Ray, just a straight on side shot of my truck to get an idea where the front tires lined up with the hood on my fender less truck. Its been a few years, but I believe I built my truck with the idea of possibly adding fenders at a later date (the fenders I had were in really bad shape), but you might want to look a other pictures online to see how the wheel and hood center line up. If I hadn't lost my original pictures I had pictures of the 47 truck that was complete, so that picture may still be floating around out there on line.

After looking at the side view of my truck, it appears to me my front suspension mat be a bit too far forward, but it may be the angle of the pic.

Maybe the center of your front wheels are good, and the rear position of the fenders are good, but the length of the wheel opening is too long. The big truck fenders may be longer in length then the 1/2 ton fenders. Take the extra length out of the center of the wheel well, and adjust the curve of the wheel opening to adjust?

After you reposition the grill shell, maybe you should put the front of the fender into position and mark the center of the wheel, then put the rear of the fender in position, and mark the center of the wheel and see how fat it is between the two marks.

Gene thanks for the pics and great advice! I do have the lower portion of the front grill attached but it’s not clear in my foto. I had not thought of removing a portion of the center of the big truck fender, that is another possible option. I plan on adding air suspension so I may remove the coils and see how various ride heights may also affect the way the wheels look in relation to the rest of the truck. And of course there are quite a few wheel sizes and tire profile combinations to daydream about. I will also give more thought to cowl-hood-grill alignment as you suggest.
Thank you again!
Ray

[b][/b]If you have a truck with a conventional, non unibody frame and an accident has caused the frame to bend or buckle you will likely need the frame to be replaced. Frame swaps or frame change outs are very large, time consuming jobs and can only be performed by professionals with the proper equipment and know how.











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Blackcat 1, yes, I agree, it would be better to replace a badly bent or buckled frame then it would be to straighten it, depending on how badly it was bent. Frames have successfully been straightened for many years.

I also agree that frame swaps or change outs are large, time consuming jobs. I believe they can be performed by many people that are not professionals. It requires a lot of thought, a lot of measurements, and it requires some specific skills and specific equipment.

Lots of frames have been changed out and many have even been modified successfully by many members here that are not "professionals". Someone calling themselves a professional, even if they have a piece of paper backing them up, doesn't mean they are more qualified then every person that doesn't work in a specific occupation. I've seen a lot of card caring professionals screw up a lot of stuff because they didn't know what they were doing.

" I've seen a lot of card caring professionals screw up a lot of stuff because they didn't know what they were doing."


Amen to that statement !

chassis modifications can be done successfully by the "non-professional", provided the "measure 16 times, cut once" principal is followed, and one's welding skills are up to the task so as the modifications are done in a safe manor. by that, i mean the modifications will not compromise the integrity of the chassis, thereby causing safety concerns going down the road.
as to straightening a frame, before a person starts, try to obtain the frame blueprints. these drawings will give you datum points to start your measuring, and will tell you how bad the frame is tweeked. almost all old FSM have these drawings in them. at least the FSM's i have for late 30's, 40's, and 50's have these drawings in them.
if you decide to try to straighten it, remember it will need to be tied down securely, somewhat leveled out as best you can on the non-bent portioned, and slightly over-pushed on the bent section to allow for spring back of the frame material. as to how much over-push is needed, only you can determine that at the time you are doing the push-pulling of the straightening process.
i made a frame table from 6 and 8" I-beam when i built the chassis for my humpback panel truck. i kept the table within a short 1/64" [.015] tolerance to insure the chassis i built would be true and straight.
a person does not have to build a table as i did, but the point is, to make sure the frame is tied down very securely, so as to make absolutely certain your measurements remain constant, and you won't be chasing the frame around due to flexing issues.
i'm just stating my personal experiences, and my opinion.
your mileage will vary.