I would also suggest shorter bolts, or hit them with a file or grinder.
If you want to shim it out though...
I would personally not suggest doubling the gasket. However, I would suggest double the gasket thickness. You can buy rolls of gasket material in different thickness's and composition. I would go that route. If you don't want to go through that trouble and want to double gasket, use some sort of adhesive and glue the gaskets together all the way around before putting them in place, that way they will act more like one gasket rather than two.
If you want to shim it out though...
I would personally not suggest doubling the gasket. However, I would suggest double the gasket thickness. You can buy rolls of gasket material in different thickness's and composition. I would go that route. If you don't want to go through that trouble and want to double gasket, use some sort of adhesive and glue the gaskets together all the way around before putting them in place, that way they will act more like one gasket rather than two.
I would not try double gaskets. I have enough trouble sealing water pumps and covers with gaskets or rtv.
Ford originally used two special bolts with thin heads to hold the cover on the back of the water pump. If you don't have the old ones, try a machine shop or junkyard. Or just take a grinder to the ones you have. You probably don't have to take the cover off, just the pump.
I think the double gaskets would allow too much flex and soon leak, as a lot of stuff mounts to the water pump and it's bolts.
Ford originally used two special bolts with thin heads to hold the cover on the back of the water pump. If you don't have the old ones, try a machine shop or junkyard. Or just take a grinder to the ones you have. You probably don't have to take the cover off, just the pump.
I think the double gaskets would allow too much flex and soon leak, as a lot of stuff mounts to the water pump and it's bolts.
I wouldn't double up. That might leak worse. What I do, is run a small bead of high temp RTV on both sides of the gasket and put it all together. This ensures a nice tight seal. Are you sure the coolant isn't coming out of the water pump weep hole? They are notorious for that...sometimes you can get a bad one out of the box.