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Tin and Tar - First Time 68 Bronco Resto

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rydog1130

rydog1130

Bronco Guru
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Jun 19, 2014
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fender allignment

I have a quick question on fender alignment. I feel like my fenders are riding back about 1" past where the hood starts. I havnt really played around with it because I was in a hurry to mount them on just to see how they looked and I had to get back to the real world for a week to support this habit. Its been bothering me all week looking at those photos and I know they usually have some wiggle room but if it turns out I don't have that 1" of play do I cut all my spot welds and move my fender aprons out, or do I get a bur and make the fender holes a little longer? It's puzzling me a bit because everything fits perfect up front and looks good, the hood latches correctly to the original grill/latch, the fenders and body lines look good where they meet the grill, etc. any input would be appreciated so I have some ideas to try when I get back up next week to work on it!

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Bferrari

Sr. Member
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Mar 6, 2013
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856
I wouldn't stress over it, the fenders look fine to me. If everything is in alignment up front then that's a pretty good indication your in the ballpark. When you get back on it, throw your rocker up and use a clamp on the bottom to temporarily hold it in place. Then hang your door on it and check your gaps. You may be surprised to find everything is okay and may only need minor adjustments. This will also help to fine tune the rocker to door gap before burning it in. Keep up the progress, looks great!
 
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rydog1130

rydog1130

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Thanks sounds good! I wouldn't have thought about that thank you for your input!
 
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rydog1130

rydog1130

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Thanks! I think what has me so concerned is that I was pretty sure everything was good so I went ahead and tack welded everything together. I'm just putting this out there in case im missing something or you guys can spot something obviously wrong and if so I'll have a few extra ideas on how to correct it!
 
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rydog1130

rydog1130

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last of the tin and tar

Well, Saturday was a pretty productive day....kinda! I'm laughing at myself because I was supposed to hang my front door post and ended up tearing off the pick up bed...how does that happen?
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My original thoughts were the inner quarters were still salvageable along with the taillight housing and that I could just swap out out my striker post for new ones....well I was wrong. We peeled off the lower quarter to get an idea of how bad things were and they were BAD.
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The quarter was only hanging on by the lower door post and taillight housing, a few zips with the saw zaw and it literally fell off exposing my worst case scenario which is to now basically rebuild/fab the bed from scratch. I thought about trying to fix the seams but it's not worth the time and headache and the only parts I don't have for the bed is the inner quarters and tail light housings so off to JBGY this next Monday! Anyways game plan is to finish painting this section of the frame and getting the gas tank fixed up then laying the bed down and fabing up both quarters. I can finally say all off the tin and tar from the PO is finally gone...things will only get easier rom here I tell myself!
 
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rydog1130

rydog1130

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Well, last week was pretty productive. We got some plastic hung to make it look like a place DEXTER would commit one of his vigilante murders. If you don't get the reference just watch the show and you'll get it. We were able to get it up to a balmy 55-60 degrees in there, just warm enough to allow the paint to dry. You can see we cleaned up the last portion of the frame, welded in new body mount holes, treated it and got some paint on her. I'll post some pics of the progress on the bed here sometime this week.

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Found this lovely rats nest!
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stupidboy

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Keep up the nice work and remember to not get in to much of a hurry to weld things permanent until the doors are hanging and the windshield frame and top are on also. One thing I found to be A BIG HELP is to have a bulkhead bolted in to keep the striker post area squared up for your door alignment.
 

englewoodcowboy

Lick Creek Restorations
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Jul 25, 2010
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4,200
Looks great! Only thing that jumps out at me is you plated on top of the frame to make your body mount repair. This is OK to do but be sure you plate or add a washer on every other mount to keep things even. Changing the elevation on one mount an 1/8th inch will wreak havoc on your door gaps which you can shim the others easily to compensate. Keep up the good work!
 
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rydog1130

rydog1130

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Looks great! Only thing that jumps out at me is you plated on top of the frame to make your body mount repair. This is OK to do but be sure you plate or add a washer on every other mount to keep things even. Changing the elevation on one mount an 1/8th inch will wreak havoc on your door gaps which you can shim the others easily to compensate. Keep up the good work!

good to know, i didn't think it would make much of a difference but i can easily toss a few washers in there no problem. You recommend doing that right now before I get the bed completely mocked up? Also, this is just a thought but wouldn't tightening the other body mounts more than the ones in the rear compensate for that minor height difference?
 
