I have a 1984 Camaro S/C it was in a wreck befor I got it, I put on a new hood, new front bumper, & passenger fender. My problem is that the fender and door do not match up, and I cannot open the door. The fender is about a 1/4 inch under the door. How can I fix it? I'm going to try bending the hinges on the door cause its only the lower half that is in the way. Also I want to paint the car, but it is not in the greatest shape. What color do you guys think is the best to hide things? Thank you for any help

 

The frame isn't bent is it?

 

I think it might by. How can I tell by looking at it?

 

i had the same problem with my fenders.... assuming the frame isn't bent, try "bowing" the fenders... that way the door shoudl slip right past it.. make sure they dont' make contact tho.. or else your paint will be messed up

 

how do I bow it without making it look bad?

 

i put my foot in the middle of the part closest to the door, and slowly took the two ends and lifted them up. they fit now... but, i have like 1/4 inch of space away from the door. doesn't look bad in my opinion, but you may want to reconsider if you want a 'perfect' car.

 

I'm not worried about it being perfect but I want it to look good.
Here are some pics of it.

 

1234

 

yea, mine was exactly like that... i bowed it to fit.. make sure the fender is as far forwards as possible.

 

Hey Dingley thanks for the help. Do you know why that happened are our frames bent or is it something else?

 

i really have no idea... i would assume that it is because the metal "changes shape" when it's not on a car. could also be because of a new door. but i don't really know. i hope my frame isn't bent either

 

now i'm almost positive that there are adjustments that can be made to make the fender fit. i would suggest finding the bolts to kinda slide your fender into place. there are even door adjustments in case your door doesnt fit as well.

 

DON'T BEND ANYTHING!!!! Wow. Okay, anyway, like 89firechicken said, there's adjustments for the fender!! There's also adjustments for the hood!! Trust me, you can't just bolt on body parts and be done with it. I bet both of your frames are 100% fine, and you just never tried to align anything! So with that good news, here's what you do:

The top holes for the fenders are slotted, and the bolts ride on shims. This allows for the top of the fender to be pulled out or pushed in from the center of the car. From your picture, the "top" of the fender appears to be pushed way out from the center of the car. I bet when you close your hood, you've got a huge gap between your hood and the fender.

The bottom hole for the fender, between the bottom of the door and the front tire, also has an adjustment, IIRC. I think you can slide that bottom of the fender forwards or backwards. If not, slot that hole in the fender.

So to fix your car, you've gotta loosen the fender bolts, ALL of 'em. Wiggle the fender around at the top and bottom until you get an even gap. Then, repeat this for the driver's side fender. When everythign's aligned to the doors, tighten the fender bolts down, and re-check the doors to make sure nothing moved. REMEMBER, these are fender bolts going into shims, you don't need to crank them down and make them ultra-tight!!! You can screw up the shims that way. (Shim = movable "nut" for the fender screws.) You can buy new shims at any auto parts store, in the "Help!" section (red carded parts).

Now, gently try to close your hood. It might hit the fenders, that's why i say to gently close it. If it does hit the fenders, if you look closely at the hood lines, you'll probably see the hood is cocked to the side. You'll have to loosen the three fender bolts at the back of the fender, which loosens up the hood hinges. Then bump the bottom of the hood hinges with your hand (don't lose a finger if the hood comes down suddenly!) to move the hinges. Then re-try closing the hood. The hood can also be adjusted to the upper part of the hinge. When you get the alignment done, tighten the bolts back down, and try closeing the hood slowly again to make sure your adjustment didn't fall out of whack when you tightened the screws.

You might find, when you've got it all aligned, that the curve of the hood doesn't match the curve of the fenders. An example of a post with a problem like this is here: https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=111061 This means you'll have to play with all of the rubber hood bump stops. There's two on the top of the radiator support. There's one each on the bottom of the hood hinge. There should be some elsewhere, I think there's even a few on the hood. Note that by playing with these, if you go too crazy, you might affect your hood latch's ability to keep the hood closed! That's alright, cause guess what, your hood latch is adjustable too.

I bet I just opened up a nightmare for ya, eh? Be glad you don't have a Firebird. On a Firebird, after aligning the fenders to the doors, and the hood to the fenders, it's not done. The flip-up-headlights have to be aligned to the fender, the hood, AND the front bumper!! It sucks. When I prepped my car for a Maaco paint job, it took me a few hours to get it all aligned.

Good luck! And I think technically this is a "body and interior" forum question, too

 

Thanks TomP I will be fixing that this weekend. Sorry if this is not the right board to post this on. I don't want to **** you guys you have all helped me so much. Thank you all


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