zride91

I have had the doors, fenders, hood, bumper, etc... off my car now for years from a fresh spray of paint.

I am just getting to put body panels back on the car again, now that the motor/tranny is back in.

I had replaced the upper door hinges with AndyZ28's greasable hinge pins, and I replaced the lower hinge pin/bushings, I also got a whole new GM lower hinge for the driverside door. The fenders are brand new GM fenders (my rear end is still soar).

I have installed the passenger door, and the back and bottom of the door look like it lines up OK to the body. When I loosly put the fender on, the top of the fender sticks out further than the door by quite a bit. I tried wiggleing the fender around to see if the slotted mounting holes would give me the correction needed, but it just doesn't seem to be enough.

The bottom fender mount between the door and the wheel was originally crushed by someone who didn't know the jacking locations, I had the shop who painted the car straighten the mounting point out. i understand I still have some tweeking I can do with this point, but it still doesn't seem it would be effective enough. The fender lines up good with the door at the lower half other than the fender maybe being a touch too high, this I can see adjusted with the lower mount.

The upper half of the fender/door is where I don't know what to do.

Is it possible to have shim/spacers behind the upper body side door hinge to have the upper half of the dooor stick out more? or is there another adjustment I should look at?

Any help/advice is appreciated.

Thanks

1986iroc350

iTrader: (1)

my passenger side is out of whack as well. i hope someone replies that knows. i would be interested to know as well good luck.

tony_cogliandro

iTrader: (3)

its damaged and you need to tweek it. it takes some pulling and pushing but you can get the thing back in line so the fender fits well.
and while you have it apart put in some subframe connectors.

zride91

What could be damaged? The fenders are brand new GM fenders from the GM dealer that cost $300 PER SIDE. There should not be anything wrong with these fenders, I forked up the cash so I didn't have to deal with some of the things I hear come about from aftermarket fenders. The fenders were left in their original pakaging right up until they were sprayed, then they were babied in moving blankets.

If I have to "tweek" the fenders (which I am not to excited to think about), will that damage the paint, cause cracking, etc.? What do you do, just pull at it from different angles till it sits right against the door?

Subframe connectors are the first thing on the list after I get it running to bring to a shop to weld on.

Thanks

mnwildpunk

I had the same problem with my first Camaro what I ended up doing was slotting out the fender holes but the kicker may be when you get the fender where you need it and put the hood on watch for clearance there.

nlavigna

im having this same problem. my passenger door doesn't line up correctly with the fender. theres about a 1/4"-1/2" gap. hope someone has a solution!

camarotucker

iTrader: (2)

From a written description without seeing it.

It sounds like the bottom of the fender (door side) needs to either come down, outboard, inward . My guess would be that the pinch weld will have to go further back (inboard), and/or down. I would let the shop that did the repair, do it a second time (fit fender). Its possible the pinch weld may need to come outboard, this can be checked by throwing some shims behind the bolt.

If you move the door hinge outward the window will have to be adjusted, and the lower rear of the door will move in.

l_dis_travlr

I can't add any technical advice, but I can empathize because I'm
facing very much the same situation -- i.e. re-assembly after
considerable down time. Fortunately, I haven't done the final painting.

And so what I hope to offer is an observation that will hopefully save
others this head-ache, in the future.

To wit: When extensive, &/or lengthy mods are executed in conjunction
with painting, do as much fit & finish as possible,
before final painting. Then carefully label bolts,
shims, etc. during (hopefully final) disassembly, prior to finish-painting.
Deformity at the paint shop is possible but much less likely.

Good luck, and keep up posted about the final outcome.

Coprice 9C1

It's been my experience that nothing on these cars goes back together perfectly without some tweaking.

My 83 TA is being painted right now. I have been helping some when I can. We re-hung the painted doors last night and the drivers side went on fine and was able to be adjusted. The passenger side wasn't giving in as easy. None of the adjustments would get it perfect. My body man got out the ol' 2x4 and stuck it in between the body and the lower hinge and pushed the door toward closed, rocking it a few times. The end result was that it was better when afterward. A couple more times and it was perfect.

