Thanks to Mike Roache stopping by two Sundays in a row ... We got 'er done today, by golly!
This is the '49 1.5-ton I've been restoring for the last 10 years (holy gosh ... it's really been that long ... yikes...)
Anyway, we got the grille back together and reinstalled and then it was two full day's effort to get the sheet metal all realigned. It's not perfect, but it's close!
We followed
Mac Klinghorn's Tech Tip on hood alignment in the Tech Tips. But we found out that while it probably works like a champ for the light duty trucks, we need to make a couple of addendums for medium and heavy duty Advance Design Trucks ...
What we ended up doing was loosening EVERY bolt that had ANYTHING to do with the hood, fenders, radiator support, grille ... ALL of it. We then started with Mac's adjustment measurements on the fendersupport braces but ended up slackening them both off considerably to get the fenders in the correct configuration.
We then fiddle farted for about 3 hours with the braces and the hood hinges until we started getting the right clearances and alignment ... a LOT of loosening and tightening here and there until things fit better. WHAT a pain in the patootie!
One of the smart things we did was to put the truck on jackstands and remove the front wheels and tires -- made getting to all those bolts easier.
Also, getting the right number of shims under the two radiator bolts (center bottom of the radiator stand where it connects to the frame crossmember). This was really critical and seemed to be one of the key pivot points of the whole process
Is that how the rest of you did it???
After that, we decided to press on and install the 2-speed vacuum switch on the frame ... But we found out that 1.5-ton frames are different from 2-ton frames (apparently) and the holes aren't there to mount the switch!! Time to break out the drill, I guess.
2 steps forward, one step back. Lot of fun, though! Great day in the shop. It sure helped to have a friend helping.
John
?? Bring yer truck up to the Homecoming in April -- we'll have about 5 or six guys who have all put their front AD tin back together -- we'll either have yours on in a jiffy or we'll have a big fight!!
