Fender Bracket ALIGNMENT

[Roadster62]

Got lucky and bought four real nice forged fender brackets at Hershey. I have one fender and finding the others will happen sometime down the road, body reconstruction is job one right now. Eyeball engineering is fine, and badly bent brackets stand out, but are there actual specs, or factory prints that show what's what? Maybe I'm overthinking things but starting with proper brackets would be the way to go in my opinion. Bob

[glenn in camino]

I usually bolt the fenders on the body and if they look straight, I bend the brackets to fit the fender holes.

[pooch]

Before bending anything, have the radiator shell at least on and square , then bolt the headlight buckets on.

Tighten the headlight bar , as even this could pull one fender over a bit .

Easier to eyeball the distances from buckets to shell for evenness from the front .

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Old Claude, with a large rosebud & his eyeballs, can do amazing things to forged brackets. AND, most of the time, the fenders fit, without a hitch! He's an OLD tractor mechanic & learned the skills aligning Ford Tractor rear "fenders" or mud guards, or whatever you call them??
Bill W.

[Kevin in NJ]

By eyeball works wonders if you throw in some mechanical common sense.

You bolt the brackets and the head lamp bar up and see how they fit. They are all assumed to be bent in my book. The headlamp bar pads must mate nice with the brackets. You will know as the bolts (for 30/31 brackets) fit in easier when they are right.

I bent the stamped steel brackets using a short heavy pipe section and a long bar. I slid the pipe on where I thought the bend was needed and inserted the bar. It worked best cold, but your brackets might be different.

Took me a week or two of trying stuff till I got the pads right.

The outer point is dependent on the fender beads. It hast to be placed where the beads will be in line.

See my fender hints at my website for more details. Take your time and stand back to ask if what you are doing looks right. Later I got NOS brackets and made a jig to check my brackets. Mine were almost dead on.

[Bob Bidonde]

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I am building a Model A at this time, and I strongly recommend that you test fit the restored front & rear fenders, the running boards, the fender supports and the headlight bar altogether as a system before you paint them. It's almost certain you will need to make adjustments to get a reasonable fit of all of the parts. The body needs to be on the frame, shimmed and bolted-down to do this properly.

A rule of thumb is to have 1/4" between the body and the running board aprons. Ford used body mounting pads that were much less compressible and thicker than the reproduction shims available today. So start with two 1/8" thick rubber shims at each body bolt.

Before fitting the front fenders, look at the front edges of the running boards. They should be parallel with the ground. Once the front fenders are on the car, look at the alignment of the fenders to the running board aprons. The joint between the front fenders and the running board aprons is especially problematic with 1931 Model A's, and fixing it may require heat and welding.

Another test fit should be the front splash apron, the radiator, the grille shell and the hood. This test fit can be done exclusive of the fenders. Make adjustments by shimming the radiator at its mounting feet, and by adjusting the length of the radiator support rods. The vertical gap between the hood side panels, the cowl and the grille shell are the places you need to parallelism and consistent widths of the gaps.

If your radiator is a reproduction, look for interferences between the radiator's mounting feet, the front splash shield and the grille shell. Fix any of these conditions before test fitting the hood. Also step back and make sure that the radiator is in good vertical alignment with the body. Especially pay attention the vertical alignment of the radiator's core tubes and the sides of the cowl.

In my case, I found these troubles fitting a reproduction radiator:
> Radiator riding on the radiator splash apron, so it did not sit down flat on the front cross-member;
> Grille shell cocked on the radiator with an excessive gap to the core along one side (vertical);
> Radiator not parallel to the cowl;
> Radiator leaning to the left so the tubes looked out of line vertically with the sides of the cowl.

Having taken the grille shell on and off of the radiator many times, I found a few places where the shell was rubbing on the radiator. Eventually the grille shell could rub through the radiator's upper and lower tanks causing leaks and squeaks. Bend the grille shell and use triple-layers of a tough tape at the rub points. Dabs of silicone also work.

Do not count on being able to move the body horizontally on the frame to make things fit. I find that the number of body bolts, in my case 5 on each side of the car, do not give any leeway for positioning the body. However, you can adjust the body vertically using shims. By varying the amount of shims you can also bend the body a small amount for door alignment. Don't try to make the hood fit by bending the body.

Take your time to get the fit and alignment the best it can be. Misalignment sticks out like a sore thumb on a finished car. I have spent about 40 hours so far getting the fit and alignments looking good on my car, and I am not done yet.

While you are doing all of this work, add a grounding jumper to the body where it cannot be seen.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Bob Bionde,
A friend, building a '34 P.U. show car, welded the front & rear fenders & the running boards together, while laying on a loooong packing crate!!!
YOU CAN'T IMAGINE THE MESS HE CREATED!!!!
Bill W.

[duke36]

what's the minimum pad thickness to place between the radiator to frame? Would a 1/16" thick pad be OK?

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by rip94611

what's the minimum pad thickness to place between the radiator to frame? Would a 1/16" thick pad be OK?

Actually since this has nothing to do with the fender bracket, it would get more replies as a new thread. The radiator pad should be about 1/8" thick. My original 1928 pads are made by running brake lining through heavy roller to compress it to about 1/8" thickness. You can easily make out the woven lining and brass wires woven into the lining.

[Bob Bidonde]

I learned the hard way that the front fender supports, the front fenders and the headlight bar should be adjusted on the fame for fit as a matched set. The front fenders should have repairs done and be ready for paint before fitting in the set.

Make absolutely sure you have a fore-aft car center-line established and well marked when fitting the set. Everything needs to be symmetrical about the center-line.

Attention 1931 owners. The front fenders need to matched to the running splash aprons before doing the above.

Once all are fitted as a set, mark the supports "Left" & "Right."

[pgerhardt]

I had two sets (4) of forged front fender brackets for my 29 tudor. No two of them were the same shape! My car had the brackets replaced with the later steel stamped ones at some time. Due to their design, unless they are broken they can't change shape. Which is probably why they tend to develop cracks. I used a good stamped bracket as a template to get the forged ones close the correct shape. (They bend easily.) Final adjustments will be made on the car while fitting the fenders.

[duke36]

along with Bob's procedure in post 6, can a thinner pad (less than 1/8") be used to help with the radiator mounting in conjunction with getting the fenders, hood and light bar all to fit properly? would a 1/16" pad be too thin to prevent the radiator from flexing as it's supposed to?