Before anyone gets all crazy on me, he is 71 years old and has been doing this since he was 16. He knows his stuff and has been around the block.

My point is that sometimes you have to tweak, bend, slot, pry...whatever. Even then, sometimes you just have to know the order to do those things to get the fit correct.

I've taken 5 of these cars apart and have never seen a shim behind any door hinge. I'm not saying it might not be needed, but all 3 bolts on the hinge would need to spaced the same, and even then as has been mentioned before, it would throw the window alignment off.

zride91

Wow, didn't notice this post got going again. Sorry to hear you're all having the same problems, but it's kind of comforting to know I didn't screw anything up out of the ordinary.

So my project is taking MUCH longer than expected and I still don't have the car on the road... However I do have it all in one piece for the most part.

I never was happy with the alignment of the doors and fenders. I had the car brought to a local shop to have a lot of these miscellaneous items worked out, including aligning the doors/fenders and welding in the subframe connectors. No shims ended up going under the door hinges, but there are a crud load of shims behind the lower mounts of the fenders, too much in fact. I want to take some of them out, as it is so bad on my driver side now that the rocker ground effects don't even fit tight to the body because the lower fender is pushed out so much with the shims. I really am tired of crap work that I've been paying decent money for. Where are the skilled people that take pride in work these days? Do they exist anymore? My neighbor owned this shop, and I know he does good work. It's discouraging, and has a lot to do with why I'm still working on this project. At this point it's a minor thing to me now, as I just want to get the car going on the road again, afterwards I'll go looking for more of a dedicated collision or body alignment shop.

camarotucker

iTrader: (2)

[quote=zride91;5670717]Where are the skilled people that take pride in work these days? quote]


http://www.parderby.com/

alex722607

iTrader: (3)

I just came upon this thread. Well I have some body alignment issues myself. For starters it's an 88 gta. The body work was done by a body shop but a couple of things were a little out of wack. The drivers door had to be replaced because of the rust on my old one. It has a 1991 firebird base door in it. The window is the original that came with the car. The window moves quite a bit, I'm thinking something is loose, every time I close the door, the window moves outward and doesn't engage the t- top seals properly unless I push on the window when closing it. My pass door window snags on the triangular weatherstrip when going up, this I have no clue how to resolve. I have tried adjusting the triangle to no avail. Another problem is the drivers headlight. It scraped on the hood a little when I got the car back, just a little in the corner. I adjusted the brackets a tad, now it just looks completly off alignment. Another small problem that developed after a few months is the pass fender bulged out a little towards the center - enough to be noticeable. The car was getting its tranny replaced, I'm thinking the tranny guys pushed up on it with the lift. Can anyone help me out

zman33

I installed 1990 camaro doors on my 1989 Pontiac Firebird it fits but when I put the fender on it has an inch difference does anyone know how to fix this
thanks

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Step 1: Stop bumping threads from 2013. Just start a new thread if you can't find a recent thread.

Step 2: Adjust the fender.

Billgluckman

Zman those are terrible pics but I’m betting if you look at the bottom of the fender where it bolts to the body tab that it’s pushed up into the body from jacking. Again, terrible pics but it kinda looks like your fender is bent.

Brian Laycox

DONT HAVE TO BE A DICK. Why the hell do you think there are threads from the past?? TO HELP PEOPLE. If you don't want anybody bumping an old thread, then delete the thread when you're done with it.
Someone in 2007 might of had a problem that im looking to fix today. Im supposed to start a new thread? There is no "start and new thread button" just so ya know. By the time someone sees it in an ocean of new threads, I'll be dead. Good day.

OrangeBird

iTrader: (1)

Hello Brian. I'd like to interrupt your rant against Drew to point out a couple of thing here, If you don't mind.....

First off, calling fellow TGO members "Dicks" is a personal attack and is against TGO rules, subjecting you to possible censure by a moderator.

And secondly, there most certainly is a tab to start a new thread in every subforum of TGO, as shown here ;

scottmoyer

So, Drew made his statement almost two years ago about a 6.5 year old thread being brought back, and Brian decides to complain about it now? Not sure why it was brought up again, just to attack Drew. I think it's kinda funny though.