I have a qustion about the bolts on a 56 Ford F-250. The bolts in question are on the windshield end of the hood. There are two of them, one on each side of the centerline of the hood. They go thru the top of the hood into a bracket that connectes to the under hood reinforcement brace. I have seen these on every 55-56 Ford hood I have ever came across. On this particular hood, there is three additional carriage bolts thru the top of the hood going into the under hood reinforcement brace that runs side to side. One is in the middle of the center crown, the other two are about midway on both sides of that. This leaves a total of five bolts going into the under hood reinforcement brace. It kind of looks like these three bolt were added by someone wanting to add additional support. If its not stock, I want to weld in the holes and eliminite them. Has anyone ever seen anything like this in a stock hood? Perhaps on F-250 and larger its difference in hood design?

 

Sounds like a PO modification to strengthen the bracing. I had a 56 F250 and F350 and never saw that. No telling what is added, changed over the years. You can weld it just make sure not to burn through the metal or warp the steel. Been there, done that.

 

Sure sounds like it to me. The three bolt holes in question are not real precision installs, however, all braces under the hood (that I am aware of) had holes pre drilled in the brace that would line up with the location the bolts were added. Its like it was an "option" for some trucks to have extra bolts in the hood at this location. I thought there might be a possibility some of the bigger F series trucks that rode rougher might have this added.......but it definitely looks like an after thought in this case.

 

Normally there are just two on top for bracing the skin

 

On the reproduction hood I purchased from Mid Fifty, there is none. But I do believe any and all stock hoods have the two bolts bracing the skin to the brace. Now that I think about it, I think a lot of the trucks I have seen customized at car shows have had those bolts removed. Not sure spot welding is a good idea on these monsters, but sure looks nicer.

 

The two bolts were on 56 hoods, not 53-55 hoods. I don't know why.

 

Does anyone know if there is tack welds on 53-55 that were maybe replaced by the bolts on the 56's?

 

This question has puzzled me in the past and continues to. I have 3 56 hoods and none of them have these bolts but the 53 hood that I have does. Maybe the difference is Canadian verses the U.S. made trucks.

 

3 of my 54 hoods have had them. They are stamped square not drilled out round so I know they are stock and they are the smaller hood hinge bolts (56 had larger hinge bolts) so I know they are pre-56. No idea.

 

56 panel, do the three 56 hoods you have with no bolts look like they are welded to the bracket opposed to the option of being "bolted" on other? And I thought we had it figured out the two bolts were exclusive to the 56's. Might be on to something with the Canada idea. Two of my 56 Hoods have them and they were both made in USA.

 

My 55 had no bolts there. My 56 does have them.

 

Im thinking on hoods that have the bolts, the holes in the bracket underneath the hood are elongated to allow adjustment of the hood skin. There is a total of 1/2" adjustment in the elongated hole. This does not move the hood on the hinges........so if I am thinking correctly, the only thing it allows is a 1/2" adjustment in the length of the hood. Tightening the adjustment rods makes the hood shorter, loosenig the rods makes it longer. This could have a huge impact on tryng to finish the hood (straightening dents and applying filler). Is it possible the adjustment rods need to be installed when finishing the hood? This would definitely put tension on the hood skin and provide a true final surface to finish within the 1/2" adjustment. So back to bolts verses "spot welds". Spot welds would not allow the 1/2" adjustment that the bolts do.