So I bought a 88 roc from a kid a while back, he tried but unfortunalty fell short on a couple things. The worst being front panel alignment, Hood Fenders, bumper cover. Nothing looks good, big gap between the hood and cover, fender lines dont follow the hood. As im new to this and after searching a great while, where would i start? pull everything on and put in back on? or start with the hood and then fenders? Or is it just the hood? any advice will be appriciated.

 

Post some pics if you can. Some may disagree, but if the gaps are bad enough, I pull the fenders, hood, and bumper off the car to see what is bent or damaged behind all of the panels causing the misalignment. You may find some serious structural damage or it could just be some missing shims or shims in the wrong place. There are lots of reasons for misalignment, but in my experience it's always because of a wreck.

 

I set the doors to the body, fenders to the doors and then the nose and hood. It can take some time....pics would help.

 

thanks, ill have to post some pics this weekend. Ive inspected the frame as much as possible and didnt see any sign of a damage. But thats not to say there isnt any. If there is frame damage in the past would that make the title a salvaged title?

 

Best pics I have right now

 

For lack of better views of the car, this looks like mostly hood adjustment.

 

hopefully, Ill look into adjusting it, seen a couple posts talking about it but none in real detail. google can probably help.

 

Get some pics showing fenders on both sides, gaps at doors, straight on to hood. Close enough to see lines but not so close you dont get the full view. Looks like the pass. fender may be out from door a touch on top? Gap on the hood front is latch adjustment, hood looks racked between the fenders (only see right side of gap)

 

Will do, thanks for the help.

 

LOL if you want someone to pick apart body alignment, it's one of my pet peeves. bad gaps van make the best paint job look like crap IMO.

 

Actually looks better than most IMO (and mine at the moment!). The best way is the factory way. Now I worked fenders and doors in a japanese plant a long time ago (obviously not f-bodies) but in general the methods are the same.

Work back to front, doors first. Then fenders with the front fascia on or at least a header panel to set front width. Then mount and adjust hood etc.

My issue on the other-hand is that one of my fenders has a much bigger gap in the middle than at either end... But I have a plan...

Kicker is I could do both doors on a car in under a minute 30 and each fender in the same time. Took days to get my f-body to where it is now (just fenders and doors), still more to go... So much easier on the line.

 

Roger that, anyone know the normal gap around the doors?

 

For the hood the easiest thing is to try and screw down the little rubber bump stops on the front corners, see if that helps. If not there is adjustment of the hood hinge and the header bar, but try the bump stops first.