36 Ford Front End Assembly

[Chris Nelson]

When I was building my car, I fitted all of the front sheetmetal before it went to paint to be sure it would all go together OK. I read a couple of threads about how to assemble the sheetmetal over the last couple of years and tried it their way. There are a lot of bolts that are difficult unless you are double jointed. It dawned on me that wasn't the way Henry Ford would have put it together. There are too many parts to the 36 Ford front end to do it that way. Production would have stalled if a person put one part on then another till done.
That was when I realized that if I put it together on the floor, fenders, grille, inner fenders, chrome strips, etc., that I could lift it in one piece and drop it onto the car. With a couple of friends to guide the ends of the fenders so I didn't scrape up the paint, I lifted it with my engine hoist connected to the front hood latches and it went on easily. Then all I had left to do was align the front of the sheetmetal so the hood fit properly. Putting it together on the floor was easy. I just sat down with a bunch of bolts and started assembling.
Putting the chrome welting into the front fender inner and outer was a bearcat. I stapled some vinyl stips into the vinyl pieces of the chrome welting that Drake sells so that I could pull on them with pliers and the strips pulled up tight, then I could tighten the bolts to hold them in place. It took some persuading to get those pieces so that they fit the fender lines just right, so I went slowly and kept bending small amounts till they matched the fenders.
The alignment of the hood was a bit of a baffle to me until I realized the radiator rods could do most of the adjustment that I needed. By aligning the nose chrome piece with the V8 symbol so that it was in line with the center of the hood stainless center piece, the hood gaps closed right up.
It was a lot easier than putting it together a piece at a time.

[1931 flamingo]

Might even be how henry did it
Paul in CT

[Bassman/NZ]

That's a sharp looking '36!

[uncle buck]

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Chris, Nice to see it coming together. Looks great! Dave