bmcnitt

I have had my radiator support, radiator, fan shroud, all that stuff off of the car probably for 3 months or so as my front suspension rebuild project grew and just kept going. I got all that stuff powder coated. A few hours ago I put my radiator support back on the car. When I took it off there were 5 shims between the radiator support and the frame on the driver side. On the passenger side 3 shims. I bought new shims and of course took notes so I could shim everything the same way (powder coating thickness could cause me to shim slightly less)

For starters I put the support on the frame with no shims and the holes in the fenders that the side support bolts go thru don’t line up, they are too low. This is the first time that it occurred to me that I guess the radiator support also supports all the front end fiber glass more or less. When I had the rad-support off for all these months I guess the front end fiberglass kind of sags down, or maybe it just does it right away. So I use a jack on the reinforcement piece in the wheel well and jack up the “body” of the each side so the hole in the reinforcement part line up with the threaded holes in the side of the rad-support. So now the rad-support is supporting the front end fiberglass like I guess it was designed to do. I guess to get this back to the way it was I need to put a jack under the rad –support and lift it so I can shim? Should I do that? How do you really know how much to shim other than just trying to reproduce what you took off? It looks like the driver side is low (though using a level doesn’t help since the car is on stands and the garage probably isn’t level either) so it at least needs to come up. I am a little scared to just start jacking everything up I sure don’t want to crack my fiberglass. If I put the shims in first I will never get the side support bolts thru. I guess I am rambling here my main question is how do you know if you need to shim the rad-support or not and by how much. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

66jack

Put your hood on before shimming.

bmcnitt

My hood has never been off. Does looking at the hood line some how tell you how much to shim the radiator support? I can't see that one exactly, could you explain. I really want to put this thing all the way back together this weekend and I can't go any farther until I figure out how to shim the radiator support.

Pilot Dan

The body will sag from sitting unsupported up front, but the good thing is it has memory. Now that you have the support back in, I would put a little tension under it with a floor jack and a block of wood and wait a few days, then a bit more until you can get your old shims back in minus maybe 1/16 for the powder coating thickness. The radiator shims are important for proper hood alignment and door gaps up front. Try to work back slowly to close to where you were when you started if you were happy with the way everything fit previously. Pilot Dan

wombvette

Original shims would have been welded together, and to the frame. If they were not, then there is no way to know if they were original in the first place. After so many years of water over the dam, there is not a correct number of shims. Jacking up on the radiator support has little effect on hood fits and gaps. It may change the relationships at the side of the hood because it straightens the line as you jack up. If lines and gaps etc. look right, I wouldn't concern myself with the exact numbers of shims.

vettsplit 63

On a related note- I bought a project car (63) that had been setting for about 15 years without a radiator support in it, and it had a spare tire and rim setting on the front of the hood/nose for good measure. It put so much strain on the bonding strips at the cowl that they separated down the seam at the front of the door opening! The nose drooped so much the fenders overlapped the doors. Got it repaired, but by best guess that car had about 1500 pounds of pressure on the seams.

MikeM

If you have the car on jack stands with the stands placed at the front of the frame rails and the front suspension hanging in the air, there's no way you will visually come up with the right shim pack for the rad support. The front of the frame will sag away from the body due to engine/suspension weight.

What I'd suggest you do is put the bolts in the inner fenders to the rad support and call it good enough until the car hits the ground on four wheels. Then, pick up on the front end fiberglass (by hand) to take weight of the fiberglass and shim the gap at the frame as required.

vettsplit 63

I agree. You will be able to tell by feel when the shims take up the weight, as Mike suggests.

Pilot Dan

Goes back to "memory" the fiberglass was bonded at a specific time when built and then shimmed for support and alignment of body panels. If you know what those shims were, why would you try and reinvent the wheel 40 + years later. I can see letting the weight down on the wheels and suspension and seeing where everything is at, but I would not dismiss the prior shim setup that was in place and worked previously either.

bmcnitt

Thanks for the info. I will go without the shims underneath the support till I get it back on the ground which i hope is soon.