Putting the car back together after years

What is the typical gap size between the headlamp and hood/fender?

Does the front of the lamp line up with the front of the fender?

 

its like 3/15 to a 1/4 all the way around. you ant really fully align them until the bumper is on

--also what year do you have?

 

87

I have the bumping hanging on the fenders and plate in front of the rad.

 

I got them to this point, and then gave up on chasing exact gaps all the way around. In person the difference in the passenger's side door gap isn't quite as obvious as it is in this pic

 

those are far enough off on both sides it would bug me

 

What I ran into was if I moved them any more backward (toward the windshield) they hit the hood while opening. If i attempted to fix that by moving the hood backward to give room to move the doors backward, the gap between the hood and nose became huge. So, I chalked it up to; #1, I do believe it had been hit in the front at least once, and, #2 it ain't a concourse restoration of a showcar, just a fun daily driver.

......Got any pics of your's

 

Yea just working on the second lamp.... Bumper is loose still

 

http://www.clipsandfasteners.com/?Click=2
https://www.clipsandfasteners.com/Fe...pas1601-15.htm

 

this was last year before i took off the front end to start the color change.

 

Are the doors level with the hood? From the angle of the picture, it would seem if you could raise the leading edge of them a bit that would take care of a lot of that offset. But yeah, if you're dealing with aftermarket replacement parts, the fit is going to be 'ok' at best.

 

The problem is the gaps all compound off each other. The doors dictate the rear fender gaps. Then you line up the front bumper and hood. Headlights are last because they have infinite adjustment but I can’t seem to get them perfect either. It’s kind of get it close enough and leave it alone. There’s too many adjustment points and most of them are a real PITA with the front bumper / ground effect and core support infill piece installed.

 

IIRC, that's what GM was going for when building these cars!!

And yeah, I know one adjustment begets another, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on... Never-ending project, usually. Hood closes, doors latch, you're golden!!