Starting alignment of panels...

[absintheisfun]

I know that to get gaps "right" it takes adding some weld, or grinding some panel until there is an even gap between the panels-gotcha.

But what about when the panel is not aligning horizontally? I have beat on this fender until my hands were black and blue! I thought about pulling it off and putting pressure on the top and bottom, but thought I would check on here for advise first.

The picture below is the driver door and fender. Either the fender needs to be pushed in, or the door pulled out. Can the door be pulled out with washers/spacers behind the hinge bolts?

[gearbanger]

I dont know what kind of car it is, but on my GTO, the door is adjustable both where the hinge bolts to the body and where it bolts to the door, so yes you could loosen the hinge from the door and adjust the door out. Having said that, you need to adjust the door fisrt so that is matches up all the way around, then install cowl cover if any and then the fender so that all those pieces line up together. It takes alot of fussing with everything to get it as perfect as you can. When you get it as perfect as you can get it, I would drill some alignment holes with an 1/8" or 3/16" bit all the way through. That way when you really fine tune it, you can install and reinstall them in the same spot every time.

Good luck.

[67 ls1 vert]

Pull out the door first before you cut or beat on anything. Try to get everything fit the best you can before you do and modifying. Like Alex said, the door are adjustable both ways.

Good luck.

[CamaroAJ]

loosen the bolts on the door side of the hinge and pull the door out. if there is alot grime in it then they might not slide out all the way.

[mikey]

I wouldn't put washers behind the hinges. It will most likely move the door out to far and result in a door to body seal problem. Slide the door out on the hinge far as possible first. Most likely your fender is bowed in the middle.

[dhutton]

That looks like original sheet metal, it should align well. I am not too far from you so I could come by and give you a hand.

[absintheisfun]

That looks like original sheet metal, it should align well. I am not too far from you so I could come by and give you a hand.

I may just take you up on that, but for now Ive decided to take a step back and prep and prime all the panels and shave the drip rails before alignment. I have a long annoying history of jumping steps because I get too excited to see the end result...Classic "cart before the horse" When I circle back to alignment I'll shoot you a pm if I get too frustrated. Thanks for the offer!

[Rod]

Im guessing this is a camaro from the looks of that fender top? so go bolt all panels into place loosely not just the fender you need to put the cowl panel, header, valance, hood all in place, to bring the bulge on that fender in you shim either the bottom of the fender to pull it down or shim the top and align it with the cowl panel height also moving the fender left or right changes that bulge and door gap that's why you need all panels in place, its nice when it comes together, tape all the shims together and write there location down so when you take the car apart for paint you dont have to do it all over again, it is more work than slapping a Honda fender on