I just joined today FTE to reach you after reading your 'tilt front end' post .
It looks like you have an article and build pics ... I'd sure appreciate if you could send me a bit more education . It's EddieFX@centurytel.net

I'm going to my original steel setup since it is really solid . Front clip is off now while frame is getting new suspension in it ... thought this might be a good time to do this project .

Thanks in advance ... Ed

 

Julie is one Dude that likely wont get back to you unfortunately.

I was emailed the info though if you want I can forward it to you.

 

Here are the pics I was sent

Random Automotive by David Geriminsky | Photobucket

This is the email I got

Hi Guys!



Wow I got lots of responses on the full front tilt. So I hope you don’t mind that I info’ed everyone on this one – saves some typing It was something that was quite a project. I looked around at lots of other folks’ tilts, and then had to iron out the problems that the tilt caused – specifically metal fatigue in certain places.



After getting all the bugs worked out it works SUPER. The center mounted electric actuator is superb. It eliminates the uneven lifting of the two sided set up and the 400 pound rated lift capacity is more than enough. This way also, I’m not fooling with installation of a hydraulic system that requires maintenance, and is still electrically powered.



One of the biggest challenges I faced was trying to design some type of “catch and lock” for the backs of the fenders when they come down to the running boards. Not only would this have to grab the fenders and lock them, but it would have to pull them in the bottom to get them over the running boards. I solved this by default. When I finally got the new front fenders on (because the hold down system initially used at the backs of the fenders) I just let them hang. When the hood comes back, I have to get out of the truck and gently lift the back/bottom edge of the fender off the top of the running board and push it toward the cab, then let it drop. Then I lower it the last two inches. The electric lift pulls the hood down TIGHT so it is snugged up to the cowl seal – no movement. The fenders are held tight by the combination of that thick 51 fender welt (which is about ½ inch thick soft foam rubber- like a door seal) pushing out from the cab body and the sheet rubber between the fender base and the running board pushing in on the bottom. There are not rattles or movement in the hood at all, and I’ve decided not to put anything on the fenders or running boards to hold them together – it just eats the fenders.



My dad started this project when he started work on the truck and I finished it up and did the write up. If you guys have any questions, let me know. Or if you don’t understand how something is connected, I can take more pictures!



Just a few after thoughts: First, in some of the pictures the tilt is far forward when up – almost perpendicular with the ground. In others, it is not so far up. Initially before I installed the electric lift you had to pull the lift up be the fender and it would hang by the cable and spring all the way forward. When I put the lift in it doesn’t go quite as far forward. I installed a new cable in case I want to disconnect the lift and have the hood move farther forward – haven’t needed to so far.



Second, I believe the place I the front clip where the carrier is bolted onto the joint between the fenders and headlight panels used to be where they bolted to the radiator support. Note that I have a non standard radiator support which is a couple inches farther aft than stock now. Also there is a full front cross member welded in that the radiator sits on and the bottom of the actuator bracket is brazed to. Also note that the bottom of the actuator is pinned in the bracket and the pin retained with a pull pin. With the battery under the hood, I felt it prudent to have some way to get the hood up to get to the battery should it go dead. I this case you can get under the truck, pull the retainer out, pull out the clevis pin and disconnect the bottom of the electric lift from the bracket. Then the hood would be manually pulled forward and would hang on the cable.



The only two places there were structural problems were at the base of the fenders, and that occurred because we tried to make them rigid with the running boards. The other place was a tear on each headlight panel because they were carrying the stress of the weight of the full front clip when it was up. The reinforcement braces I made have fixed that problem – see the pics.



Lastly, there are pictures of a modified (shortened up by 3 inches, and completely redesigned the hinge mechanism) 49 Studebaker side fender vent. I will be installing this in the cab side as shown to hook to the intake of my Magic Aire Heater. With the full front tilt, the big duct under the fender had to go away. The vent door will be actuated with a separate cable next to the heater control panel.



The July photo of the truck shows what the front end looked like after priming following the front fender replacement. Hard to believe it was almost a year ago. I JUST got the rest of the cab primed last weekend – it’s the last picture! The “bluish” parts you see were painted before installation – that is my primary color – the grille, drip rail, stake pockets, “Ford” on the tailgate, and tire carrier stanchion will be white. I also have a second stock 3 bullet grille that is complete. They are mounted on brazed studs and change out in 5 minutes.

