i am rebuilding a 74 f350. i am trying to get the front fenders and the hood (&doors) to line up. I have mostly aftermarket parts and i am sure this couold be some of the problem.

It seems like i cannot get the hood to not hit the fender on the inside unless there is way too much clearance between the hood and fender on the outside. Confusing?

I saw another truck which was probabbly origanal and the hood set 3/8 off of the fender. the fender was 3/8 lower than the cowkl as well.

Might a few of you guys post some pics of this area to give me an idea of the correct spacing of the hood from the top of the fender.

Any alignment ideas would also be a great help.

Thanks in advance
sam and his new 74

 

I found that to be a challenge for me when I reassembled my truck. Here is the way I approached it. First, I correctly aligned the doors onto the cab. The cab can't be adjusted so the doors must line up to fit exactly. There is a ton of trial and error in a job like that. You just have to make minor adjustments until it's right. Then, when fitting the fenders, I had to shim mine close to the cowl and no shims at the radiator core support. Every truck will be a little different. As you look down the side of the truck, make sure the "dent channel" is straight from the cab to the front of the truck. I had a slight problem here with the aftermarket radiator core support bushings. They also needed to be shimmed because they weren't as thick as the originals. It's very important that everything is square (to the cab) and the "dent channel" is in alignment between panels. Then fit your hood. 3/8" gap is approximately the gap width for all my panels. I don't know if that's the factory spec but I do know that it would be nearly impossible for mine to fit much tighter than that unless the panels grow a little. Make sure the gap between the hood and the cowl is consistent from one side of the truck to the other, that will help ensure that the hood is square to the cab. If the inner fenders and core support are installed correctly and square to the cab, the hood should not contact them but you may have to make a dozen minor adjustments to get it just right. That's how I reassembled mine. Don't forget that there are supposed to be rubber bumpers (4 I think) mounted to the bottom side of the hood to prevent metal to metal contact.

Since I don't do bodywork for a living, it took a lot of trial-and-error to make it work right and it can be very frustrating. Take your time, think it through and try to enjoy it!

 

I'm kinda going through the same thing. I had the entire front end off the truck. Putting it back together was no easy task. I still have to redo it, but for now it's good enough because I've got other more important issues to still resolve. Did you take the inner fenders off? I have taken fenders on and off before without problems, so the problems I have now are from removing the inner fenders.....I think. I'm not exactly sure where they need to be set. I think my main issue is that my passenger side needs to move closer to the cab because of the way the hood lines up with the grill. The driver side gap with the door and hood looks pretty good though. Hopefully I don't have to take the hood back off. There are no longer any marks from where the inner fenders were mounted originally for me to refer to because they got bead blasted and painted. I'll try to find and post a picture, but from what I recall, the gap from the fender to the cowl is the same as the gap from the fender to the hood. It amazes me this is as difficult as it is because you know they just slapped them together in Detroit.

 

You can look at a 100 trucks and dang near every one will have different spacing somewhere so there is not real correct spacing. Like brewski stated, you are going to need to trial and error things, but make sure everything is lined up with the cab. I have NOS parts on mine and the spacing is different than say the next truck, but things line up with the cab. Aftermarket parts will make things more difficult.