I could use some advice from you guys who have done this before. I'm trying to align the front sheetmetal on my '54 Ford pickup. The guy who owned it before me painted all the pieces and loosely bolted them in place, so it looked pretty good until it came time to fit the hood (with a forward-tilting hood kit). Then I realized just how much adjustment was needed, but of course adjusting one piece leads to another changing, and I've been going round and round chasing my tail. I've fit body panels on a few Ford unibody cars, but the supports for the fenders are of course fixed in place relative to the rest of the body which simplifies things by limiting the number of moving pieces. On this pickup there is adjustment in nearly everything in front of the cowl, even the radiator support. So my question is what is the best order to do things? Is there anything I can lock in place before moving on? How did they do it in the factory? I realize that the fit on these things was probably pretty marginal from the factory, but there has to be a technique for getting it as close as the imperfect panels will allow. Any advice? -Jamie
I think before you even attempt to try to adjust that front cap. you need to check and be certain all the body to frame rubber mounts and the cab supports are in really good condition. if the cab is not in proper position the hood and fenders will never fit properly.
also there is some slop in the core support mounting holes on these. make sure the rubber strip under the core support is good and the core support is centered and squared to the cab. then you can adjust fenders after you have confirmed all the cab mounts are good and solid.
The hood has to fit the cab, at it's rear edge. That will set the height of the front of the hood, and the front of the fenders has to match. The fore/aft on the fenders also needs to match the hood. Having the hood open the wrong way just makes it that much more fun (challenging) because you have to start at the wrong end.
This has been shared a million times, but it's a good procedure, even with the tilt hood. The factory hinges are horrible, and that's why most people go with the flip hood. It's much easier to open and close. The last thing you'll adjust is the hood latch, but everything else will fall into place if you take your time and follow this: My suggestion: Most try to align the rest, then do the hood. As stated above the hood is aligned first then the rest of the front clip is aligned to it. First I will assume the frame to cab mounts are in good condition with good rubber and cab mounted straight. You'll never get the front right if the cab is crooked. Start with the radiator support horseshoe with all the front sheetmetal off the truck. Make sure the rubber isolator under it is in good shape, not hard/cracked/missing, the bolts are free. Put the truck front end on jackstands under front of frame, level front to back on frame and side to side on cowl seam. CAREFULLY adjust the horseshoe until the top is level, the distance from the front support rod mounts on the firewall to the top corner of the horseshoe is equal side to side. Add the wind deflectors to the sides of the radiator support, only snugging the bolts. Remove the hood latch plate from the latchplate strip and mount the strip to horseshoe and deflectors. Adjust the deflectors as needed until the strip is also level and square to cowl, tightening the bolts in several steps like tightening a head on an engine. Set the hood in place without hinges, verify that you can get the hood to match up to the cowl with an even gap (hood gap will be larger than the 1/4" we usually try for when aligning sheetmetal, just the nature of the beast, you did replace the cowl windlacing didn't you?) Try placing temporary 1/4" spacers between the hood edges and the front hood latch strip to simulate the front rubber hood bumpers. If the hood won't align, you need to find out why before proceeding, likely the cab mounts need adjusting. If the front of the hood is decidedly off center the cab isn't square to the frame. Once you have the hood sitting properly and evenly gapped around the cowl, remove it and add the rest of the front sheet metal, tightening all the bolts just finger tight. Add the front end support rods with the adjusters just touching the front brackets. Make sure you have all the hood to fender bumpers in place and they are not hard or damaged. Now set the hood back in place as before. This will likely take two people, but align the rear of each fender with the edge of the hood and the front even with the front of the hood. Don't worry if they droop a bit in the front. Snug all the bolts between the fender and cowl, inner fender, and lower valance pan, leaving the fender to wind deflectors and lower brace just finger tight. Repeat on other side. Now adjust the support rods to bring the front of the fenders up to align with hood. Additional tightening will bring the center of the fender to hood alignment up and the front edge of the fender back, tighten until you are satisfied with the fender to hood fit, then tighten the deflector to fender bolts and the fender support strut. Hopefully all of this has put the frame horns centered in the cutouts in the lower pan. If not you can adjust some by bending the support struts to move the bottom of the fenders side to side. Finally you are ready to hinge the hood! First look in my "extras gallery" for the hinge pictures, remove the springs and be sure the hidden hinge pivot shown is not frozen and working freely. Even new hinges can have this pivot tight or paint frozen, and if tight the hood will never close properly! Bolt the hinges to the cowl just snug enough to support the hood, bolt the hinges to the hood with the proper shoulder bolts and wavy washers, tighten the shoulder bolts just slightly more than finger tight, NO TIGHTER! Now carefully close the hood. Adjust the hood hinge to cowl location until the hood closes without excessive drag on windlace or contact with cowl or fenders. The hood should set down in the same alignment as before hinges were attached. Once the hood is opening and closing smoothly tighten hinge mount bolts, and add a safety wire thru the heads of the shoulder bolts so they cannot loosen. Finally add the lower latch mechanism to the latch plate panel. Adjust the latch plate until the hood latches smoothly and sits properly. If the rear of the hood doesn't pull down by itself (and that pesky pivot is free), adjust the latch plate further forwards to pull the hood forwards as it latches, that should get the rear of the hood to come down. Take your time to get each step exactly right before going on and everything should align and work better than when it came out of the factory! Hope it helps!
Thank you all for your advice, and especially to SCtattooer. That step-by-step is exactly what I need. I'm really impressed by the level of detail you gave. I truly appreciate it.
What an great step-by-step instruction. Thank you so much for taking the time to write that. It's guys like you who make the HAMB such a powerful tool. -Jamie
SCtattooer did good all right. I've been through this many times. Something I'd like to add that I personally found over the years. On a few projects things just would not come together the way I wanted. Often to get the Hood correct to the Fenders the frame horns to lower panel was just off. Meaning uneven gap and tilted up to one side. So I got into trying to find the issue in what I was doing Wrong. Ended up to be nothing. It was/is the fenders them self. I have found as much as a 3/8" change from fender to fender on the leading edge. I'm talking about the crest or sharp edge at the point of the hood we try to get exact that goes all the way to the lower valance. If you measure from the upper point to the Crest where the lower valance mounts it needs to be exact in order to get that perfect fit. I have made some brackets so I can use a port-a-power to stretch as well as a turnbuckle to squeeze them back. It can be a bit difficult to decide what way to go but the leading edge of Left and Right fenders need to be exact to start with. The Wizzard
Thanks Wizzard. I will definitely check those measurements. I'm glad you mentioned it because I would have assumed the fenders were exact mirror images.
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