood setup. I have seen some that fit well, but not mine.
 
Back in the day, we lowered the hood almost down then pushed back. Had it been my truck, I would have tried to find out why.
 
I've never done a 55 pickup, but the 48 Ford car hoods were very hard to line up because of the springs.

Possible solution? - remove springs, set hood, reinstall springs.
 
I used to do the mid-fifties f100 hood dance alot also, push one back corner down walk around and push the other back corner down and then do the hookie pookie and shake it allabout. Then I put a fresh pair of hinges on with the correct hood hinge shoulder bolts. Then push hinges up at mounting points on firewall to get the back of the hood to adjust down lower. Hood should fit with about a 1/8 to 1/4 inch gap between each front fender at leading edge. Those adjustment rods from the firewall to the front radiator apron are needed to fine tune everything. Same with the rods on the underside of the hood. There should be a pair of rubber bumpers under the radiator support channel too. Good luck and don't forget to oil those hinges with a good light weight oil or ATF works too. Now the hood on my '55 closes perfect and the '56 is still a little stiff but getting better.
 
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