OK, I think I know what you mean, my truck has some similar issues. From what you describe the truck has a sneer;



You can see how the left front of my truck has similar problems. I managed to fix them a little bit. In my case the problem came from two areas. First the grill is not from the same truck as the front clip and the grill had some damage to that area that I repaired. 2nd, the front clip had been whacked in the left front. You can see how the left front of the truck is up a bit where the fender meets the upper grill valance panel.

Since your truck is already painted its going to be more of a pain in the rear to try and fix. I might try taking a piece of 1/8 flat bar and making a piece of steel that I could slip between the fender and the upper grill valance, make it so the bolts will go through it and bolt it in place, then you can use the part of the flat bar that hangs down as an attachment point for puller of some kind (come along from the frame horn or other low down anchor point) Maybe you could run over a piece of angle iron so that the weight of the truck held it down and use that as the lower anchor point for the puller.

Bobby

 

You got the idea now . If push comes to shove I will extend the headlight panel in that area . Now just to test fit the other side . Can't wait to see what I find there . You brought up a valid point . None of the front sheet metal is original . The fenders are off from a '51 . Do you think the tooling could have been off that much form plant to plant ? Thanks for your insight ,Denny

 

Denny,

I doubt it was a tooling issue, it was probably a truck issue, no telling what happened to the various trucks that you got parts from. I can tell that my front clip was nailed on the left front (its tweaked and lots of bondo). Plus a fender that has been stored for along time not bolted together suffers from alot of bending and twisting and could have got pulled out of shape

If you are still in the process of asembling the front clip then I would try getting the other fender roughly in place and see what it all looks like. With the bolts all kina loose I'd start tweaking and adjusting and see if it can be made to work. If I still couldn't get a good fit I would try some longer bolts and try to pull it into place. Make sure you use some backing plates though. Its easy enough to fabricate some backing plates for those area so that you dont run the risk of having the bolts pull through the steel, maybe some 3/16 x 1 flatbar or even 3/4" flatbar on either side.

If that didn't work then I'd try to fab some kind of attachment point to the area and try and use force to pull it back into shape (like I tried to describe earlier)

Bobby

 

Here's a diagram in the shop manual I thought was pertinent to this thread:

 

Thanks Bob; I can use that when i get the set of mounts I'm going to order from LMC.

 

I keep "right clicking and saving" these pics...one of these days I'll have the whole manual....lol

Thanks Bob

 

Bobby is your grill and around your lights chrome or painted silver? It sure looks good.