lean vs body shim

[phillipmhampton]

hey y'all thanks for all your help so far. been a long and educational road with the 74 but getting closer to being road worthy every day. any way i was sticking bumpers on and i noticed my the space between grill and frame is about half inch different. i called my body guy who painted it and he said it was in the suspension. that i needed a spring spacer. i however don't see how adjusting the suspension will affect the distance from the bumper to the body. am i missing something here? in his defense he didn't see it only described it to him on the phone. thanks for all the help!!

 

[73azbronco]

I would avoid shimming the body to get a bumper aligned, all you'll end up doing is putting all the other joints out of wack like door, hood, etc. Is this a showroom resto? If not, I would malletize the specific frame rails to get them where they need to be, or maybe easier one 1/8 inch think washer under low side on top of frame and one 1/8 washer under hi side on bottom part of frame.

 

[phillipmhampton]

its not showroom but pretty close. lol i tried to shim the bumper but just can't what i need. so you agree its not suspension?

 

[fordfan]

Did you install new polyurethane body mounts?

 

[phillipmhampton]

yes i did. new from toms.

 

[fordfan]

Some Broncos came from the factory with extra shims on some of the body mounts to adjust the body fit. (Some needed it and never got it). If the frame is straight, the problem is the core support mount is not equally spaced on each side. I have seen them welded on a little off or the mounts tweaked from 40+ years of abuse. (More specifically "air time" or jumping the Bronco.) If your Bronco is that close to completion (Painted and all components fitted) it may be something you have to live with or shim the low side the difference in the front mount and taper it out on the other 3 on that side. Is the rear level; body to frame equal in the rear?

 

[bax]

Not suspension. If your front core support mounts are not damage or bent up or down then it may be in the frame ends. They take abused over the years and can get a little miss shaped. One side may be bent down and the other up. With a little creative "forming" I think you can get the fit you want.

 

[phillipmhampton]

so consensus is that a body shim under just the front mount would throw off the door/hood lines? 1/4 inch sounds small but thats at the mount. translated to the end of the bumper its huge and looks terrible.

 

[fordfan]

If the fit is correct now, it will. Adding 1/4" at the radiator support will change the front fender to door fit. You could add a 1/4" at the radiator support, 3/16" at the mount in the front floor pan and an 1/8" at the one behind the front seat and you would be OK.

 

[73azbronco]

Looking at the tabs on the end of the frame, any way to malletize those in the direction you need without damaging them? maybe cover in paint? Remember you have two sides so half up on one and half down the other gets you what you need.

That is another thought, you could shim all the mounts on one side. But then is your body lined up?

 

[ransil]

I had some c shaped shims ( slip them in) made in 1/4" & 1/8" thickness to help my lean.
suspension has been worked this is the fine tune.

 

[Baja71]

I think you need to determine what is causing the tilt and address that issue directly. Bending frame rails to 'fix' a body mount issue or lifting a body to compensate for a bent frame doesn't make sense to me. It may just be body panels out of adjustment. Get it up on 4 jackstands and eliminate suspension lean and get busy with a measuring tape until you determine the actual problem or you will just cause other problems. JMO.

 

[price209]

How is the fit and spacing on the rear bumper? If it is out of wack too then shims along the entire low side would level you out and not cause any panels to be out of alignment. And you are correct suspension will have no effect on the distance between your frame and body.

 

[Bferrari]

I am with the others on this, if your rig is finish painted and all your gaps (doors, hood, etc) are perfect then do not touch the body mounts. Do what you can to the frame horn to bend, tweak, massage it to get your bumper gap correct.

 

[treihesse]

OK not put different info out there but I've built a lot of broncos and other cars model a fords, muscle cars and I've never seen a bronco lean not caused by a suspension issue C bushings put in wrong or crooked, lower spring cup bent, springs a little
off. Unless your bronco was hit or had shims from the factory don't use tgem

 

[Baja71]

His problem is body to frame relationship, not suspension.