Aftermarket step question
 

so I'm replacing my driver side step. I have it fitting well inside the truck. Its flush on all the inner supports but the body profile seems to be sticking way out. I also have aftermarket front fenders and the diver side lower fender section almost seems curved in too far. at this point I'm thinking I will weld in the step and maybe put a 2x4 and a jack under it to fold the outer profile inward. Has anyone else ran into this? the lower section of the fender I'm not sure how to fix. seems like the inner support is welded wrong. thinking of drilling out the bottom spot welds and see if I can manipulate the pieces individually.

Re: Aftermarket step question
 

maybe run a dimension check on the step part, where your foot steps, and see if it is the same front and rear. not sure if it is supposed to be but it would be a start.
my truck was a pretty rusty bucket when I got it and needed to have steps, door pillars and cab corners done, as well as a full floor replacement. I can do a dimension check on the step for you and see what it says, if you want.
if your door honge pillars were replaced at some point then ikely the rear fender mount was also replaced. it may have been welded in the wrong spot so the fix was to bend the fender in at the bottom. also, if the fender had the lower part replaced it could be part of the problem. same for the cab corners. when I did mine i used a long peice of small channel iron vice gripped to the front fender lower edge and the cab corner lower edge. then adjusted thongs to line up along that straight edge. that said, mine is a little different because I made it into an extended cab, buit the same theory would apply. the straight edge would help to know if the cab corner is tilted inward a little, as that would be easily missed during that replacement. the front fender is easily shimmed out but then the curve of the fender may be wrong and could need some help after all is said and done to line up stuff.

Re: Aftermarket step question
 

also, my replacement cab corners needed to be cut and pie sliced to fit the truck otherwise they looked sorta like yours do now. the same for the inner parts. they were really bad. i would have returned them except for the long time they sat in a parts bin before getting to that part of the build.

Re: Aftermarket step question
 

I was in the same boat not too long ago. I had an aftermarket door, step and cab corner also. After getting the door square in the cab, I had to slice and add filler rod to the cab corners to get them to fit right. The steps/rocker assembly never fit well, even after bending the rocker panel down the match the front fender and cab corner. If you look at the original factory rocker, you can see it's shaped very different. What I ended up doing was to have a local sheet metal shop bend new "C" shaped pieces that matched the shape of the factory steps and welded them in. If you search for the member BIGglaSS, you see on the first page of his build thread where he ran into same issue and posted pictures how he fixed it.

Re: Aftermarket step question
 

thanks for the responses guys. For the step I it clearly is angled out all the way down so I think I will need to manipulate it or do what Saturn did. the only issue is because I'm doing cab corners and after market fenders its figuring out what to match to what. I started with getting the door centered. I plan on matching the cab corner to the door profile the best I can. for the front fender it clearly bows in. I've tried spacing it out which helps at the bottom but then it pushed the fender out beyond the door about 6" up. like the whole thing is bowed. because of the inter structure I can't bend it so I'm thinking of drilling the spot welds. passenger side is an aftermarket fender, original door and step and then the same cab corner mess but the profile looks soo much better. If you haven't seen it yet check out the bondo on my build thread

Re: Aftermarket step question
 

are your doors orignal, unskinned before? if so, get the door to fit the cab as best as possible, then work on the cab corner to get it fitting. the fender would be the last thing to fit up, like a normal build on the task force era, door to cab, then fender to cab/door.
there is a youtube from a fella showing how he aligned the panels and it gives a little insight, with video.
old guy fixing stuff is his handle
once the door fits the cab, tight hinges and door is sold (no hinge mount issues that are common) then work on the fender. possibly the fender was also fixed at some point, with a new rear vertical brace on the backside (its a common rusted out part). if the vertiical brace wasn't welded on correctly that would account for the wrong crown in the fender so it doesn't match the door.

Re: Aftermarket step question
 

I think I have watched his videos on cab corners an step. driver side is aftermarket door and aftermarket fender. the new fender seem to curve down at the bottom so im thinking when they made it the support was welded in the wrong location. the aftermarket passenger fender doesn't seem to have the same problem. I'll keep messing with it and see how it goes

Re: Aftermarket step question
 

Maybe hafta disconnect fender from Brace and get Brace bent to match door curve. To match an original door curve would be best. Maybe take curve pattern from the other door, since it's original.

Re: Aftermarket step question
 

Figure I would post a follow up. Took a while to get the step fitted up and fully seated. I used tow straps to pull it in underneath while using a 3' clamp to pull the cab corner in to squeeze the step. This allowed me to put in a couple self tappers. Once it was locked in I used clamped in section of 1" angle iron to tweak the profile. For the fender bottom I realized that as it tightened the inter structure was coming in contact with cab and was twisting the fender. I was able to space it out with 3 washers and the twist went away. I was able to add a washer to the lower door hinge to bring out the edge. Overall its a huge improvement. I had a question for the step to cab corner. It still has some spring to it. Does the cab corner get tacked to the step bottom profile?