'32 roadster body shimming

Hotrodvideo

Hotrodvideo

Senior Member
I've got a '32 Brookville roadster body on a gennie frame with a gennie firewall,
hood & grille.

I'm trying to get the body/hood gap to be uniform, I started shimming up the firewall and it looks like this in the picture which is good.

Is the firewall supposed to be shimmed or just the body?

As it is now, I had to shim it way up to get everything to look right.
 

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Normally, all the firewall gets is webbing under the feet. If you had to add shims under the firewall feet to get the vertical hood gap right, the radiator / grille shell is likely too high. If you get the firewall too high, it then takes more shims than normal the rest of the way back to get the door gaps right. Also, too high at the front of the wheel well and the rear of the body usually results in the misalignment of the bolt holes where the rear fenders bolt to the sides of the frame rails, as well as, the rear frame horn covers where they bolt to the fenders. This isnt a big deal on a highboy. However, too high at the back of the body also results in a larger gap between the body and the top of the gas tank.

My suggestion is, if you have more than just a thin rubber shim under each of the radiator mounts, remove any extra shims to lower the radiator / grille shell, Then you should be able to take the extra shims from under the firewall feet to get the desired hood side gap top to bottom at the cowl and grille shell.

Hotrodvideo said:
I've got a '32 Brookville roadster body on a gennie frame with a gennie firewall,
hood & grille.

I'm trying to get the body/hood gap to be uniform, I started shimming up the firewall and it looks like this in the picture which is good.

Is the firewall supposed to be shimmed or just the body?


As it is now, I had to shim it way up to get everything to look right.
Click to expand...
 
There are no shims under the radiator, just the two stock rubber gaskets and bolts with springs.

I think the problem is that the welting on the grille shell is the same thickness as the cowl, too big, if I could actually find the thinner correct material, it would put the hood down lower in the front which would make the gap between the body/hood more uniform which is the whole problem.
 
I'm still having trouble with this, since I have NO shims under the radiator, the only way to get the hood to line up right is to shim the firewall and cowl up a lot, especially on the left side where it has a sag. Is this alright to do? The factory correct Nacewicz bolts i have will be too short then.

It also has an original '32 radiator that might have had the lower bracket modified.
It looks like there is an extra piece of steel welded to the bottom of the radiator mating 2 pieces of 1/8" steel together I think.

Is that stock from the factory?
 
Hotrodvideo said:
It's also an original '32 radiator on the gennie frame so those parts should fit like they did at the factory.
Click to expand...

Ha ha, do you know how they fit from the factory? Like crap thats how. They never fit like the gaps on newer cars.

And if you really want to see some bad fitting parts look at old
Ford trucks.

Nice looking roadster BTW
 
Sounds to me like that extra piece of metal on the bottom of the radiator mount may be your problem. This might be a dumb question, but do you have the rubber seal installed that goes between the firewall and the cowl? the thickness of that seal can make a difference.
 
The problem is that the frame sags a lot right there on the LH side where the firewall feet bolt to the frame.

It's tough to straighten the top rail of the frame so I left it alone and just shimmed the firewall up.

And, yes it does have the rubber seal between the cowl & firewall.
 
I've got almost exactly the same setup in the works, except i've not got an original shell, but a Vintique one.

Mine's not painted as yet (might never happen) but it's gone together quite nicely without any shimming etc. Sure it needs to be a little better but i think i'm pretty close.

If i were you i'd be getting rid of the welting that's too thick as that's not helping. The extra material on the rad presumably is a repair due to cracking from flexing etc and either needs to be removed or allowed for.

I'm confused about the 'sag' at the firewall. Is the frame sagged as in bent? If it's just a local problem then you'll either have to fix it or work around it (ie shims).

Thereafter i'd say it's a case of doing whatever it takes to make it all fit.

In the end, with the body on the frame / firewall and the hood on i'd suggest that the rad and shell (or even crossmember) is where i'd be concentrating my adjustments. I find it easier to get the body right, doors & trunk opening properly etc, and then get everything else to work around that.

Just realised, you're fully painted, right? How was that allowed to happen before you'd achieved a good mockup?

Hope that helps

Chris
 
Can someone out there take a picture of the bottom of an original '32 radiator so I can compare it to mine? I don't know for certain what the bottom flange is supposed to look like but what I have looks like it came from the factory like that. There are 2 flanges on the bottom.

The car was shimmed when it was in bare metal and everything fit together ok.

The top of the LH frame rail is sagging right where the firewall feet bolt to the frame. I couldn't see a way to fix that without taking out the K member out to pound out the sag so shimming is the only way I could see to fix it and yes it works.
 
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