BB Exhaust Manifolds

[stope4]

Had an exhaust leak on the original manifolds. I removed them to see what was wrong. Turns out there were tons of other gaskets burned onto the surfaces. While removing the manifolds I noticed that one bolt on each side was missing. Cleaned them up and had the outer holes drilled out so I could make up the difference just in case the bolt was missing because the manifold had warped a little over the years. Now I'm trying to install the things and the same two bolts don't line up. While the manifolds are resting against the head you can see that over the years the ears have twisted ever so slightly. If I cinched the bolts the ears flush up real nice. I cannot seem to get these two bolts to grab thread. In each case the bolt I can't get in is on the outer end. On the left it's the rear bolt. On the right it's the front. Is there some kinda secret to installing these old manifolds? Any suggestions would be appreciated.