Lining up sheet metal: hood, grille, etc. on '36 Ford

[Hamtown Al]

I put the whole front clip together slightly over finger tight and put whole works on car at one time after I tried it a piece at a time the first time. It went much master but still required a good bit of adjustment and readjustment. Ya still gotta admit that they are beautiful when you finally get it dialed in. I'm gonna be going back down a similar path when I put the new grille in the 36 Fordy pickup... and added "opportunity" is that the "body line recess for the hood sides" was custom made on both side of the 1940 Ford pkp cab... ahh, opportunities! Ain't they great?!?!
Good luck. Al

[Lyndon]

Well I have started working this process and I must say it is a rather perplexing problem with many variables. I can see the logic in the instructions, but I must have some non-conforming parts on my hands because things are not going together at all well. I will keep posting here until I get it right.
-Lyndon

[Terry,OH]

the 4 blade fan should have a hub length of approx. 1.15" and a diameter of 15.68". Many Many times the blades are bent back toward the V-belt and will hit it, they can be straightened, to miss the belt. Very tight clearance between the two.

[Lyndon]

Well after spending the last couple months on other things, I spent most of the afternoon today installing the RF fender.



Following GoCatGo's instructions posted above really helped a lot. I also found out that my hood is somewhat sprung, likely from having something heavy thrown on top of it while it sat flat on the garage floor 50 or 60 years ago.

I will post more as I go along. This is a really slow process.

-Lyndon

[Lawson Cox]

Aligning sheet metal to front of 36 is a BITCH. I finally got mine aligned properly, sent it out to the paint shop, and damned if they didn't take it apart and then charge me out the gazoo to re-align it sort of half assed. I had all of the edges of everything painted already, just had to loosen to get the welt in after they painted it. Just damn.

[Chris Nelson]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

I found the best way to put the front end together is in one piece after bolting all of the parts together on the floor. It requires some shiming and alignment with the rods to the radiator, but it all lined up just right.

[FlatheadTed]

Aliment should be done priore to paint so things can be tweaked .moved about cut. . hammered. also in some cases like 35s ,34s the Radiators can be re-cored to high , this affects fit,

[Lyndon]

I installed the left front fender tonight. Making slow progress. Next will be the fun of getting the hood to line up with everything. Not a single bolt has been tightened yet, but you could jack the car up on either fender.

[Ted]

It's looking nice to this point. Keep taking those sanity breaks & keep the pictures coming as you make the progress.

[30six]

Here is a reply to a posting I had on FORDBARN a few years ago.

Leave all bolts finger tight only until all is assembled.
Remember almost everything relies on the radiator, how it sits in frame and are all attachments soldered on in the correct place. Seventy two years is a long time for things to remain the same.

Attach running boards
Fit the headlight fender supports.
Fit the inner front panels( with the louvers) to the chassis. Don’t put bolts in holes yet which attach it to head light support bracket
Fit front fenders. They fit over the inner panels. Fit bolts which attach the fenders to the headlight support through the side panels, also to the body and running board.
Attach the grille side panels to the grille before attaching to car. Line up the rear of the grille with the curved part of the side cheek panels. Leave off the horn grilles as I think Henry only put them there so you can put your hand through them to get to some of the bolts.
Fit and tighten grille attachment bolts. Bolt heads are on grille side.
Fit the grille and panel assembly to the fenders leaving bolts loose.
Fit the small filler panels from under fender. These help to put the whole assembly in the right place.
Fit the splash guard which goes from the bottom of the grille to crossmember in place. Some swearing may be necessary to get this in the right place. It fits inside the bottom of the grille and helps align everything so a good straight one is necessary.
Temporarily fit radiator and pray that whoever assembled all the soldered on brackets put them in exactly the right place. Put radiator stay rods in place loosely.
Attach hood ornament to the radiator with c’sunk screws and allow the front of it to rest on grille. This is better to do with an old and genuine ford emblem as you know it is the correct size.
Fit hood attachment bracket to front of cowl and tighten.
Fit Stainless strip, preferably without hood attached to it (especially if you are doing this job alone) to the rear bracket and slip in the front bracket and attach it to the top of radiator.
Adjust the radiator rods so that the back of the hood ornament is almost touching the stainless center strip which should be 33 inches long. If the chassis is sitting level it would be a good idea to hang a plumb line to make sure the center of the grille/hood ornament/strip is directly over the centre line of the chassis.
Now if all is well you should be able to attach the small tabs on the side of the grille to the radiator and the front of the hood ornament to the top of the grille. You don’t want to stretch or strain the grille to fit the ornament bolts as the ornament was not designed to carry any stress. You may need to “massage” the grille a bit so the bolts will just drop in.
If the radiator seems to be too low it should be about twenty two and a quarter inches vertically from the front rail just in front of the x member up to the small bolt at the side of the grille. Pack up the radiator with some anti squeak strips. (Body to chassis webbing strip or similar). Check that the radiator is in fact vertical, as the feet that it sits on may not be level.
Remove the front or rear centre bracket and hood strip and assemble hood. Place it back on car. You’ll need at least two people to do this.
Check the fit. The front of side panels should be parallel with back of grille. The lower surface of the top parts of hood should be parallel with the top of the grille. If not you probably need to raise or lower the radiator a bit.
Tighten up some of the bolts and check everything as you go. Things don’t need to move much to change panel fit.
You may need to pack up the front hood attachment bracket on the radiator to get the hood at the right level.

