Fender adjustment on late 60's/early 70's F series truck

Lizer

Lizer

Mad Scientist
For those of you that have worked on late 60's/early 70's Ford trucks...I'm trying to install fenders on a 70 F250 I had to sideline while I was building a new shop.

Now I'm installing the fenders, but there's a large gap between the fender and the door and the fender can't be slid back any farther. Does the entire front clip of the truck have to be slid back? The inner fender supports are slotted so they can be slid backwards, but the front of them is bolted to the radiator support, which means that would have to slide back (closer to the cab) as well. I don't know how much adjustment that has.

I can't imagine they would have had to go through all that when slapping these trucks together so quickly at the factory. But the gap was correct on the truck before it was torn down.

In this pic I just have the fender hanging on by a few loose bolts, but you can still see how far off the gap is. Fender is slid back as far as it can go. The front of the fender wraps around the front of the rad support so that makes a stopping point for how far back it can be adjusted.

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Cab might be able to move too. Not that it's a problem, but cab mounting and adjustment sometimes gets neglected.
 
crashtech said:
Cab might be able to move too. Not that it's a problem, but cab mounting and adjustment sometimes gets neglected.
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I was wondering that too, though I don't recall there being much adjustment opportunity on the cab. It was pretty much a hole in the frame that I had to get lined up just right with the holes in the cab...if I'm remembering correctly.
 
There's lots of opportunity for adjustment. I want to say it's possible to shim up the radiator support, or that aftermarket bushings might not quite conform to OE standards. What I see from my thousand mile away eye is that the cab is high and back, or the rad support is low and forward. What it really is, I have no real idea without spending hours messing with it...
 
I put a body lift on a 78 for a guy. It was a show truck and OMG what a nightmare trying to get everything back in alignment. Fords from that era I swear they are infinitely adjustable.

FWIW I also agree with Crash's assessment. Are you using the original bushings? Or are they replacements? If original did you mark where each one came from and return them to their original locations? Over time they compress to fit where they were. Move them around and it throws everything off.

New stuff may require shimming with different thickness washers or even removing some material from the bushing to get it right. Easiest thing to do is shim the cab and bed higher and shim the rad support to meet the cab. They use to make shims for that. I imagine they are still available somewhere.

Don't have a clue how they were able to do it in the assembly line so quickly.
 
I’m using the original bushings. They were in good shape but were stuck on the frame so I never did actually remove them. So they’re in the exact position they were before.

Yeah this is going to be a pain.
 
If you look closely, you may or may not find alignment holes on the frame and body for quick assembly line production.
 
Is the gap the same / similar on the opposite side? Can you loosen and slide the entire core support rearward?
 
I was fighting the same problems with mine last year when reassembling. I replaced the inner fender aprons and radiator support on mine though, and stupidly did not check for perfect panel alignment and gap during my test fits when doing bodywork and after block sanding in epoxy… I just got close and figured the rest would be easy. As you say, the original factory fit was pretty horrible. I go back and look at old photos I had of it in the original paint and condition as purchased by my grandfather, and it was bad. Something I guess you don’t notice until you have put years of bodywork and blocking into it…
Anyway, after loosening and moving around all the underlying components several times it eventually came together much closer. I never could figure out what changed in all that since I was sure the radiator support and inner fenders were as far back as they would go. The upper inner fender supports on the firewall even came into play. I eventually had to give in and break out the die grinder to enlarge the bolt slot about a 1/4” on the passenger side front. I also had a problem with the passenger side fender angling out away from center, even though the radiator support was as far toward the driver side as it would go, and the driver side fender was in line with that body side. Hell, the distance between the two fenders and the grill fit was even correct. Made no sense.
The last remaining gap I have to fight with next time I can get up to my shop is the horizontal gap between the top of the fender and the cowl. Driver side is correct but the passenger side is not wide enough. Fender apron won’t go down any lower, but the bend in it is what’s keeping it up under some tension. I need to carefully tap some wedges in there like I did when it was back in epoxy, and then the bolt inside the door pillar will hold it down in that lower position. I could not find a closeup photo of the passenger side but if you zoom in, you can see where it needs to be pushed down about 3/16”. The hood gap doesn’t look perfect but that’s because the hood latch isn’t in place yet, but seems better when I’m pushing on the front edge like it will be when latched.
The rear vertical gap on my driver door to the cab is too wide, but I can’t fix it at this stage. Will just have to live with it since any further back and the frame around window at the top corner will hit the rain guard when it is opened and closed…
Sounds to me like you need to loosen those big radiator support bolts and get the rusted washers/bushings to break free. That may give you enough “slop” to move the fender into position. I remember using soft wood blocks and a five pound hammer to try and slide/move my support mire back and to one side…good luck.

