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Since you mentioned that you are taking the front end apart, this may be of interest to you.
In the year 2000 I finished putting together my '55 Courier Sedan delivery. It was a struggle to get all the front end pieces aligned and levelled properly and I never really did get it right. I drove the car till 2010, then it sat in the garage collecting several inches of dust.
About 3 weeks ago, I decided to tackle the alignment problems, finishing the job this very afternoon. Ive got it as good as it is ever gonna get, but at least now the hood closes properly and the gaps between hood, fenders and cowl are now all uniform for the first time.
Needless to say I couldn't bring myself to re-assemble with the dirty, corroded fasteners, clips, brackets, etc, and wound up re-restoring many parts. I had to clean each threaded fastener, acid etch and apply sealer. For added protection, I am now in the process of covering each exposed fastener with duxseal.
Probably the most helpful tactic I employed in the re-assembly project was the use of equal height of concrete blocks & peices of wood to hold up the front wall panels on each side of the radiator support. Once the proper height was established I was able to just slide the panels enough to be able to get the hood to close with even gaps all around.
All front end fasteners must be assembled very loosely while tweeking the position of the panels. If there is too much friction, stuff won't move.
Once you get everything positioned where it all fits right, tighten the front wall panels to the radiator support first, then snug down all the front splash pan to front wall bolts and the fender bolts and recheck the gaps. If needed, the splash pan has slotted holes to allow sliding to achieve the proper tilt at the very front of the front fenders to match with the angle of the front of the hood.