Greetings. I am a new member, and I have owned my 60' Apache10 for almost 10 years. I need help with shims. I took my entire front end apart about a year ago so I could pull my engine and tranny to rebuild them... And at the time I wrote down exactly how many shims were where and now I seem to have lost the damn paper I had it on. Could there be a difference in the number of shims that are used on different years of these trucks? I know that from 60-63 the bodies were almost identical. Anyhow, I recently bought a new front grill filler panel for my year, and the shop manual just says to place shims as required. What the hell does that mean? Does it mean that I should assemble the whole front losely and then try to shove some shims in then? Any help from a fellow enthusiast would be greatly appreciated. Maybe a comparison of our years for individual front end parts would work? Anyway, thanx in advance... 60CHEVY10 {{Northern California}}
Hi ! Welcome to the forum !! "Does it mean that I should assemble the whole front losely and then try to shove some shims in then?" Unfortunatly YES... If you can get some help I'd advise assembling the whole front clip. Fenders, inner fenders and Center section as a unit, then lifting the whole thing into place. Attach the bolts loosely at the firewall and add shims to align the gaps to the doors. One side, then the other. You can snug down a bolt or two to hold one side in position while aligning the other, but not real tight. Take your time and be patient. This will probably take the better part of a few days to get it right. If it's any help losing that paper only hurt a little. Chances are that you would have still had to add/subtract/change shims anyway.. dv
