Frame Tweaked?

[ulakovic22]

Hi everyone, I'm in the process of putting my very first 67 back together and I've figured out most of it, but this one has me stumped. I couldn't get the driver side fender to line up so I took everything off the front end and found out I had the wrong core support and bushings.

I went ahead and bought a new core support for a 67/68 and took out the bushings all together since the 67/68 are just rubber washers basically. I then bolted the fenders to the cab and core support, leaving the core support loose. The below picture shows that the driver side actually fits really well, but the passenger side sits pretty high. The gap in the picture is just under 1.25.

The cab bushings are new and currently loose and the fender/door gaps are pictured below as well. Thoughts?

[Sammy]

I would think a 2X4 an a level would answer your question. Fender/ door gap looks real good. I would try to find a spacer or have a deep detailed conversation with someone who specializes in frames if it was mine. Looks like a lot of work in this truck already to give up on it.

[litew8]

The left rail looks like it is bent down, or the right rail is bent up.

[Kennuck]

Unless its the camera angle it looks like the frame ends are not parallel to the front k member.

[ulakovic22]

The truck is on bags and both bags were at 55 psi. When I lay an angle iron across the horns for level it says the passenger is high/driver is low. If I air out the passenger side air bag to get the frame level the gaps remain the same between the core and frame.

[kxmotox247]

If I had to guess... I'd say its the passenger side frame horn. If you think it's bad now... wait till you try to hang a bumper on it.
I'm sure if you're creative, you can tweak it back in. I know a guy that has floor anchors in the cement in his shop for holding/pushing/bending. A body shop with a frame machine could bring you back into shape really quick.

[Tinkermc]

A frame shop could most likely fix your probelm for about $200. Or you could adjust every thing from now on.

[hugger6933]

It is the right rail that is down and the left one [driver side] is in the right place. if you were to place the core support on the right frame rail, it would make the fender/door gap way open at the top and tight at the bottom meaning it is down in front. On the other hand, if you have a gap at the fender/door that is wide at the bottom and tight at the top it means the front frame rail is up or that the cab is down in the middle. But just looking at the first pic you can tell the pass side rail in the one that is down. Or maybe it is just a me thing I look at bent ones every day. I have a body shop w/a frame rack to bad your not close it would be a super easy fix. Jim

[Hawghauler]

Have you looked at your cab mounts? Does the bed line up with the cab correctly? Could the cab be lower on one side and the frame is fine? These trucks have pretty thick cab mounts, and when they've had weathering this long, sometimes they just disintegrate or sag on one side. Just a thought.

[slikside]

Yeah, if your truck is on level ground, that passenger frame rail is way low. You can also see how the bumper support arm is not in plane with the driver side.

[ulakovic22]

A little update. I arid up the back, leveled the frame rails and put it on jack stands. I did the same on the front rails. The gaps up front are now 1" on the passenger side and 3/4" on the driver side. The bottom of the fender/door gaps seem to have a little room for improvement so I'm going to bring them in a little and see if that tilts the front down a little more. I'm thinking once I tighten up the cab mounts it will pull it down some as well. Hopefully I'll have some pics of my progress tomorrow.

[Sammy]

1/4 " is nothing, you can shim that. you almost expect that much on a 40 plus year old truck.

[jhwkns]

To anyone I talk to that is putting one of these trucks together, I recommend taking it to a frame shop. Even if the truck has never been wrecked, it could have been severely overloaded several times, or had other traumas that might have done damage. If you suspect that your chassis is bent, You should make it a priority.