40 pickup front fit question

sanborn

sanborn

Senior Member
I am beginning to trial fit a 40 PU. The truck has been disassembled for over 30 years. I have a new Drake grille, radiator pan, chin pan, upper brace, inner fender panels, etc. When we got everything assembled----the hood seemed to be too far behind the grille. And, the grille seems about 1" too wide compared to the hood. Is this fit the way it should be? I have never seen a "correct" 40 PU.

Does anyone have good, close up photos of the front grille fit that they could post? Or, does anyone in the central south have a correct 40 PU that I could come and look at?

I am not building a show truck but I do want the fit to be correct. Thanks in advance.
 
Sanborn,
My '41 was a bit 'gappy'. We had to reposition the cab a tiny bit then
add shims to the fender spreader on each side. I used a DRAKE GRILL and used it
as a guide and finally got all components to live happily together. I'm sure you are
aware of the eccentric adjustments for hood alignment up under the dash.
' KUBE ' can take this up a few notches from my shade tree approach.
Charlie ny
 
Thanks for the response. The hood fits the cab well with a consistent 5/16" gap between the hood and cowl. The hood opens/closes well too. My problem is the grille appears to be too wide compared to the hood. And, the grille appears to be about 1/2" too far forward. The hood does have the original hood brace.
 
Perhaps the cab needs to come forward slightly. The running boards ( which don't adjust forward or back) kinda determine where the front fenders land and the fenders kinda determine the grille. The hood and cab can by thought of as moving in unison either forward or back. As the cab/hood combo move forward, the hood because of it's Vee shape will be able to match the wider width of grille and also get rid of the "underbite' at the grille leading edge.
I have also found that having enough shim under the front of cab at firewall will make lower rear corners of hood clear top of fenders better when opening. Again, it's a deal with the boards as they also control height of fender, therefore adjust cab to suit hood. Hope this helps as it can be a real tussle. RPM
 
You might need to raise the rear of the cab slightly. That'll move the hood forward in relation to the grill.
Just a lot of trial and error and screwing around.
 
Try loosening the fender to cowl bolts, fender to running board bolts and pick up on the fender grille assy. ( gently). This could help show which thing needs to be moved first.
 
I had same problem on my '41 Pickup. Had to remove front wood section (three pieces total) and pulled front of cab down to the frame. Will trim the wood to fit and install. Spent a few hours to get it all to work well enough. Not perfect and grill is an underbite still.
 
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