I don't remember where I saw it, but a few weeks back, someone mentioned that their fender stuck out further than the door. As I have seen this many times on third gens, it has almost always been the passenger side that's out of alignment.

In one post, somebody mentioned that the fender mounting bolt area under the car might be bent outward from someone incorrectly jacking the car and bending the mount. For years, I thought this problem was just a GM tolerance/quality issue.

I jacked my car up and found the tab was bent flat to the underside of my car. I took a pair of vice grips and slowly pulled the tab perpendicular to the underside of the car. I need to clean it up now as the vice grips left small marks under there and I have the bees wax undercoating that flaked there, but my fender is now aligned with my door.

Thanks to whoever suggested that. I never even thought that could be the issue, but it made sense when I read it. I now tried it and the car is straight!!!

 

Yeap every camaro i had was like that.I don't even car anymore when i go too look at one to buy cuz i know thats what it is.Well my 85 z 28 was the only camaro i have got that it was ok.

 

i started this thread months ago but it has some good info in it from the helpful people on this board https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=219574

 

Thanks for the additional thread 19Doug...

Hey, I have the opposite going on with mine. The drivers door sticks out about 1/2"-1/3" from the front fender. I don't see any damage and the door opens fine.

Still think the fender could be adjusted out to match up with the door? All this time I thought it was the door that was the problem and I didn't consider the fender having moved out of alignment.

Many have said the opposite problem is common on thirdgens...anyone heard of this?

 

Scott
I remember that post well. Didn't we also talk about panel issues between the third and fourth gen. Glad to know I could actually help a mod for once.

I actually have found a new method of hatch alignment for our cars different than the tech article on this site. I am working on an article right now that actually takes about one third of the time.

I won't expand here just wait a couple of days.

 

As a moderator, we are to maintain sanity and control on the boards. We don't know everything about the cars either and can learn from others. I know what I know from being on these boards for a few years now. Moderators are not the experts, the members of the board are! We just know how to use the search button!!!

 

Interesting. Passed on an '86 IROC last Fall in part because passenger fender stuck out more than the door.

 

I got the same problem and tried bending everything back but the floor in those spots is pushed up. Gonna need the BFH to get things back in order

 

heres what i did, i took the bolt out under the car at the bottom of the fender, then just pushed the bottom of the fender in until it was flush with the door and put a new bolt in it.

 

If the fender is in too far you can shim the big bolt on the bottom of the fender and use a different spot for the other bolt that sort of snaps on to the body side. My fender mounting spot was bent pretty badly so i used vice grips and a hammer to straighten it out. But by the time it was straight the nut that is welded onto it was on barely so i took that off and then made a trip to the hardware store to get a few bolts, washers and nuts.