Technical 1939 straighten Ford Deluxe hood hinge mounts

Posted on another forum so apologize if a repeat.
My '39 Ford hood hinge mounts are bent. I tried to fix in place with c- clamps which helped but didn't fix. I also found out that on one side the bolt holes on the bosses are stripped. So the hood cross brace and mounts need to come out. (Inside the marked area)
Any tricks to this. It looks to these very untrained eyes like putting it back in it will fall into the right place without too much trouble. Am I missing something tha makes it harder?
The stripped bosses will be fixed with either T-nuts welded in or rivnuts? Seem reasonable?

Thanks,

Bill

 

You should know that the shape of this brace has a lot to do with the hood-to-fender fit. On my sedan I had to do a little slice and dice to bring the sides inward. They stuck out too much at the cowl. If you remove and replace you might need to do some adjustment afterwards too.

If you can install the hood and sit under it while doing any final welding, with the hood clamped into the proper place and shape, you might get a better result than doing it on a workbench.

 

I hope to not remove the engine but if I must I will. The engine does need painting.

Thanks

 

Man, wish I would have known that when I was building my 40 standard. The passenger side hood to cowl/fender was awful. Now that you mention it, that brace was probably wonky.