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kman67rsss
09-25-2004, 09:45 AM
i started hanging my doors, and front sheet metal and i cant get the lines close. i have the inner fender wells installed alredy, could that be my problem. would this be making the fender too stiff, preventing me from flexing them enough to get things in line? any help would be appericated. thanks

ProdigyCustoms
09-25-2004, 10:15 AM
????????

kman67rsss
09-25-2004, 10:40 AM
actually one is an original, and the other is an NOS peice from the late 70's. still had the box and stickers when i got the car. anyways the part im haveing trouble with is the center crease that runs from front to back. cant get it to suck in far enough. will the inner fender support brackets pull it in?

ProdigyCustoms
09-25-2004, 01:42 PM
Here is what you do. And I am serious. You get the top of the fender edge to meet the top corner of the door, and shim the lower fender to match the rocker lower edge and side. It should take a pretty good stack of shims, maybe up to a half inch! The seem in the middle will probably stick out a fair bit now, but everything else line up great, correct?
Now you need a friend, a 10" 4" X 4" block of wood, and a sledge hammer, I am serious here. Have your buddy, (you don't want to be the one with the broken wrist) hold the 4 X 4 flat on the edge of the body line, and you take a soft swing at it. It sounds like it would destroy everything, but done right, it will be ready to pime, block and paint.
I have done this many times, especially with older NOS panels from the worn stamping dies. It is kind of standard practice. Your buddy needs to be 100% certain he has the board flat on the seem, and perectly level with your hammer shot to prevent damage to the car, or himself. It really works well, but if you miss.........., your probably going to say a bad word.

kman67rsss
09-25-2004, 02:06 PM
well i worked at it a little more, and after some shimming and pulling/pushing the drivers side is comming in verry close. if needed i will try your method. thanks for the help.

Overkill
09-25-2004, 04:51 PM
I found an article on Camaros.net a while back. I duplicated the post on my message board.

http://www.camaroheaven.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=51

Michael

Hammered
09-26-2004, 05:08 PM
Prodigy,

Thanks for posting that! I thought I was the only one having that problem with NOS fenders and using virtually the same technique! As for shims, I have found that hardly any are needed on top but a whole bunch on the bottom on my most recent project. And as for technique, I like a 1' 2x4 and about an 8lb ball peen (no friend required).

A couple of additional tips:

Loosely attach the fender well with two bolts at either end of the arch and one on top where the cup washer is normally used - that's it. Don't tighten them all the way down.

Second, it's hard to tell how far your door tops need to be pulled in until you mount the cowl panel. Make sure to have the cowl panel laying in place while your doing this.

Third, once you get the belt line or peek aligned with the door, you may find that the top of the fender sits lower than the door line. With the top cowl bolt properly shimmed and tightened, use a 1x2 piece of wood between the fender top and upper hinge to pry the fender top up, then tighten the hinge post bolt to hold in place.

Fourth, don't worry about your door bottoms perfectly aligning with the rocker as long as the rest of the door aligns with the fender and quarter. The bottoms can always be tweaked in and out with the same 2x4 and ball peen used earlier. Save this job for last.

John