Hi Guys!



Wow I got lots of responses on the full front tilt. So I hope you don’t mind that I info’ed everyone on this one – saves some typing It was something that was quite a project. I looked around at lots of other folks’ tilts, and then had to iron out the problems that the tilt caused – specifically metal fatigue in certain places.



After getting all the bugs worked out it works SUPER. The center mounted electric actuator is superb. It eliminates the uneven lifting of the two sided set up and the 400 pound rated lift capacity is more than enough. This way also, I’m not fooling with installation of a hydraulic system that requires maintenance, and is still electrically powered.



One of the biggest challenges I faced was trying to design some type of “catch and lock” for the backs of the fenders when they come down to the running boards. Not only would this have to grab the fenders and lock them, but it would have to pull them in the bottom to get them over the running boards. I solved this by default. When I finally got the new front fenders on (because the hold down system initially used at the backs of the fenders) I just let them hang. When the hood comes back, I have to get out of the truck and gently lift the back/bottom edge of the fender off the top of the running board and push it toward the cab, then let it drop. Then I lower it the last two inches. The electric lift pulls the hood down TIGHT so it is snugged up to the cowl seal – no movement. The fenders are held tight by the combination of that thick 51 fender welt (which is about ½ inch thick soft foam rubber- like a door seal) pushing out from the cab body and the sheet rubber between the fender base and the running board pushing in on the bottom. There are not rattles or movement in the hood at all, and I’ve decided not to put anything on the fenders or running boards to hold them together – it just eats the fenders.



My dad started this project when he started work on the truck and I finished it up and did the write up. If you guys have any questions, let me know. Or if you don’t understand how something is connected, I can take more pictures!



Just a few after thoughts: First, in some of the pictures the tilt is far forward when up – almost perpendicular with the ground. In others, it is not so far up. Initially before I installed the electric lift you had to pull the lift up be the fender and it would hang by the cable and spring all the way forward. When I put the lift in it doesn’t go quite as far forward. I installed a new cable in case I want to disconnect the lift and have the hood move farther forward – haven’t needed to so far.



Second, I believe the place I the front clip where the carrier is bolted onto the joint between the fenders and headlight panels used to be where they bolted to the radiator support. Note that I have a non standard radiator support which is a couple inches farther aft than stock now. Also there is a full front cross member welded in that the radiator sits on and the bottom of the actuator bracket is brazed to. Also note that the bottom of the actuator is pinned in the bracket and the pin retained with a pull pin. With the battery under the hood, I felt it prudent to have some way to get the hood up to get to the battery should it go dead. I this case you can get under the truck, pull the retainer out, pull out the clevis pin and disconnect the bottom of the electric lift from the bracket. Then the hood would be manually pulled forward and would hang on the cable.



The only two places there were structural problems were at the base of the fenders, and that occurred because we tried to make them rigid with the running boards. The other place was a tear on each headlight panel because they were carrying the stress of the weight of the full front clip when it was up. The reinforcement braces I made have fixed that problem – see the pics.



Lastly, there are pictures of a modified (shortened up by 3 inches, and completely redesigned the hinge mechanism) 49 Studebaker side fender vent. I will be installing this in the cab side as shown to hook to the intake of my Magic Aire Heater. With the full front tilt, the big duct under the fender had to go away. The vent door will be actuated with a separate cable next to the heater control panel.



The July photo of the truck shows what the front end looked like after priming following the front fender replacement. Hard to believe it was almost a year ago. I JUST got the rest of the cab primed last weekend – it’s the last picture! The “bluish” parts you see were painted before installation – that is my primary color – the grille, drip rail, stake pockets, “Ford” on the tailgate, and tire carrier stanchion will be white. I also have a second stock 3 bullet grille that is complete. They are mounted on brazed studs and change out in 5 minutes. I

I also got the following in word format

1951 Ford F1 Tilt Front

Update from 10/23/08 is in RED

The tilt front on this truck has been built by bolting together all the front clip body parts and mounting that assembly on a hinged frame. The hinged frame has been welded to the front of the truck frame just behind the bumper mounting brackets.

