Is there any way to get this back in?

 

mine has the same thing. i guess a sledge hammer would be over-kill. anyone else know how?

 

look under the fender where it bolts to the underbody. looks like someone has jacked it up on the tab and not the jacking point. the tab should be straight up and down but it looks like its bent outward. if it gets bent inward the fender will pull in. all you need to do if its bent is make room to get to it and then smack it a few times with hammer back into its proper position. it should pull the fender back in as it moves. be careful how hard you hit the tab because it will break if you move it too fast or hit it too hard.

 

after taking a good look at the pic... this might not be the problem you have. but check it anyway. it looks like youre out at the top of the fender but right on towards the bottom. you may need to slide a shim under the rear bolt in the top of fender to pull it up. if the body line of the fender is lower than the door this should fix it. the fenders have quite a bit of movement in them if you know how to manipulate it.

 

<---- Insert every curse word you know here. I think i'm actually looking at some pretty serious damage. The fender apears to be on there just fine. If it was moved over to match the door the hood and windshield wiper would have to move over as well. The gap between the hood and fender is even on either side. This means my fenders position is fine right? Well anyway there is a decent gap between the window and the roof pilar that should not be there down by the fender. Which makes me thing that it may acually be the door that needs to come foward on the top. But if it comes foward ontop then its too high in the back. I'm thinking the car got nailed and they did some half *** body work. Anyway, I guess I have to have a body guy look at it, and probably live with it for awhile untill I can afford to fix it.

 

Welcome to the world of cheap tin.

If the fender is bowed out too far in the middle, but not at the top and bottom, you can put shims between the fender and the body at the bottom. This will make the fender "taller" which will suck the middle in. An 1/8" shim will probably be plenty.

 

I think i'm just going to leave it untill I have a shop look at it, maybie ill give the shim a shot. The fender definatly isn't the only thing damaged. Then the pin striping won't line up when its correct so I would need to get that removed. I guess it doesn't look that bad for now

 

Honestly, I'm surprised you're that concerned. At least from the picture, it looks relatively minor. I've seen stock low mile thirdgens with worse gaps than that.

 

Mine is slightly extended due to some knucklehead previous owner that jacked it up from the "tab" and not the jacking points. I will have to hammer the tab and see if that helps.

 

Forgot to mention, not only is it out like that but the gap between the door and the fender gets gradually bigger as you move up. It goes from where it should be at the bottom to where I can fit my finger in at the top.

 

Assuming it's the fender and not your door that's out of place, that could be a bit tougher to fix. It sounds to me like somebody put on a cheap aftermarket fender instead of a GM fender. Aftermarket stuff rarely fits well. You can slot the upper holes to move the top of the fender back a bit, but if you can fit your finger in, it sounds like it's got a mile to go.