Hey all. I'm just about to stick on my Front fenders and grill. I already have my inner fenders on and core support. I'm sure there will be some major aligning that I'll need to do, even probably have to shim up the core support. Is there any tips and tricks out there or do I just start bolting up and going from there? Thanks.

 

I swapped front flips from another truck using my cherry picker. If you're doing each piece individually, leave things somewhat loose and don't bolt them down until everything is done. That will give you some more freedom to align things.

Here's a shot of it going on. The trim came off and I had everything painted to match.

 

nifty, nifty.....i bet that was alot easier than a couple of guys manhandling it

 

I like that set up, I will have to remember that, I do everything by myself
when I did mine Buck I just went slow and took my time, check everything 2-3 times, shim it where needed before you tighten it down all the way, use lots of tape, you dont want to chip that paint, it was real easy and I got mine to come out pretty good, and it is no wheres near as nice as yours..Rick

 

I used tons of tape on the doors when I put those on and I plan on doing the same for the fenders. I'll take my time for sure.

 

and when you get done,"Take a Damn Picture" so I can see it
I shimmed my fenders and not the core support

 

I have the same question for my rebuild. When I took the radiator support off my truck (like 5 yrs ago!) there were some shims between the frame and the rad. support along with the body bushing but they were all rusted together and actually "growing" in height because of the rust between the shims. I have looked in my 1978 truck shop manual and found a diagram that says to shim the radiator support to a height of .83" to 1.27". This should be the distance between the top of the frame and the bottom of the radiator support (in between this is the top body bushing and any shims if needed). My top bushing measures .75" tall which leads me to believe I will need some shims. My question (and like Bucks77's) how do you know how many shims you will need when we start putting on all the front pieces? Should I just get enough shims to shim the height to 1" right away and hopefully everything else will align correctly? How did they do it in the factory - I"m sure they didn't use the "trial and error method" lol Thanks!

Get this when I took the radiator support off my 1978 F150 4x4 parts truck there was a stack of shims of about 1/2" thick on one side and NO shims on the other side??? What was up with that? lol

 

I think mostly it's a trial and error thing. Like FMC400 said, leave everything fairly loose so adjustments can be made.

 

I shim the core support AND cab till the reveal is the same along the edge of the fender and door. If the door hits, you messed up. If I have no point of reference, I start with nothing, and add shims 2-3 at a time till its close, and fine tune from there.

 

Master. I can see that working if the front clip is in one piece. what about trying to assemble the truck one piece at a time like when it was originally built?? That is were I'm trying to start - front clip is broken down to EVERY single part. I was hoping to get the radiator support mounted first at the correct height (of course after the cab is sitting at the correct height on the body mounts) before adding the fenders, etc.
I can't do it this way??

 

I was wondering about this aswell i have my front clip in pieces. I had shims under the rad support but none under the cab. I'm hoping that i can put the cab back on without shims and then start building the front clip, adding shims until the door jam cracks are even. Just a thought...though.

There will be no way to tell if the entire truck is off a bit, meaning if the cab is slightly off but everything else is aligned correctly with the cab it will all look fine. ??? Maybe...

 

Align the doors the best you can by eyeballing the gaps and dent lines, then I mount the inner fenders, then the core support and then the fenders.

With the inner fenders and fenders loose you can shim and slide them all you want. The core support shouldn't have to move anywhere unless, I assume, the frame is tweaked.

 

When I have taken core supports off, they have had shims under them.

 

Bullit, thanks for that post. I didn't think about attaching the inner fenders to the cab first and then working forward....thought I'd have to mount rad. support first then inner fenders, then outer fenders and then find out the rad. mount is not shimmed correctly.
So I guess just throw all the pieces on the truck first, leave them all loose and try to shim from there, huh?

 

My 77 F150 didn't have any shims under it, but I know the truck was in collision some time in it's and it also had a 78-79 hood, grill, and maybe fenders transplanted on to it. From what I've read they say you may need from zero to 3 shims on each side and it may be dependent on what type or how old your cab bushings are. If you had different number of shims on either side of the core support I would have to believe your frame is some what bent. I have never heard of people having to shim the cab before, it may end up being option, but definitely not my first option. Once I finish painting my doors and get them back on the truck, I will be installing my front clip. I plan to do it by installing my inner fenders to my cab and to the core support, but leave the core support loose on top of the frame. Then I will mount the fenders on the truck loosely and access the fender to door gap and body line position and then add any necessary shims. To adjust the body-line height you need to loosen and adjust the inner fender support brackets and to adjust the fender to door gap you need to add/remove shims under the core support. Once you get these fairly close you then need to check your hood clearances before you tighten everything down. This is why many people like to drill 1/8" alignment holes to help them with reassembly. This is not always an option though if you had to replace a fender, door, hood, etc. I am by no means an expert, but this is how I plan to tackle this job once I get to it. Please let us know how you make out with your front clip alignment and what worked and did not for you.