Front Body Alignment on the 53 F100, 54 F100, 55 F100 and 56 F100

Here's some advice on building a 53 F100, 54 F100, 55 F100 or 56 F100 as it pertains to the hood and hood hinges. If you're putting your F100 hood on stock hinges, you should be aware that it is a bit tricky to get the hood lined up to the cab and the fenders. The front body work on an F100 is adjustable, but to be safe you should do a few things before you put the paint to the body. If you've done a frame off resto, you definitely want to do this. With the cab mounted to the frame, put the front body of the Ford F100 back together temporarily while you're doing body work. It's easy once it's all apart to do body work on the F100 cab and doors to get them nice and then never put the other parts back on to see if they fit before they go to paint.

So, bolt up your F100 inner fenders, F100 front fenders, and F100 hood along with the front valance and radiator support. Make sure you can get the hood to fit down to the fenders to make a nice even body line or joint. The hood needs to set on the cowl to make that seam a nice even joint. You may be able to move the fenders up or down to align the fenders to the hood. If you can't, consider making the mounting holes a bit larger so you can adjust the body. The alternative to this is guessing that it will all come together nicely after all that work. I would want to know that when I mount my F100 hood hinges and F100 hood that it's going to fit nicely. The other area to make sure it lines up is the point or nose on the front of the hood and the points of the fenders above the headlights. The hood can easily stick past the front fender and make the truck hood to fender alignment look bad. The strut rods can move the nose of the hood a tiny bit, but you don't want to do too much with these.