fender adjusting - apologies to earlysecond

[spicewood1]

Earlysecond I must apologize and withdraw my comment about your struggle with adjusting fenders. It has been several years since I last had a 70-73 in the priming and blocking stages and it is so easy to forget how frustrating this task can be. Just the last couple days I have been buried in test fitting all my body panels before paint and ran across your exact situation.

All sheetmetal is original to this car. Driver door and fender fit reasonably well and were perfected with a couple hours work. Pass fender was a disaster and needed lots of bending and twisting and excess shimming to get it to fit decent, but I was also left with the fender fitting at the top and bottom but badly inboard of the door at the beltline crease. By badly I mean about a quarter inch. Keep in mind here I am VERY good at this so when I say it won't fit, that's after throwing every trick in the book at it. Normally undershimming at the top and bottom will "squish" the fender and produce more crown to get the fender point even with the door. It won't go .250" though. At that much strain the fender shares the bend in other places and produces no more profile at the crease.

Sooooo.... get out the old bodyman tricks. I simply took my sawzall and cut the inside fender brace running vertically just forward of the rear edge. I made my cut right at the beltline crease. Instantly the fender was more pliable. Since the saw blade removes a kerf of 1 /16" I could easily flex the fender and spotweld the cut back together. A dab will do ya here - test fit showed closing the gap all the way (just .065") was too much and now the fender had too much crown and was out past the door. Closing the gap about half way did the trick. Rewelded the whole cut this time, reinstall and fits super.

[POS71RS]

I hear ya. I bolted the same fenders back on I already had on the car. Fitting seems to have totally changed.

Also, I don't know what changed, but I couldn't barely get my doors far enough forward (away from the quarter) on both sides! I can't figure that one out... never had that issue.. saw Brent had the same issue... and then me too. The door/quarter gap on mine is pretty tight. Wish I could say the same about the door/fender gap!

[earlysecond]

Spice,

Don't apologize. . .just continue to teach advanced metalwork techniques

Brent

[CDesperado]

Is anyone aware of a sticky that has info, tips, tricks, about fender/hood/front bumper alignment?

My resto shop and I are bumping up into something that has us confuzzled.

[76 camaro car 1]

Originally Posted by CDesperado

Is anyone aware of a sticky that has info, tips, tricks, about fender/hood/front bumper alignment?

My resto shop and I are bumping up into something that has us confuzzled.

Tips and tricks: A case of ice cold budweisers and a lot of patience.

[CDesperado]

LMAO Yeah... I think that may have to be the ticket.

[krabben1]

It all starts and ends with those doors.They can sit a thousand different ways on the car,look the same,but be totally different and give you a different fender each time.Its amazing to me how they can look like two different animals,the a slight hair this way or that and then it looks like they grew there.

[FlaJunkie]

Yup, doors need to be perfect, first.