Fan location
 

I know it's been discussed, but I just when through ten pages of threads and can't find it.

How far does the fan extend into the shroud on a 68 GTO with AC? And how close are the blade tips to the shroud?

My fan is about 1/2 - 3/4" in the shroud ... blade tips look about 1" away from the shroud all around ... more at the top under the finger guard.

Just about perfect. Half in is the norm.

While test fitting the core support I realized how much it will slide forward and backward at the frame mounts. Since the frame mount has just the bolt going through the large hole in the frame, without a ridge on the insulator to locate it in the hole, it can slide forward and backward at least an inch if it's loosened up. Seems kind of strange.

I wonder if the OEM insulators had a smaller OD ridge on the top of the insulator that located it in the frame hole?

Thought the underside of the u nut on the originals had tabs that limited the slop in the frame hole. Could be wrong, been awhile. No idea if these are made the same way.
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I ended up tack welding the nuts to the center of the square washer, but pretty much the same thing ... since it sits on top of the inner frame hole ... I can't really see anything that would limit movement except the shaft of the bolt itself ... the nut is on top of the washer to it doesn't stick into the frame hole.

I posted a pic on the other thread.

Just measured mine and it's the same.

Thank you sir.

Mine had some play there too, but not all that much. I had to move it a fuzz for the valance & fenders to all fit together nicely at the bottom.

Kind of seems like the core support / fender interface is where all the errors in fit end up getting corrected ... start at the back of the car and all the misalignments work forward and get corrected at the front. .... Although ... quite a bit of possible movement in the body/chassis mounts too.

Some cars look pretty good, some not so much. Years ago when I started doing the bodywork phase of my 68, I was not happy with how all of it came together while test fitting & doing the early stages of bodywork. Like you said, the front sorta gets the leftovers of panel fitment. Then I decided to do mine backwards. I fitted the fenders to the bumper, gapped the fenders to the hood until I had a nice gap all the way around the hood. Then fitted the doors to the fenders & rockers. Then tweaked & twisted the doors to fit the quarters. This might sound a little extreme, but it worked very well. I have no regrets & would do it this same way again if I had to do it over. I'll post some picts later.

I also slid the body around on the frame. The little bit of movement it has, does effect the fitment / adjustments of the front bumper a bit. primarily centering the frame horns.

I'd bet that a ton of people that have mystery front end sheet metal problems actually have a body on the chassis slightly askew problem.

I'm definitely going to keep the body mounts loose till I get all the panels sorted.

Going to hate taking my doors off ... they are absolutely perfect right now, open and close like a brand new car.

While in the body work stage, I probably test fit all the panels about 5 or 6 times. Breaking it all down to just bare body on frame each time. I struggled a bit with the front sheet metal fitment and then I discovered that I needed shims under the right body to frame mount pad on the firewall/cowl. I actually needed about 3/16" there which I accomplished by adding some thick washers that were the same size as came with the body mount kit.

For me, everything started atthat point. Once I found the right position at those two body mount points at the firewall then everything seemed to fall into place from there. The remainder of the body to frame mounts aligned nicely and the front clip fit so much better. My only slight complaint is how the rear bumper fits. I would like it to fit a little closer to the body but I haven't finished adjusting it yet so maybe I can find some improvement there.

My advice is to fit the body (with doors) to the frame where you like it and tighten the mounts and then fit the core support to the frame loosely. Then fit the fenders and square it up horizontally as well as vertically. If you find fender to door gap issues then you might need to shim one side of the body at the frame mount points to raise one corner slightly.

I found that measuring from the frame to upper fender mount point in the firewall was helpful to get the body positioned on the frame.

I hope you find some of this info helpful with your build.

Yes, very helpful.

I think a lot of people would hesitate to shim body mounts .. but think about it .. 3/16" error on a piece of metal as large as a frame is not much at all, I'd do it in a second if that made everything work right.

Probably not enough people consider the body itself ... my first inclination would be to just bolt it down and go from there, but there is a LOT of wiggle room in the body to frame connections.

Assembly manual calls for shims as necessary. My 55 Bel Air had a shim stack about 3/8" at a couple of locations. There were also some alignment holes in the front foot wells to the frame that really helped. The factory workers would use a spud wrench to locate the body on the frame and then tighten down all the mounts. I didnt see any alignment holes in my 68 but the floors were replaced so maybe the reproduction pans didnt have the holes?

On a 55 Chevy....the front clip was set in place as a complete assembled unit. Our 68 GTOs were built up. Core support first, then the fenders with the inner fenders attached and so on.

I had no idea shims were used from the factory. That bit of info would probably save a lot of people a lot of problems when it comes to sheet metal.