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Is there a written procedure for aligning the front sheet metal on these trucks?
I had the core support, fenders, and hood off and was wondering if there was a procedure for alignment
as a starting point to finish.
Does everyone just keep going in circles round and round up and down in and out until it looks good"
Seems like there should be a Start Here type of write up.
Thank you, Alex
The cowl is a fixed point to work off of, so IMO the cowl to fender gap is the 1st one to address. Do you have good (or new) rubber spacers for the core support to frame rails? Are the rubber cab spacers good? Are your doors aligned ok? Here is a FTE compilation of front clip and then the hood adjustments.
If you're starting from scratch or close to scratch: Front clip is off or sitting loose. Check or redo cab mounts to make sure they are good, then you can go ahead with the rest. After cab mounts you will check that your door hinges have no play. Now you can adjust your door gap to the cab as the adjustment is in the door hinge. For making the vertical door edge gap consistent between rear-of-door-and-pillar AND horizontal gap of top-of-door-to-roof-of-cab, the fender has to be off so the door hinge bolts going into the cab are accessible(because the fender blocks them otherwise) and can be loosened, so the door can be moved rearward or forward as well as up and down, to gain consistent gap all around while trying to keep the door cove lower than the outer cowl, so that the fender cove will line up to it later. When this gap is set and that set of hinge bolts tightened, then you can set inner fenders between cab and radiator support, leaving inner fender bolts loose, then you can set outer fenders on to line up rad support and cowl mounts, and see how the gap looks between the fender and door, this is where a lot of adjusting can happen of the 4 fenders and rad support and adding washers between rad support and body bushing mount, and maybe bending that middle fender bolt tab by front of door to ease line up. The door doesn't move forward, rearward, or up and down, at this point as that's adjusted already. What the door can do now is be moved away from cab or be tucked closer to the cab with the door striker and door hinge bolts that are bolted into the door, so mark your vertical position to keep that while you adjust on the door hinge in or out to be flush with rear-of-door-to-cab, and front-of-door-to-fender, while also bring both inner/outer fender to where they need to be vertically, horizontally, and flush. And then it's time for the grille after that, more fun! lol And then it's time for the hood after that, more fun! lol And then the hood latch lol
Hood: To get the back of the hood down to line up with the cowl, loosen the 2 very back bolts on the hinge flange where it bolts to the inner fender and then have some one push the hood up standing in front of the truck while you tighten them back down. Not a lot, might take a couple of movements to get it where you want it. Close the hood slow, DON'T SLAM IT, watch the back while it close's. Next, to get the gap the same all the way across you loosen the hood bolts on only the side you want to move, if your closing the gap, tap the back of the hinge arm with your ratchet handle and the hood will move on its own, if you want to widen the gap, loosen the bolts and pull up on the back of the hood and tap the hinge arm on the front side and the hood will slide forward, always close the hood slow after any adjustments to make sure its not gonna hit any where.To tighten the front of the hood, there are 2 bolts on the hood latch that are slotted, you can see the slots if you look, loosen them and tap the latch down, if you go to much the hood wont latch, bring it back up, I have to slam mine hard to latch so the hood down bounce on the corners.
Hood: Often the hood sits up above the cowl. To fix this, adjust the hinge where it mounts to the inner fender. Up at the front, and down at the rear. Reverse procedure to raise the rear of the hood. The hinges should be lubed with a good lubricant to operate properly or your alignment wont work no matter how long you play with it. (you should be able to almost throw the hood open with the flick of a finger). Set everything in the middle, hood hinge to inner fender bolts and the hood bracket bolts.
I like to remove the latch at first so I can easily swing the hood open and closed.
If the rear of the hood is sticking up when it is closed you actually adjust the hood to open MORE. Either by lifting the front of the bracket or lowering the rear of the bracket. Sometimes both in combination. The center bolt acts as a pivot.
Once that is done, and it can take a while to get everything nice and the gaps decent you then set the latch height.
If the hood is maxed out forward and is still interfering with the cowl you'll then need to loosen the inner fender to firewall horn bolts, inner fender bolt and radiator core support and move everything forward.
This is the driver side hinge If you're hood is high compared to the cowl loosen the middle bolt and the rear bolt, then open the hood and it will push (rotate) the hinge down and towards the cowl.. Look for the clean marks that the bolt head will leave behind for reference.
These pickups are one of the easiest to line up of any vehicle I've ever worked on. that said there are some things that never fit perfect because they weren't made perfect so accept it.
Get everything fit the best you can then go back over it and fine tune. it's easier than it looks.
Rich,
Thank you, just what I was looking for. A great starting place.
I understand these old trucks were never made perfect as they were made to be work trucks.Not show trucks.
Just trying to get seems somewhat lined up.
Again thank you all for your input.
Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all.
Alex
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