And while it is super for working on the engine and showing stuff off, it has a few serious drawbacks that I have yet to work out. It seems that the problem is not designing a set up that will allow you to tilt the hood, but rather, how to reinforce the now free swinging body metal (backs of front fenders) so they do not metal fatigue, or cut the side of the cowl when you raise the hood. There was a guy at the latest Good Guys Car Show who had put THOUSANDS of dollars into his tilt hood set up. It pulls forward 6 inches before raising up. But, it was a 56 and the forward frame is configured differently. I'll include the pictures I took of that, as well as one on a 51 that was cut at the fender tops.

Here are some pictures with a description and measurements if you are interested in making one of these yourself. If you do, and you find some way to work out a bug or two please write back and let me know.

Basically, I removed the stock radiator support and engine mounts to weld in a strengthening beam (for the FE 390 engine) and two thick pieces of angle iron to support the radiator. If you are staying with the stock drive train I don't think this would be necessary.

Then a "carrier" was built that laid flat on the frame and at the forward end 90 degrees straight up. The width of this carrier fit between where the upper fenders connect to the upper and lower valance. They removed the inner fenders. I am planning on re installing the inner fenders if they will fit (they didn't so I left them off). Lastly, the upper edge of the lower valance, and the lower edge of the upper valance were trimmed off about 2 inches to accommodate the carrier. (Remember this is a 51 with the wider opening in front. The 48-50 front sheet metal will be different where the valances bolt to the fenders. So the arrangement may have to be modified to accommodate the different shape but the concept should still work)

Then all the parts were bolted together to form one unit. This was then bolted to the carrier. ( I had the opportunity to wire weld the body parts together into one piece and elected to stick with the bolting in case I needed to replace one piece from an accident)

Here's the problems: First, if you have anything on your front bumper like fog lights, fender guards a brush guard, or even the license plate, they have to be removed. When you tilt up the front the lower valance sits within 1/4 inch of the front bumper upper surface. I'll mount my fog lights below the bumper.

Second, the fenders themselves are too flimsy to not be reinforced. They twist quite a bit when the hood is raised and lowered. This allows them to scrape and cut into the side of the cowl in front of the door. I'm going to reinforce them with two vertical rods that attach to the hood cross member. The 56 at Good Guys was like that and I'll end pictures of it. Other wise, you can cut your fenders and bolt the backs to the running boards and cowl. But then you have a seam in your fenders. I have pictures of one of those as well.


Third, the bottom back edge of the fender that is normally bolted to the running board, is not strong enough to handle the stresses and dynamics of the movement of the clip if it is bearing the weight of the assembly at the back end. In other words, some way has to be found to hold the back/bottom of the fenders to the running boards without having the weight of the whole thing bearing down on it. On mine, they had welded a piece of flat iron across the bottom of the running board front surface and some "claws" to guide the fender into place as it came down. Once it was in place the fender was secured using rubber "tie downs." This destroyed the back edges of the fenders. (By the way, after looking for two years for a set of metal replacement fenders, they cost me $400 each. There wasn't enough left of the existing fenders to patch). I think I', going to weld a flat triangular brace across the bottom of the fender, and one that matches to the under side of the running board. These two faces will then sit together when the clip is lowered. The brace in the fender will be reinforced with two vertical rods to prevent twisting. See the pictures of the 56 rods he reinforced with.

(I didn't reinforce the fenders. I found that after I installed the new fenders to repair the damage pictured here, they were stiff enough. But also, I glued on the 48-52 Back fender welt to the inside edge of the fender where it contacts the cowl. This piece seemed to be the miracle that solved all the problems. It pads the fender as it comes down past the cowl when lowering. But also, it's tight up against the cowl. So it pushes out on the fender a little. When the fender is completely lowered, it needs to be tucked in to get it past the front edge of the running board. I glued a piece of sheet rubber to pad the back of the new fender where it contacts the front of the running board. When you tuck the fender into the running board, it supplies just enough pressure on the thick foam rubber welting that it holds the back of the fenders perfectly still and solid - both up against the cowl and on the front of the running board - this solved the problem of how to hold the fender tight when driving to prevent fatigue, and also eliminated the need for some type of system to lock the fender in place. It works perfectly!) See the new photo's that are in the separate file accompanying this document.

Also, the assembly was just bolted together. This was not enough to hold it together under the pressure of driving and lifting. Many of the bolts pulled through. I'm taking it in to have the seams stitch welded so it will be held rigidly, but can be replaced by cutting the stitches if necessary. (As I mentioned, I stayed with the bolts. BUT, instead of just using bolts and nuts, I used fender washers where even possible, and spaced the bolts closer together [thus using more of them] when I replaced the fenders) See the new photo's that are in the separate file accompanying this document.


