Topic: 1969 Front Valance Hardware

[ninedrvr]

I'm assembling the nose on my 69 Shelby clone/tribute. I have the AMK hardware kit for the valance that consists of 4 carriage bolts with nuts and 1 standard bolt, washer and nut. The 4 carriage bolts connect the valence to the fenders, so my question is whether the original cars only use the center support or whether they also use the hole at the ends of both frame rails? Looking online, the few cars that I'm able to see all use the frame rail ends as well as the center. The problem is that the hardware kit and the parts manual both indicate that only the center support is correct.

Thoughts?

[jwc66k]

Get a copy of the "1969 Mustang Body Assembly Manual" and see what Ford intended, and match that to what you have.
Jim

[Bob Gaines]

Get a copy of the "1969 Mustang Body Assembly Manual" and see what Ford intended, and match that to what you have.
Jim

Jim ,the 69 Mustang Body Assembly Manual would be a good investment in itself and will answer many questions relative to the Mustang aspect of the 69/70 Shelby however it has no reference in it to the Shelby conversion portion.

[ninedrvr]

I have the assembly manuals and they are a great resource.

The Mustang uses only the center support which is what I suspect the Shelby is supposed to have the same as well. I was just wondering whether there was an update which would explain why I'm seeing so many cars with all 3 supports.

[ninedrvr]

Here is a car that uses all 3.

[Bob Gaines]

I have the assembly manuals and they are a great resource.

The Mustang uses only the center support which is what I suspect the Shelby is supposed to have the same as well. I was just wondering whether there was an update which would explain why I'm seeing so many cars with all 3 supports.

There should be 2 carriage bolts on each side of the valance and 3 fender type bolts across the bottom . This was done at AO smith as part of the Shelby conversion.

[Bob Gaines]

Here is a car that uses all 3.

FYI the carriage bolts were zinc but were painted as part of the front nose painted together assembly. The 3 across the bottom were added when the complete fender/nose assembly was lowered down and bolted onto the car. The 3 fender type bolts were consequently not painted given they were added later and were zinc silver just like the fender bolts.

[ninedrvr]

Ok. That bring up another question. I'm assuming that the eyelets on the outer front edges of the front frame rails are used for the outer 2 fasteners. Is there some sort of spacer used for these fasteners? The eyelets sit several layers of steel away from the valance. If the fastener is tightened without a spacer in place then the valance will distort from the uneven surface.

[specialed]

I have seen many cars with those 2 hole areas cracked fiberglass when the bolts are tightened.