39 Deluxe hood to cowl fit

[36 ford]

My hood is from a donor 39 and it's a terrible fit. The original (which I still have) was de-chromed and filled in but it fit pretty good. It is a mess on the underside and I not inclined to use it.
Look at the pictures and see how poor a fit it is and tell me if anything can be done for a better fit. Along one fender it's tight and the other a big gap is there. Then there's the alignment with the hood latch to the grill, a problem I posted before.

Thanks for your time and expertise...

Phil

[bbrust]

Another question. When the hood is aligned properly along the cowl, should the cowl lacing be visible?

[swoopNZ]

You could start by loosening the hood support brackets on either side of the cowl, and the bolts that hold the inner fenders to the chassis.
The cowl lacing ( which was originally rubber ) should not be visible with the hood closed.
Also there is a post by Kube on hood alignment here on the Ford barn.

[bbrust]

Thanks Swoop. I've read the hood alignment post by Kube but I hadn't seen anything on the cowl alignment showing proper cowl gaps. The car does have the rubber lacing and it is clearly visible when the hood is closed. We took the lacing off hoping that the hood would slide back a little more but there was no change. Does it look like it was installed correctly?

[flat 39]

I don't know if my hood fit is correct or not but it does look like yours. I do know that the car was hit in the front end some time in the early 50's and the hood and grill were replaced.

[Karl Wescott]

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To prove the hood fit to the cowl ONLY, you need to remove the fenders and grille and hood hinges. Then prop the front of the hood up and align the hood to the body.

If the hood will fit the cowl then your issues are with the alignment of the fenders and grille. Refer to Kube.

[Ken Bull]

In your photo #2 the gap looks good till you look at where it curves down. It could be that the hood was poorly repaired at that spot ? I used the Bondo plastic spredders for the Gap.

[bbrust]

Ken, In photo #2, looking at the gap, you can see the screw holes where the rubber seal was attached which indicates to me that the hood is too far forward OR the seal was installed incorrectly. I don't have another car to compare or to get measurements from.

Karl, Your approach looks like where we'll start next week.
Can anyone tell us an approximate distance (gap) between the cowl and the hood?

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions. Bob