1946-1949 1942 to 1948 hood alignment

[jamesmundstock]

I have worked on cars for years but the hood alignment on a 1947 kicked my behind. I used the factory shop manual. Be prepared for major frustrations. Follow the shop manual but it insinuated to remove the front fenders. I suggest to loosed the lower core support bolt to let the front assembly float left or right. Close the hood but do not latch. Loosen the three hinge to cowl bolts accessing from underneath the car. This is very important to loosen the bolts from underneath with the hood closed. Then shift the hood to get the 1/8" clearance between hood and cowl. I used a paint stir stick that was .145 thick on one end then wrapped tape on the other end to achieve .175 thick. I found the 1/8" gap is too close. When you get a good gap, tighten the lower front hood bolt. The manual says tie a cable to the rear of the hinge and attach to a pry bar and pry against the frame to rotate the hinge down to close the hood down to the cowl seal. While prying down, tighten the rear hinge to cowl bolt. This is right from the shop manual and sounds ridiculous but after two tries, I did what the manual said and I was successful. Open the hood and tighten the upper middle bolt. Open and close the hood several times to recheck clearance. Now, if you hood to door clearance is too close as mine was, you need to shim up the core support at the lower center bolt. Before tightening, check the lead edge hood to fender clearance to make it even. Now tighten the core support bolt. Feel free to purge your frustration by releasing swear words. It doesn't help with the alignment but it prevents you from throwing wrenches across the shop😆😆😆