[Lyndon]

Turns out the hood was distorted a bit such that it pointed up and outward a bit too much at the snout. Without the sides in place, it fit pretty good. Once I put the sides on, the fun began.

Some more pictures to update the progress I have made on this in the last little while:




As you can see, the hood just doesn't seem to want to come all the way down the sides, which is causing a problem with alignment with the grill sides as well as not mating at all well with the curve along the fender.

Somehow the grille is also out by about one hole diameter to one side:

yet it appears that the hood sides are centered properly with the top radiator tank. Must be that the grille is off to one side, but I just can't see how that is possible. The hood ornament will not go on at all in this condition.

I feel like I'm almost there with this part of the project, but I need to get the hood to come down more. The front corners of the upper rad tank seem to be interfering with allowing the hood to come down far enough. And at this point I'm all ears for suggestions about the side-to-side fit of the grille.

Any comments, suggestions gratefully appreciated.

[Lyndon]

I was starting to wonder the same thing. I have spent hours with it, monkeying around with an assortment of tapered pins, clamps, props, etc. to get things lined up and bolts installed. I think part of my problems must be that none of the pieces originally were together; both front fenders, all four parts of the hood, the radiator, the grille and the grille extensions, even the inner fender skirts, all separately came from separate cars, all gathered up at various swap meets and sales over the years.

I'm taking a couple days break from it to come up with a new plan of attack.

[uncle buck]

Originally Posted by Jeff/Illinois

I wonder how they slapped this together, in 1936, at the assy. plants? They sure didn't have time to dink around with it like the restorers today do,,,, there must be a hidden trick out there to doing this fast and right the first time.

I think a lot of the problem is our standards are higher now than they were 75 years ago. We tend to try and fit things together like a new Mercedes. The fit on my original '36 4 door sedan is horrible by todays standards. Dave

[Lyndon]

I did quite a bit more monkeying around with the mounting bolts of the hood and grille, and got everything to fit better:



but I think I still have a little ways to go with it. Starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

[Cool Hand Lurker]

Do some measuring from the floor to points on the frame to make sure your frame is not twisted.

[grump]

Please email info for 1935, would really appreciate it. My email is [email protected] thanks Jim

[JM 35 Sedan]

grump, Send me a personal message by clicking my avatar name and I will send the '35 alignment info to you when I get back home in a week or so.

[Tom Morookian]

From the pics it appears that the fenders and grill are "too low" to meet up with the hood. If the radiator mounts are correct then either the headlight supports are "too low" or the flange on the radiator that the grill mounts to is also too low. Is it an "original" radiator or aftermarket? Check the dimensions.

If the body has been off the frame the left/right alignment is critical. Just 1/8 off at the cowl mounting will = 1/2 at the grill. Are the inner fenders (shark grills) lining up correctly left to right and up and down? You might have to shim the headlight supports over to move the entire assembly to match the grill centerline.

[DICK SPADARO]

I saw this post reoccurring, after examining post #28 it appears that the grille is an Argentina reproduction unit but the picture is not clear enough to full determine that. If it is, you will not get your hood to align correctly using the upper edge of the grille shell for a guide line. There are some serious fit issues with that part and a high degree of difficulty making the body lines match up.

[Lyndon]

It could be that the body is not positioned exactly, it was off the frame many years ago. As far as I know, the grille is not a repro, I got it at a swap meet many years ago. I had one of those repro grilles, it was about hopeless. I have it lined up better now but I think I may need to shim it over as Tom suggests.