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34 Ford body alignment

8K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  Jmccrack 
#1 ·
I am starting to consider the method for assembling the front end body components of my glass 34 3 window. I know this is probably the hardest part of building this rod, based on things I have read. I would appreciate any tips that anyone who has done this could give me. Tips like a sequence of assembly. Do I line up the hood and grill shell first, then the fenders?

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Vince
 
#2 · (Edited)
34 Ford body

Start with the fuel tank cover at the rear and fit the top side where it joins the body perfectly. and clamp it in place. Level the body on jack stands and figure out some way to clamp the rear fenders temporarily in place so that follow the radius of the body wheel well and clamp to the fuel tank cover. Check that the outside of the fenders are vertical. Clamp the running boards in place, install with two bolts, the front inner fender panels. Radiator should be installed at this point. Install radiator grill shell, then place hood top and side pieces in place using clamps. Hood pieces should need some fitting by carefully removing metal at the rear of the panels, but do not grind on the hood at this point, final hood fitting will be done later. Block and shim the hood so the body & hood belt line lines up. Attach front fenders with a couple of bolts and carefully examine the "Look" of the car, running boards level across the top, stand at the rear and look down the side, are the front and rear fenders sides verticle, are the rear trailing edges of the fuel tank cover and fenders in a straight line as viewed from the rear. If everything fits up fairly well then stop and focus your attention on the engine fit-up. Install the engine and tranny and do a preliminary check of drive shaft alignment, if you have to raise the rear of the tranny you may need to modify the tranny tunnel of the body for clearance. if all is good to this point, give careful thought to how you will cool the engine, electric fan or mechanical. Fit your cooling components to insure engine clearance at radiator and firewall. Engine must fit the chassis and body must fit over the engine before any final fit-up of body parts. Determine the centerline if the hood and the centerline of the body, using a string through the front and rear windows, insure the centerline is correct. Make sure the hood belt lines, line up with the body belt lines. Insure the grill shell is verticle and fits the hood top. With hood sides temporarily attached check fit at front and rear of hood sides and adjust inner fender panels for fit at the bottom of the hood side panels, remember that hood fit must be done at the rear of the pieces not at the rolled edges. The hood fit is hard to get just right and you may need to revisit this later on. Then remove all the fenders, running boards, etc. Make sure the body is bolted in place. Go back to the rear of the car and start again with the fuel tank cover and rear fenders and perfect fit by grinding, sanding or fiberglassing. Two things to keep in mind during this stage, the parts must fit with minimum hand pressure, if you use a bolt to pull it in place, there is stress here and a crack will develope here with vibration from driving, and secondly, your parts will grow in size between every joint, because of paint film stickness (one coat epoxy primer, three coats surfacer, three coats of basecoat, six coats of clear). Work you way to the front, perfect fitting, body parts. If all is perfect the front fenders will roll under the grill shell and meet up in perfect match, if not, make them fit or use the little joint cover available from Yogi's. You may have the fender parts on and off several times until you get the fit-up that you like. Once you are satisfied with the fit-up and everything is bolted in place, then and only then should you attempt to fit the hood by grinding off the rear of the parts. Depending on whose body you are using you you may need to do some serious fiberglassing because you will grind away the original. Bodies by Outlaw, or *******, require only sanding to fit, some others will require a gallon of resin and yards of cloth. I hope you dont have one of those, this should help you get started on your project.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Thanks for the information, that is about the sequence of assembly I was coming up with. I have trial fit the four piece Rootlieb hood and it fits pretty well up against the cowl. I noticed on the projet33 web site that Scooter had to completely rebuild the cowl to hood profile of his body with filler. I think his is an Outlaw body, mine is a Gibbon, hope I don't have to do that

Vince
 
#4 ·
I believe the Gibbon body molds are taken from an original 34 so your hood should fit with minor trim unless something else is wrong. Remember thjat where the rear fenders join the running boards is a fixed point forward and cannot change unless you shorten the running boards. As the rear fenders arc around the body fender well, it must end at the bottom edge of the fuel tank cover in perfect alignment. Some of the parts that don't fit so well during the initial fit-up may relax some if you have some way to apply heat to the body, such as a paint spray booth overnight cook. The weather in Texas is probably too cold now to let the sun heat it up for you. Fit-up is done in two stages with a kit car. First the initial fit-up to see how close you are with the parts, then remove and re-assemble with precise fitting. The major problem with glass is the mold may be perfect but if the part is removed from the mold after two or three days and set aside for delivery, the resin will continue to cure up to 7 days. If there is stress on the part from setting on the floor, or parts stacked on top of one another, they will bend out of shape and when you get the part they don't fit. This is the difference between the body manufactures, how long do they leave the part in the mold. Think about it, one set of 34 ford fender molds, three days in the mold, five sets of fenders every three weeks, $1000 bucks per set! Outlaw leaves their parts in the mold for 7 days, three sets every three weeks, $1,200 pers set. You will make up the cost in time spent in fitting the parts. Check your running boards, for example, and I'm not trying to badmouth Gibbon because I've never assembled a Gibbon body, but try this! Take your running board and lay a straight edge one inch from the inside edge that fits to the frame (because the body overlaps the running board about 1" to the outside edge. If there is more than 1/8" bow across the board and you plan to paint, not cover the running board, you will need to fill the bow with body filler. Anything more than 1/8" and it will be noticible once you get the glossy paint on it. I assumed from your original post that this was your first glass car build, I also know that most body manufactures are not in the business of assembling bodies, just building parts, and once they have your money you're on your own. You can build your car, just fit everything twice, think ahead so you don't have to back up to correct a mistake, don't compromise, build it the best that you can and the satisfaction will be well worth all the effort.
 
#5 ·
Again, thanks for the excellent information. I have called Gibbon quite a few times asking different questions. So far they have been pretty good about answering them. They told me to fist assemble the rear fender to the running board and place this assembly on the body first, then everything builds from there. I have been collecting any information I can on 33 and 34 Fords. I have even called some owners that have been featured in Streetrod Builder.

If you would not mind me emailing you with future questions I would appreciate you PMing your email address to me.

Thanks
Vince
 
#6 ·
On my 34 ford which uses a bebop body the inner fenders sit inside the width of the body 1/2" on both sides. Does this sound right? If I install the rubber pucks that came with the Rootlieb on the edge of the inner fender then when I close the hood it fits flush with the body. Sund right?
 
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