The problem of manually raising and lowering is fairly simple. I'm going to use electric lift actuators on each side to push the top open. I wired this so I can run them up or down without their expensive computer. The actuators are powered by 12V that comes off my ignition switch. I have a 56 ignition switch (12 volt) but I don't use the "start" position as I still have the starter button which is hot and powered off the bus panel (I do this so I can turn the engine over without the ignition on for cold morning/pre-oiling). So, I wired the electric actuators to take power off the start position of the ignition switch. That way you need the key to raise the hood. The wire from that runs to a switch which splits the power to either the "up" or "down" side of the actuator. I used a headlight dimmer switch for this. ( I used a single electric lineal actuator mounted in the center of the truck in front of the radiator. The single unit negates any uneven lifting caused by two actuators on the sides - and the subsequent torquing of the clip as it lifts. The actuator is a 12" [perfect length] rated at 400 pounds [I got that one because it raises the clip slower and has will tend to last longer - not being over tasked]. I bought it from Firgelli Auto for $125…Here is the link to their page: http://www.firgelliauto.com/default.php?cPath=76
) See the new photo's that are in the separate file accompanying this document which shows the actuator installation.


Finally, I have yet to figure out (or even think about) some way to hold the back of the clip in place. The actuators will hold it enough, but I want to take some of the driving vibration off them (they are about $250 ea) and have a mechanical bolt of some type mounted to the firewall to clamp down the clip. I am using a "hood" cable and will probably use a bolt type of arrangement very similar to those used on the doors of your house. When the clip comes down, the spring loaded bolt will get pushed in until the clip is low enough to allow it to lock into a hole. The hood cable when pulled will retract the spring bolt long enough to start the clip to lift - like turning the **** on the door. (I have yet to do this. It doesn't seem necessary at this point but I may do it just for security)

Final notes: Much of the weight of the tilt front was carried by the wind panels behind the grille. They weren't quite strong enough so I had to build some angle iron braces to take the weight off the sheet metal and distribute it back to the fenders. There are pictures of these braces as well.

Because the front tilt lifts from the back I had to remove the large fresh air duct that is up in the fender that feeds the "Fresh Aire" heater in the cab. That duct come out of the cowl on the passenger side behind the back of the fender and ran up to the grille above the right headlight. As a substitute for the source of the fresh air to the heater, I am in the process of modifying (cutting down to size from 2 1/2 x8 to 2 1/2 x5" and modifying the ducting to connect) the front fender vent door from a 1949 Studebaker. These vents were mounted on the lower fender of that car and I am going to graft it onto the cowl with it's center level with the upper edge of the front fender for air flow. I hav eth ething cut down and brazed back together, and modified the hinge apparatus so it opens. Now I need to do the ducting and a cable for it. I just finished the brazing after cutting it down to size today. I also fill brazed the rust and manufactured the offset hinge (so the face plate pushes out when opening so as not to bind on its frame). It looks pretty rough today but after lots of sanding will improve. I'll add a picture of my progress on that as well.

I kept the original retaining cable after I put in the lineal actuator. I did this for two reasons: First the actuator doesn't quite throw the hood completely forward. So, for maintenance or long term engine compartment work, you can remove the actuator by pulling the "push pin" in the bracket and lifting it out - then the hood is retained by the cable. Second, if the battery ever goes dead (which is under the hood) you have no way to lift the hood to get at the battery. So the bottom and top flanges of the lineal actuator are held into the brackets on the truck and carrier with removable push pins. That way you can reach up from underneath and disconnect the actuator and lift the clip manually - then the cable retains the clip.

Here are the pictures (those of the green truck are a system where the fenders are cut about 2/3 of the way back. I wasn't crazy about that but took them in case I couldn't solve the metal fatigue problem. The orange truck is the 56 I saw at Del Mar Goodguys show. I took these while I was trying to decide on a lift/lock system - what I came up with was a lot less "trick" but much less expensive and just a functional/reliable):

 

Hi Alcaeus ... Yes I would appreciate you sending 'tilt front end' info ... I want to see what kind of nightmare I'm in for ! Info to EddieFX@centurytel.net

Thanks much ... Ed