front clip assembly

[Dale Uhrich]

I am ready to start reassembly of my front clip. It currently is laying in a whole bunch of pieces. Does anyone have hints on the best way to do this? Do you put it together first? Do you put the fenders first then the front? Can you work say drivers side, front, passenger side? Hints.

[Merle Coggins]

I mounted up the front nose piece first. Then the fenders. Set the inner fenders in first, before you bolt up the outer fender pieces. You can slip the inners in later, but it's harder that way.

I took a longer bolt and cut the head off and used it as an allignment stud at the front. That way I could slide the fender onto the stud at the front, which would hold it up, then focused on getting the rear bolts started. Then you can return to the front bolts and get them all started. The fun part is getting everything alligned as you tighten everything up.

Merle

[billwillard]

Once you have installed the core support put your hood on. then you can shim your core support to aline the rear of the hood. Every thing else has to be alined to the hood.

[grey beard]

I installed the grille/headlight panel first, onto the crossmember, and put the radiator in. Then, leaving the strut rods disconnected, I put the inher fenders on and then the outer fender assemblies. I painted all the nose pieces first, so assembly had to be slow and cautious. The two L shaped rear fender brackets near the top door hinges must be loose enough to adjust up and down, and the radiator support must be able to move fore and aft.

Toughest part of this job is getting the 3M rope caulk in place at the junction of the grille and fender bolt seams. Lots of bolts to get snug there while you align everything up.

Everythihg must allign with the cowl, since that canhnot be moved. Tis must be the starting point for final allignmjent. Do not tighrten anything finally until you have this right. I allign the fenders to the cowl and the doors, then shim the core support bolts upward with front end shims to get the right elevation - took nearly an inch of spacers under the core support to get the back of the fenders to align properly with the door - the fender/door space should be equal top and bottom on each side - door to rear fender edge. I will put the hood on last of all. It has ample slots on the center section to allow for adjustment there.

Last of all, adjust the hood latch pieces on the inner fenders, so the hood latches snugly but not too tight. There is supposed to be a small rubber bumper under the front of each hood half, up at the grille section. JMHO