Lining up fenders & doors

[veltboy618]

My car is looking a lot like this one by that way it is broke down. My doors were leaning before I took them off & the corners of the fenders on both sides close to the windshield were sticking up a little bit. If the door would have been straight the fenders still would have been too high where they meet the doors. I'm going to install new bushings & pins in the door hinges but I'm sure the fenders will still be too high. How do I fix this when I'm putting everything back together & what is the easiest way to line everything up?

 

[bosted86]

once you rebuild the hinges, hang the doors and line them up with the rocker and the quarter panel making sure the gaps are even. once your satified with the door alignment, you hang the fenders. you will need a shim kit. use the shims to align the fenders with the doors. not hard just take your time. hope this is what you were asking.

 

[Yedi]

once you rebuild the hinges, hang the doors and line them up with the rocker and the quarter panel making sure the gaps are even. once your satified with the door alignment, you hang the fenders. you will need a shim kit. use the shims to align the fenders with the doors. not hard just take your time. hope this is what you were asking.

well said. Start from the back forward.

These cars used alot of shims from the factory. I always keep track of what shim/how many were where.. You've got some work ahead of ya, take yur time, if done correctly you can get these cars gaps looking real nice.

 

[rag231]

lining up doors and fenders

Don't forget about your bushings that support your radiator support. They come into play once the fenders attach to it.

 

[just plain john]

x2 on the core support bushings. The fenders attatch in the front to the core support. Degraded bushings let the support sit too low. It's always a good idea to bag and tag the shims from each bolt locatiom during removal, when reinstalled in their correct locations the fender is usually right on the money. If not, it's a lot of shimming/tighten/check/loosen/add-subtract shim/tighten/check/loosen ect til it's right.

 

[ikle]

Hang the doors so that you have a even gap all the way down the entire length of the rocker,even gap between door and quarter panel and that the door is flush with the quarter with the body lines matching up with one another.Once you achieve this hang the fenders and radiator support,loosely tighten the bolts by hand,concentrate on matching up the body lines and getting the same gap between the door and the fender as you did on the quarter then tighten the upper fender bolts,you most likely need some shims to do this.Now a trick to getting an even gap all the way down the fender from top to bottom is you first need a jack.If the lower part of the fender is wider than the top all you do is put the jack under the frame rail where the first body mount is (not radiator support mount) and jack the car up until you achieve the desired gap then tighten lower bolts.If the lower gap is tighter than the top put the jack under the front of the frame near the radiator support mount and jack up car until you achieve the desired gap then tighten lower bolts.Once you have a good fender to door gap hang and tighten header panel,make sure to line up the body lines and make sure it's flush with the fenders tighten remaining fender bolts.Next hang hood so the gaps are even from side to side and has a even gap between the header panel and the hood,you might want to remove the hood latch to make it easier,you will also need to shift the radiator support left or right to achieve this.Once you have the desired gaps tighten radiator support bolts and reassemble hood latch so the hood stricker hits in the exact middle of the hood latch if not you will have binding and when you pull the hood release it may not want to open.Before you tackle this you might want to make shire all your body mounts are in good shape.Good luck and take your time,ikle.