driver side door hitting fender!!

[rickierockit92]

1966 el camino, this is the issue im having... the door opens and closes fine with the bottom of the front fender bowed out like this. looks crappy and needs to fit right and its driving me up the wall. the bottom bolt that holds it in is there but not holding it in. I loosened it, pushed it in, tightened, and it looked great and straight. except for the door not being able to open more then a few inches and it hits. I bought the body and paint already done, and as you can see the previous owner chipped the door right where it hits and just decided to leave it as is instead of adjusting it correctly ): I'm sure this topic has been covered, but my question is ... should I adjust the door or the front fender?? and any other advice/tips would be very appreciated. first time messing with these adjustments. thanks in advance. rich

[Auto Rod Technologies]

You need to first align the door to the fixed panel.. in this instance I guess you would call it the bedside/quarter, as you cannot move this item. This is much easier to achieve with the fenders off.. For instance if you move the top front of the door in, the bottom left will kick out.. You want to get the back of the door flush with the quarter panel from the top to the bottom..

and adjust the striker in and out to make it all the same. You also want to consider the door to rocker line at this point, trying to make it flush by adjusting the bottom front edge of the door in and out, then the top to compensate to make the back edge of the door flush again.. But once you get the back you can move the front in and out equally on the top and bottom and not mess up the back line.

Then on to the fenders.. Body lines on these old cars were not meant to be what they are on newer cars.. Sometimes it takes a lot of metal work to make perfect lines...

How tight is the fender to door line when looking at it from the side? My guess is you could spoon the bottom of the fender forward some to give you the clearance you need..

[pro67coupe]

I have had thw same thing with my car. Some adjustments with the door fixed it. Good luck with the problem and nice lookin car

[snappytravis]

If you look close the body line on the fender and door doesn't line up, the fender may need some shims on the bottom to pull it down and help with alignment on the body line. If you put a jack under the front of the bumper and jack up to put a little pressure on the end of the frame, then loosen the lower fender bolt it should flex enough to widen this gap. Then maybe shim and tighten back up, Check and see what it has for shims under the bolt on the top of fender compared to the drivers side? Put some masking tape on the edges to help prevent more damage while your trying to adjust it. It almost looks like a patch panel was installed a little to high on the fender and the countour of the panel is to flat.

[rickierockit92]

thanks for the info!

How tight is the fender to door line when looking at it from the side? My guess is you could spoon the bottom of the fender forward some to give you the clearance you need..[/QUOTE]

from the side it is 3/16'' of space ...... by spoon forward you mean??