1956 Ford Courier Project - Courier Clippin'

We used shims on the jackstands to get it perfect and note that they are behind the firewall as the frame from the firewall forward will be removed.

It's important to make sure the chassis is level, side to side, in a number of different locations, as well as front to rear.

These next few steps will make or break the install. One foul move and you'll be cursing everything around you as nothing will line up once the stub is welded in place.

First, the bumper boltholes and radiator core support on the stock frame are marked onto the shop floor using a plumb bob dropped through the center of each hole.

The height of each mark is also recorded from the ground to the center of the bolthole.

The axle centerline is also recorded using a plumb bob hung from the center of each kingpin. Due to alignment issues, these two measurements can be averaged, although you still want to get them as close as possible to the actual reading.

The green pieces of tape contain all our measurements and plumb bob locations. We chose to go this route as we thought the ink on the shop floor wouldn't last the few days it was going to take to complete the install. While it was a good idea in theory, it did prove, as the tape didn't want to stick to the floor any better than the ink would have by the third day. That's what we get for thinkin'!

These two separate pair of markings represents the bumper bolthole centers, heights, as well as the distance diagonally to the rear end centerline as an extra reference point.

To mark the embarkation line where the front frame portion will be excised from the rest of the chassis, we took another plumb bob reading from the front body mount bolthole.