Body / Glass: Alignment of front sheet metal - '63 Wagonaire ???

[garyash]

My poor, old '63 Wagonaire has been a neglected project for several years, but I did a little work on it this week. As with most '63 Studebakers in New England, the fenders are rusted beyond saving, so I have a pair of the fiberglass ones that Dan Webber had made. It's taken a lot of cutting, grinding, and fiddling to get them even close to sitting right. Eventually I will pop-rivet or screw them to the fender aprons. For now, though, I'm trying to figure out the sequence of alignment and bolt tightening to get the forward/backward, up/down, in/out adjustments close enough. Any suggestions from someone who has done this before?

I also need to replace some of the fender bolts and clips. I think the bolts are 5-16/10 x 7/8, part 1957X4. SI has these in the catalog. These are very coarse, like Acme threads. Perhaps the clips are part 1578X35, but SI doesn't list them. Any suggestions for replacements?

The '63 wagon shares the garage with the '65 blue Wagonaire and the '32 Indy car project. My shop manager, a mannequin named Larkina, keeps watch over the process.

[6hk71400]

A chapter member, Bruce Sandburg told me long ago to correctly line up fenders on a Lark, is to hang the hood first then align everything at once. If you look at pictures of the cars down the line with the body drop, the hood is attached to the body then the 6 bolts (three on each side of the front clip with attach with ease. Mind you, I have not done a Lark fender alignment in some time, but I do know it seemed much easier to hand the hood, then the fenders.

Bob Miles
Tucson AZ

[pinehurstbob]

I have used the method described in post # 2 very successfully 3 times now. I believe it to be the best method.

Bob

[garyash]

Yes, I understand that the factory attached the hood, then aligned the COMPLETE front end assembly. They only had to worry about the three bolts on each side of the firewall to get the gaps at the fender-to-door joint and the cowl to line up. However, I think they had a significant alignment jig for the fenders - with aprons already spot welded - and the front nose panel, so most of the panel-to-panel alignment was done before mounting on the car. Without that critical jig, it's a bit tough to know where the fenders align with the aprons, etc. It doesn't help that the fiberglass fenders don't exactly follow the shape of the steel ones. But, I'll try mounting the hood and see if it gives any clues about where to line things up. Having two more beefy guys around with big rubber mallets and 2x4's would probably help, too. Lacking the two beefy guys, I have a bunch of big clamps and a big leather bag filled with 20 pounds of lead shot to push things into place.

I didn't do the alignment on my '65 Wagonaire, but I think it's a lot simpler without the '63 nose piece. It must not have been easy even for the factory, because they changed the configuration every year.

[studegary]

As has been said, hang the hood first. Do not just hang it, get it properly aligned with the cowl.
Then put the fenders in place. The rear edge has to be in alignment with the front edge of the doors (which were previously aligned with the rear doors/rear quarter). You may need spacers.
Bring the fenders into alignment with the hood and then start the attaching.
I agree, from experience, that working with fiberglass fenders is more difficult than with steel originals. The fiberglass fenders are not perfect shaped, they are thicker and they are not as easy to "adjust/force".

[Deaf Mute]

When we put new inner and outer fenders on my 1953 coupe back in 1964, we bolted the inner fender loosely in place & then did the fenders themselves. After all looked right we fastened the inner & outer fender panels together. HOWEVER this wasn't a '63, so my method may or may not be of value... just putting it out here.

[David]

"These are very coarse, like Acme threads. Perhaps the clips are part 1578X35, but SI doesn't list them. Any suggestions for replacements?"

What did you end up using Gary? I'm in the same boat looking for 1578X35 for my GT Hawk.

[garyash]

Talk about a "necropost"! Here it is 6-1/2 years later, the Indy car is done, but the poor, step-child Wagonaire has not progressed, only gotten dust-covered. As a matter of fact, I did start prepping it for more work just today. My 15-year old grandson is agitating for completion, though what teenager would be caught dead driving a 6-cylinder Wagonaire Standard. This may be the anti-cool car. I've been told by Studegary that it's not even a true Wagonaire without having a sliding roof, just a (lower case) "wagon". I haven't solved the bolt issue, but maybe a call to Jim and Corey Lime at SI could yield some info.

[r1lark]

My 15-year old grandson is agitating for completion, though what teenager would be caught dead driving a 6-cylinder Wagonaire Standard. This may be the anti-cool car.

Wagons ("longroofs") are in Gary! Put some cool wheels/tires on it and your grandson will love it. It's all about styling, plus lots of cars have six cylinders today.

[stude1964]

Gary
I have lots of hardware-just let me know what you need
It looks as if you have the inners fastened. Is that where they were? So if the hood is good you should be able to get the fenders in place. How were you planning on attaching them to the inners?
Tell your grandson the next item on the agenda is OVERDRIVE!
Rob in PA.

[garyash]

Putting the fiberglass fenders onto the inner fenders will be a little tricky in order to line everything up. I think pop rivets will be the way to go. I have a bunch of Clecos, so I can drill holes and put the Clecos in to get everything in the right place, though I won't be able to close the hood to check. Hmm, maybe the Clecos can go in from the underside and the hood can close mostly.

I did put in an overdrive transmission that I got from Dave Thibeault. I just have to finish up some bodywork around the tailgate area, then I can put the gas tank back and start it up. I'm waiting on my air conditioning guy to put in a 24,000 BTU heat pump/air conditioning unit so I can work during the winter without feeding $100 bills into the propane tank. The 50,000 BTU Modine "Hot Dawg" heater works great in the 24x36 ft garage, just is expensive to run when I'm paying over $4/gallon for propane.

[studegary]

I have used pop rivets to mount fiberglass outer fenders to steel inner fenders. They were still good with good alignment after decades. Of course, the front and rear of the fiberglass outer fenders are still mounted with bolts.