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Classic Truck Forum
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Setting up the Front End!!
This is one of the most important areas you will be working on. The whole front end bolts off of the
the u-shaped radiator bracket. (on a 1956 f100) Your truck may differ some but I'll bet there all close
to the same thing. Your front fenders will give you an idea of where your cab should go.
Then you will have to work your way out from the firewall.
Here's the steps to take to get to the front end;
- Put the inner wheel wells on
This will give you the distance from the firewall to the radiator
bracket.
Now on a 56 ford you would bolt the side pans to the
radiator U-bracket and then bolt
the side pans to the inner wheel wells.
Of course you will have right and left pans. You will have to put jacks under your U-bracket
to determine the height of the U-bracket. Once I had it close to where I wanted to be height wise.....
I put the right and left fenders on. Then I put a strap across from fender to fender to hold the front end together.
The picture in the upper left hand
corner of this page shows how it will look.
From here you will have to build a support self for the radiator u-bracket. On the Scout II I
actual cut out the end support
of the frame and lowered it. (Word of caution.....you should weld a tie in
piece on the frame to hold everything in place
when you lower your front frame member down and weld it back up.) You might not have to do this on your truck.
After that you can cut a flat plate that will sit on top of the front frame member-or you could use a 3 x 3 angle on the front of the frame
member. The idea is to have a place to fasten the u-bracket too and at the same time be able to make it adjustable so you can
move the whole front end up or down.
After you have got this far put the hood on and eye ball everything........this is where the adjustment comes in. The way the
fenders sit and the hood lines up will tell you what you have to do with the self and the u-bracket. : The pictures below will
give you some idea of how this should look. Again all trucks will be a little different but the idea is the same.
You can see that once you get this far you've got it figured out!
On a 56 ford I had to put the hood latch on to determine where to weld the angle for the u-bracket. Your truck may differ.
Once you have everything lined up..... tech all the steel in place.... Because the 56 ford had a longer front end than the Scout II I had to put a wide shelf
plate in so the radiator could slide toward the engine.......I did this because I wanted to use the Scout II Radiator and hoses.
Then you can put the should on also.........
The ford
radiator had the hoses coming out the wrong side. It was much easier to use the Scout II equipment. : You should
probably have your radiator
pressure tested while your working on the front end........It will pay off in the long run.
Now you can look over some of the radiator articles........your next step!!!
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