Hey guys.

I took my 1983 Firebird to my schools shop this week for an oil change. I had only 10 minutes left of class, so I was a little rushed to get it finished. Me not thinking, and working with a bunch of little inexperienced freshman kids, the car was lifted with the front jack arms right behind the front wheels instead of the subframes.

What was the result? A fresh 5 quarts of oil, a fresh new oil filter, and an f'ed up car....

Not realizing it untill after the bell rang and everyone jet off for lunch, but my drivers side door now hits the front fender when you try to open it. It only moves a good 4 or 5 inches out before it hits. The whole door looks pretty whacked out of alignment.
Ya know, its a real pain in the *** having to get in and out on the passenger side of the car.

Anyways, if anyone knows how I might be able to repair the aftermath of my stupidity, any help would greatly be appriciated.

Thanks....


PS - HASTE MAKES WASTE!!!! (and feel free to point and laugh)

 

"points and laughs" j/k


ouch that sucks man, well the only idea that comes to mind is that the body itself got tweaked. other than that I draw a blank.



Hope someone else can help you out better than I can.

 

IF I understand what youre saying you jacked the car up in the spot behind the front wheel where the stock jack would go.? If thats the case what you have done is bent the tab on the bottom of the fender where it bolts to the underbody. This is a common problem with these cars. The fix is simple. Get the car back up off the ground, and take a hammer and smack the tab back to its proper location. Its probably bent up under the body, so it needs to be smacked back out. Once its back in a close to right location check the door and see if it hits. If it still hits check to see how even the fender and door seam is. You may need to use a body washer to push the fender back out some. Ive had to fix both my cars of this problem on several ocassions.

 

yeah that's what i was thinking, he probably just bent the fender mounting piece. i don't think you would screw up the door alignment unless you actually jacked it up on the door.

 

that was my thought, also. try realigning the fender. if it really is a body problem, bring it to a body shop. they can straighten the car.

 

whos gonna laugh at ya?! no one...it happens to everyone,we all have done strange things but you will learn from your mistakes!!

good luck with it!

 

Because of my work and school schedual, I havent been able to mess with it lately. I will hopefully be able to take some pictures and post them up here tomorrow afternoon.

 

Hey Folks.

Here are some pictures that I took after I walked in from work. I hope they help show the problem a little better. I'll hopefully be able to tear into it soon.

Http://www.freewebz.com/blargmaster/pic1.jpg
Http://www.freewebz.com/blargmaster/pic2.jpg
Http://www.freewebz.com/blargmaster/pic3.jpg

 

That sucks. Maybe you knocked the subframe out of whack.

And don't worry about it, we've all done stupid things. Here's an example to make you feel better. We have a set of aluminum ramps that my dad made. They stand about 3 feet tall, and span the length of the car, plus a couple feet. That way, you drive onto them, and jack up the rear of the car and put stands under them. It's like a lift. Anyways, I put my car up on it, but didn't nose my wheels all the way to the front of the ramps, I was about a foot short. I started to jack up the rear of the car, but the weight offset was wrong and it lifted the rear tires off the ramps. So, what was stopping the car from rolling back? Just the wheels on the jack.... The car rolled off the ramps, and it took all my might to stop it from rolling into the street. The angle doesn't look that bad, but when you have 3600 lbs of car rolling back on you fast, you'de be surprised at the effort it takes to stop it from moving That was my 92 RS that I did that to, not my TA that's on the ramps in the pic.

I tried to open your pics too, but for some reason the links are opening up more pages of this thread. Anyone else having this problem?

Matt

 

Ouch, that sucks about your camaro dude. But at least it gives me some peice of mind . About the links, you will probably have to copy/paste them in your web browser for them to work.