Customs Panel gaps.

moving the nose over will cure this problem also

 

lets see a photo of the hood to cowl gap?

 

hood to cowl gap [a set joint] will set the "center line" of the hood, bring fenders in line with the hood. check door gaps at quarter [another set joint] move front of doors and back of fender to each other. always looking at all the joints as you make the adjustments

 

Hmmm, that could be. I can shove the core support over a bit, and see if that helps. Good eye. This is why I posted this problem here, to get more eyes on the problem, and help me see outside of my own perception.

 

Well, my initial assessment of the hood gaps being equal is obviously wrong. Tight at the back left corner, too far away from the cowl at the back right, but an even gap across the back on the drivers side but getting tight in the passenger side, which does not make sense to me. Unless, as is very possible, the hood is not symmetrical.


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whole hood shifts to the right, move nose over to align with it.
best I can see from almost 2k miles away

 

My guess is nose of hood needs to go down or cowl up.

 

Better. Things seemed to fix themselves when I adjusted the hood latch properly. It seemed to be twisting the hood to latch. I can live with this. On to bodywork!


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Oops. Two rights don’t make a left... The hood latch plunger (is that what it's called?) was WAY too short, and the latch had been shimmed WAY up on the nose panel over the grill in order to try to make it catch. The hood had to be SLAMMED to latch, it'd pop open on it's own, but was hard to get past the second catch to open. I took things apart, heated the jamb nut on the plunger and moved it down about half an inch, then took the shims out of the latch and let it set down properly. Now the hood shuts easily, isn't twisted and pulled over to the left to latch.


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Much more better!

 

I really like the Imperial bar in the DeSoto cavity, that's gotta be a first-time ever.

I had similar issues with the hood on my '57 Chevy, the latch would ride into the hole and twist the hood on the way down, throwing off the alignment.

 

That’s exactly what it was doing. Thanks on the Imperial grill. I don’t know why they’re not a “thing”. On the other hand, I like being different, so, maybe I’ll start something.


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Digging it

 

technical name is a Hood dick . I like to remove them when adjusting so they don't influence the alignment.
door dicks also

 

It helps to be dickless when aligning parts

 

One could take that further, and use it as a metaphor for life. "Putting your dick where it doesn't belong can lead to misalignment."

 

Or a black eye...

 

Good job, lots of smart guys here. I was gonna say just paint it black.