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rydog1130

rydog1130

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Keep up the nice work and remember to not get in to much of a hurry to weld things permanent until the doors are hanging and the windshield frame and top are on also. One thing I found to be A BIG HELP is to have a bulkhead bolted in to keep the striker post area squared up for your door alignment.

an acutual bulk head or just use a piece of square stock tacked in place run across the bed from post to post at the top? I was also thinking it would be a good idea to mount my tailgate back on to keep things square in the rear
 

englewoodcowboy

Lick Creek Restorations
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Jul 25, 2010
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4,200
good to know, i didn't think it would make much of a difference but i can easily toss a few washers in there no problem. You recommend doing that right now before I get the bed completely mocked up? Also, this is just a thought but wouldn't tightening the other body mounts more than the ones in the rear compensate for that minor height difference?

Yes, if you move one up, you need to raise all of them equally. A 1/16" washer added at the rear of mine made my door hit where it met the striker at the top. You will find you may have to shin the mounts regardless when it is all done to get the door gaps correct. That is the hardest part of the whole thing for me was getting the gaps where I wanted them but it is not difficult, just time consuming and trial and error. In the future, Bronco Grave Yard sells large washers for repairing rotted mounts like that. They work well.
 
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rydog1130

rydog1130

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I find it hard to believe but I trust you because you've been there and know what your talking about. Yeah I saw those replacement washers on their site and figured it would just be an easier/faster fix to do it the way I did it. Here's a question, seeing that I don't have my door post or striker post in yet couldn't I technically mount my front post , hang my doors and then adjust the gap on the door where it meets the quarter by sliding my bed pan forward/backwards where it meets the rear floor pan and then adjust the striker post height by tacking it in where it meets the inner rocker?
 

Bferrari

Sr. Member
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Mar 6, 2013
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I find it hard to believe but I trust you because you've been there and know what your talking about. Yeah I saw those replacement washers on their site and figured it would just be an easier/faster fix to do it the way I did it. Here's a question, seeing that I don't have my door post or striker post in yet couldn't I technically mount my front post , hang my doors and then adjust the gap on the door where it meets the quarter by sliding my bed pan forward/backwards where it meets the rear floor pan and then adjust the striker post height by tacking it in where it meets the inner rocker?

Hi Ryan, It's the height of your mounts that is going to be your enemy with this. The panels are designed to be set on something that is consistent throughout the 8 body mounts to maintain symmetry front to back. It is really amazing how adding just one 1/8" washer in different locations can effect the body lines. The repair you did to the back of your frame looks really good but to save yourself the heartache and frustration down the road I would either adjust it back down to factory height or raise the other six to match the rear. Although the replacement parts we purchase from our vendors are good quality, they are not exact replacements of the originals. It is a diligent process just trying to get them to fit. Trying to move the body mount locations in conjunction with getting these things to fit will more than likely be a huge pain in the ass. Keep rocking buddy, looks great!
 
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rydog1130

rydog1130

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Here's a thought those body mount bushings come with a large washer that sits in between the channel supports and the bushing itself. What if I were to remove those two washers in the back for now while I get everything mocked up and then when I lift the body off to undercoat it I replace the 2 washers and add the others up front on the other four mounts before remounting the body back on?
 
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rydog1130

rydog1130

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ill give it a shot, in the mean time I have already started to mock up my bed but I have not gotten very far. It will be easy to remove those washers. I welded my support channel on the bed as I figure it cant hurt. I measured it up and its sitting in the same place as the old one but I noticed some differences, those two holes do not line up with any of the threaded holes or stamped holes on the new bed and looking at my old support it had no holes or brackets. Makes me wish I would have bought the cheaper support with no holes or bracket now. Anyways, I'm pretty pleased how everything is lining up. The new pieces measure exactly to the old ones. Here's a few photos to show whats going on.

you can see the difference in the support channels, I'm assuming upgrades for later year models?

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Just need to make some adjustments and it should go together pretty easy!
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the new post they make fit the taillight housings like a glove...no trimming here!

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