Help with hood gap

[Ypsik10]

Ill have to wait till i get home to get a pic but my hood has big side to side gaps too.

Ok cool thanks I’d like to see some stock hood gaps as I no body panels. On old trucks and cars didn’t have the best fit n finish in the first place anyone else have pics of hood gaps door to body gaps or door to rocker fitment?

 

[78C10BigTen]

Ok cool thanks I’d like to see some stock hood gaps as I no body panels. On old trucks and cars didn’t have the best fit n finish in the first place anyone else have pics of hood gaps door to body gaps or door to rocker fitment?

I know my hood has been off since ive swapped 2 engines already but i scribed it before removal so i know its back in its original location

 

[78C10BigTen]

What year is your truck? Is it a later truck with an earlier nose swap?

 

[shiftpro]

I've seen a truck with the forward cab mounts worn and the cab sat nose lower than the back, and lining up fenders was impossible.

Because you have a flatbed, you'll never know that the cab is leaning forward. It's obvious with a box. Your fenders DO look like they are too close to the cab and that to me hints the cab is leaning forward. Even an 1/8 will bugger ya. (anyway you look at it!).

Also FYI... first line the doors up with the cab and then fenders line up with doors.

 

[78C10BigTen]

Ok cool thanks I’d like to see some stock hood gaps as I no body panels. On old trucks and cars didn’t have the best fit n finish in the first place anyone else have pics of hood gaps door to body gaps or door to rocker fitment?

That is how mine lines up

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[Ypsik10]

What year is your truck? Is it a later truck with an earlier nose swap?

79 ..it does not have an earlier nose.

I've seen a truck with the forward cab mounts worn and the cab sat nose lower than the back, and lining up fenders was impossible.

Because you have a flatbed, you'll never know that the cab is leaning forward. It's obvious with a box. Your fenders DO look like they are too close to the cab and that to me hints the cab is leaning forward. Even an 1/8 will bugger ya. (anyway you look at it!).

Also FYI... first line the doors up with the cab and then fenders line up with doors.

I will check forward cab mounts..are those neer the front bumper?? Was looking at them today .. replace if look warn? Is this auto part store stuff?... and yes wen putting a car truck together I would usually work from cab to nose .. the whole pass side of truck is stock panels and doesn’t line up either.. maybe it is the cab mounts ! I’ll check em out..

That is how mine lines up

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Thanks for the goood pics ! This is what I want mine to look like!!
Thanks everyone for all the help!

 

[78C10BigTen]

This is what I want mine to look like!!

Too me i feel that gap is too much but im not trying to make it tighter. hey if you can settle on it good . I also had a pic from the other side but didnt want you to get confused because mine has a crease at the crumple point that makes it stick up.

 

[bucket]

I see two main problems. One is worn hinges. To try and overcome that, loosen the hinge to fender bolts, then have someone open the hood as high as it can possibly go while you tighten the bolts back down. I know that sounds backwards, but it has to do with the geometry of the hinges.

The other problem is that aftermarket fender. It's not helping the width of the gap at all. Like is common with aftermarket, it will need "fitted" to the truck.

 

[Ypsik10]

I see two main problems. One is worn hinges. To try and overcome that, loosen the hinge to fender bolts, then have someone open the hood as high as it can possibly go while you tighten the bolts back down. I know that sounds backwards, but it has to do with the geometry of the hinges.

The other problem is that aftermarket fender. It's not helping the width of the gap at all. Like is common with aftermarket, it will need "fitted" to the truck.

I already did that today.. the stock fender has the same large gap.. just closes a little more down.

 

[Ypsik10]

Should I just maybe replace hinges??

 

[bucket]

More than likely. If you can lift the hood up much more than where it sits naturally (when opened) then the hinges have a lot of slop in them.

 

[Ypsik10]

More than likely. If you can lift the hood up much more than where it sits naturally (when opened) then the hinges have a lot of slop in them.

Yes I can .. hopefully not to pricey.. maybe I’ll do hinges and cab mounts ..maybe where the fenders are bolted to the aftermarket fender wells are making it fit like crap and have the side gaps?

 

[bucket]

For the aftermarket fenders, the mount holes in the cowl area and upper door hinge are often need elongated. Up at the front, the upper corner often needs bonked in closer to the hood, which is hard to do without causing minor body damage. And sometimes the spot-weld at the very leading egde needs cut loose so the outer skin can be properly contoured to match the leading edge of the hood.

Also, the inside structure of the fender will occasionally crack out around the hinge mounting area.

 

[Ypsik10]

For the aftermarket fenders, the mount holes in the cowl area and upper door hinge are often need elongated. Up at the front, the upper corner often needs bonked in closer to the hood, which is hard to do without causing minor body damage. And sometimes the spot-weld at the very leading egde needs cut loose so the outer skin can be properly contoured to match the leading edge of the hood.

Also, the inside structure of the fender will occasionally crack out around the hinge mounting area.

I will keep you all posted on how it turns out it will take a minute to order parts and put it all together but I will post pics hopefully this thread will be useful to someone else as well!

 

[Keith Seymore]

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I agree the rear of the hood needs to come down. The side to side gap doesn't look too bad from here.

This is the "tell": the fenders have no adjustability at the rad support. They bolt up solid (with no shims or anything). That establishes the side to side gap at the front of the hood. Take that gap and that's what you want to run rearward (so that it is uniform all the way back).

The top of the fenders attach to the cab with one vertical bolt and one horizontal bolt. There may be shims in there; if there are shims present you can remove them and bring the fenders in if you want. Both the horizontal bolt and the vertical bolt will need to be loosened in order to move the fender. If there are no shims then they are as far inboard as they will go and you can't do anything without some serious metalwork.

If that makes the leading edge of the door stick you then those will need to move inboard, too, by moving the door on the hinges.

You might decide after all this that the hood gap looks pretty good