Kind of an odd question, but...hood hinges won't close entirely after sitting open for years.

I'm working on my good friends Australian '71 VG Valiant (think '69 Dart), and now that the engine is back-in and running, I'll be putting the hood back on this weekend. But....

Bazza (Barry), the owner, removed the hood about 2 years ago (when he was still healthy), and when we went to his house and picked-up the car recently, we bolted it back in place for safe transport. We were able to get the hood lined-up quite nicely, and it closes just fine (in the front), but we never got the rear/back part of the hood to "settle-in" and sit even with the cowl. It's almost like the hinges took a "set" while the hood was off and the car was up on blocks/in storage, and they didn't seem to want to close properly, even if we leaned on the back of the hood a little.

I've shot all sorts of luber-slider stuff onto the hinges through the access space where the hinges come up into the engine compartment, in the hopes of loosening things up, but I can't get the hinges to budge "manually", without the hood attached, and I'll admit I'm afraid of using the hood as a leverage tool (don't want to risk getting that square body Chevy bent-hood look).

Any advice? Can I/should I just use the hood, or is there a secret somewhere I don't know about?

Thanks.

Jim