The firewall to fender brace rods are necessary to retain front sheet metal stability and maintain correct gaps between panels unless you copy what General Motors did starting with the 1955 pickup. The culprit in the earlier design is the close together radiator core support mounts as this gives the whole front clip a "wheelbarrow" effect in which the brace rods act as the wheelbarrow handles to stabilize the front wheel (close together front mounts) and keep the whole works from tipping, leaning, or twisting. In 1955 GM moved the mounts to the outside of both the core support and frame which did away with the need for brace rods. We noticed on AD to S10 frame conversions where the bottom of the core support had to be cut off to clear the steering box and then new mounts run straight down to the frame from the outside of the core support that the whole front clip became rock solid--just like the 55-59 pickups. We still use the brace rods for most projects but with superchargers, turbocharger plumbing, or even an old tunnel ram the rods get in the way.
Fender support brace rod Would it be easyer to aline the front inner/outer fender when installing them rods to the frame instead ? It would be intresting to see a photo of a 1955-59 pickup truck with this solution ! Maybe you could show us ? Thanks for the information Martinius.
