I have a 1988 F-350 CCLB and I'm swapping the front clip with a '93 but I'm having a few issues.

Pictures first...






























So in short, stuff isn't lining up.


It's almost as if, the core support is too far back towards the cab of the truck. I know I can shim it so that it'll move up, but why is it that it seems to be too far back?

I didn't take a picture of it, but the fender is lined up properly with the door.

Any suggestions are welcome!


And the old man says hello to all you fellow ford lovers!

 

It looks like an interesting project you have there. I thought about that myself, but I wanted to put on the front clip off a mid 80's F series. In regards to your post, that is something that I have read on her before that Ford made changes minute changes to the year you have and it often led to headaches and other stressors due to those minute changes. The bolt holes not lining up properly as you have found.

 

Are you using the core support from the '93? Or from the '88? I believe you must swap the core support to the OBS one.

 

In order to use 92-96 sheetmvetal you need to use it ALL including the radiator support.

The brick nose support you are trying to use does NOT work

 

The support on the truck is the one I pulled of the '93.

The pictures from my previous post are using all the stuff off the '93. Sheet metal and core support.

Could I possibly need the body mounts off of the '93?



Here is the original core support...







Here is the support off the '93, which is currently on the truck.

(It was origonally white, but I had some rust to fix so I just painted it black)

 

Maybe it is the angle of the picture or I'm blind, but where is the bushing for the core support? It looks like the support is sitting on the frame rails.

 

I'll take a picture if you don't believe me, but it's there

It's the angle and the light.

 

Me and a buddy did this swap on his 91 and due to the abuse over the years and the miniscule manufacturing changes it wont line up perfectly when bolting on one piece at a time instead we assembled the front clip with the bolts in all the way but not tightened (where you can turn with fingers) and lowered it into place tweaking as we went everything eventually fit and lined up sufficiently no gaps or pinching of panel lines in the end some bolts were kind of binding while others were free moving but because they were already threaded before assembly we weren't worried about stripping or cross threading just tightened up and check gaps again and triple checked

 

The only problem is that I don't know if there is enough room for adjustment. There's nearly an inch it needs to move.