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MAKZ06 said:
I was fighting the same problems with mine last year when reassembling. I replaced the inner fender aprons and radiator support on mine though, and stupidly did not check for perfect panel alignment and gap during my test fits when doing bodywork and after block sanding in epoxy… I just got close and figured the rest would be easy. As you say, the original factory fit was pretty horrible. I go back and look at old photos I had of it in the original paint and condition as purchased by my grandfather, and it was bad. Something I guess you don’t notice until you have put years of bodywork and blocking into it…
Anyway, after loosening and moving around all the underlying components several times it eventually came together much closer. I never could figure out what changed in all that since I was sure the radiator support and inner fenders were as far back as they would go. The upper inner fender supports on the firewall even came into play. I eventually had to give in and break out the die grinder to enlarge the bolt slot about a 1/4” on the passenger side front. I also had a problem with the passenger side fender angling out away from center, even though the radiator support was as far toward the driver side as it would go, and the driver side fender was in line with that body side. Hell, the distance between the two fenders and the grill fit was even correct. Made no sense.
The last remaining gap I have to fight with next time I can get up to my shop is the horizontal gap between the top of the fender and the cowl. Driver side is correct but the passenger side is not wide enough. Fender apron won’t go down any lower, but the bend in it is what’s keeping it up under some tension. I need to carefully tap some wedges in there like I did when it was back in epoxy, and then the bolt inside the door pillar will hold it down in that lower position. I could not find a closeup photo of the passenger side but if you zoom in, you can see where it needs to be pushed down about 3/16”. The hood gap doesn’t look perfect but that’s because the hood latch isn’t in place yet, but seems better when I’m pushing on the front edge like it will be when latched.
The rear vertical gap on my driver door to the cab is too wide, but I can’t fix it at this stage. Will just have to live with it since any further back and the frame around window at the top corner will hit the rain guard when it is opened and closed…
Sounds to me like you need to loosen those big radiator support bolts and get the rusted washers/bushings to break free. That may give you enough “slop” to move the fender into position. I remember using soft wood blocks and a five pound hammer to try and slide/move my support mire back and to one side…good luck.

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Very helpful, thanks. Your gaps all look GREAT! Right now when my door closes it is still not flush with the body and they weren’t flush even on the truck originally (it was a 1 owner 59,000 mile truck. The owner was my grandpa).
 
Lizer, never done a ford but on the dodges it is typical to leave the core support loose until final adjustment. aftermarket fenders make this mandatory and i once had to pull one side forward to get enough gap. other wise the dodge trucks came with lots of shims, i learned to save them because if i dont need um on this fender i likely will on the next. if it were me id loosen the core support and see if i could get her back a little bit before messing with the cab.
 
also on the door gap, i generally try to have the fender slightly proud of the door. is this wrong? i see MAK's looks to be flush, id be scared to death it would one day hit the fender.
 
the dodge fender has holes under the cowl that always get shimmed. looks like the cowl dont come off that ford Lizer? i am not familiar with the mounting on those. it does look like it needs to go up as well as back.
i have my own problems, i can never seem to get the hoods exactly the way it was even making sure the bolt is in the same position it was. im starting to wonder if they get warped a little bit while off.
 
The cowl doesn’t come off.

Before I took off the doors I drilled two small holes through the hinges and door jamb so I could line them up exactly as they were originally. However even after doing that the doors still don’t hang right so go figure.

My hood is not fitting right but it wasn’t fitting right when I picked up the truck either. That’s something else for another day…
 
Lizer said:
The cowl doesn’t come off.

Before I took off the doors I drilled two small holes through the hinges and door jamb so I could line them up exactly as they were originally. However even after doing that the doors still don’t hang right so go figure.

My hood is not fitting right but it wasn’t fitting right when I picked up the truck either. That’s something else for another day…
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Ha ha. Yeah, I drilled multiple 1/8” index holes in the door hinges and hood hinges on both end and still struggled for days. They got it close but not like I had hoped.
 
Lizer said:
The cowl doesn’t come off.

Before I took off the doors I drilled two small holes through the hinges and door jamb so I could line them up exactly as they were originally. However even after doing that the doors still don’t hang right so go figure.

My hood is not fitting right but it wasn’t fitting right when I picked up the truck either. That’s something else for another day…
Click to expand...
Use a floor or transmission jack under the door edge. Loosen one hinge at a time and sort of walk it into position raising and lowering the door a small bit at a time. Easy does it, small incremental adjustments. Leaving only one bolt snug on the other hinge helps it to rotate. Think about how the door needs to rotate about the other hinge to get it where you want it to be.

Dont mess with the fenders until the doors are exactly where you want them to be.
 
Lizer said:
Haven’t hung the other door yet. And TBD on the core support.
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I’d hang the other side to be able to compare the two. If you get this side all adjusted and go monkeying with the other, it may throw this one out again. With both doors/fenders on you can work back and forth to find a happy medium.

I may have missed this but are those factory fenders?
 
Like Don said and by extension Robert as well, get the doors fitted, then fit the fenders to the doors.

Order of adjustment, Cab -> Bed, Doors -> Cab, Fenders -> Doors. Then the hood last.
 
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