Heres the story, was going too fast around a long right turn and basically ended up going straight instead of around the corner. Front left tire hit the curb really hard, put a dent in the rim and blew the tire. I am fairly certain that the rest of the car completly hopped the curb as my air dam and exhaust is completly fine but the impact to the front left was severe enough to make the iroc plastic center cap pop off my back right wheel.

Got the car up on jack stands in my garage and absolutly everything looks fine, nothing is bent, nothing is cracked, the subframe rails look completly fine, nothing looks out of place at all.

The problem is where the passenger side door meets the front 1/4 panel the its out of alignment, the 1/4 panel is sticking out about half of a finger width farther then the door. Its the worst in the middle of the door and gets close to being right as it gets near the top or bottom of where the two pieces meet.

I guess concievably i could have tweaked my car. Any sugestions on things to check for possible damage? how do i check them? I am still in the diagnosis stage but i cant find anything that looks out of place. Ill get some pics soon.

 

heres the pics. Sorry for the super low resolution but its freezing outside and i cant find the good camera.
#1

 

#2

 

and last of all #3

 

Every 3rd gen I've ever owned has the same problem. Not as extreme on some, but the doors and the fenders dont line up perfectly. As far as I know, the frames and suspensions were fine (had them all checked). I never got around to figguring out the exact cause, but I think it has something to do with the alignment of the fender itself. If I were you I'd take the car to an alignment shop and have them verify nothing is bent or broken. If they cant measure the frame, then try a body shop.

 

well the thing is i really dont remember it being this off before i would have noticed that so this is a post accident result. It will obvoisly need an alignment and will be checked out but its going to be sitting in the garage for the next 3-4 months for the duration of the winter so i was hoping there was something i could check to figure out whats causing this. A little out of alignment happens but half a finger width is waaay too much.

 

not really a problem man i doubt you tweaked your car its common on thirdgens

 

Does the door open right or is it hard to open shut. Is the bolts on the upper door hindge tight, if they were loose you could of made it move. You would of more than likely cracked the k member before bending the frame of the car. Lon at top down solutions might have a suggestion for you he seems to know alot about the door alignments and has some special tools for it. Did you knotice it before or after putting the car on stands.

There is a bolt right behind the logo on the fender skirt. this is bolted to a stamped peice and is what holds the fender at the bottom. More than likely you bent this both out and up. You can unbolt the fender and straighten or replace the bracket. Then work the fender back right. I had to do this after some idiot at a tire shop decided that would be a good place to jack up the car....... but I was able to straighten it up and get it aligned as well as it was b4 it happened.

Or the sudden suspension travel and jurk of the weel with the tire blowing out it could of hit the fender and buldged it out.

 

I agree with aviators theory ..That 1/2 bolt on the bottom fender loosens up with time and the fender itself has a 3/4 hole in it so if that bolt was loose. any impact would make it shift causing the alignment problems Just inspect the lower fender and loosen the bolt and align it back and tourqe it to 45lbs That should fix it for ya .And make sure to check the top fender rail bolts if those are loose they will cause the fender to shift .. How is the hood-fender gap?? It should be the same on both sides about 1/4 gap .Good luck.........

 

the hood sits perfect on the drivers side but is about 1/4 of an inch too low on the passenger side although i think it was like that b4 the accident. Thanks for the advice guys ill go and check to make sure all the bolts are tight. The other thing i was thinking is that since my suspension is so out of alignment and the car is jacked up on the suspension (dont want my springs unloaded for the whole winter) that if the suspension was out enough the car could be sitting slightly twisted on the stands? As it appears there is no damage anywhere on the bottom of the car so i dont think i need to worry about it too much. I still have a good couple months of winter so it might have to just come down to getting it fixed by an alignment shop. Any other opinions keep em coming or if you need me to grab pics of anything so you can make a better judgement let me know i found the better camera

EDIT: oh and the door opens and shuts with no problem

 

Ok. Now that you have said that the underneath appears to have no damage .At this point It is time to loosen all the fender bolts and try to align it back in ..I find that it is easier to start from the top and work your way down .First mark your hood hinge assembly with a sharpie and start to take the hood hinge bolts out.Try to tie the hood open some how to make it easier and safer to work on.Once you have the hood hinge bolts out start from the front and pull the bolts out .At this point the fender will be easier to adjust .Once you have it aligned at the top put in the farthest back bolt and snug it down good..Now check the door opening gap and make sure it is about 1/4 and flush with the outside of door . Now snug the farthest bottom top rail bolt .If all looks good untie the hood and slowly bring it down to the fender .Note( take out the hood latch hook ) this will make it much easier to align the hood without having to pop it open .Most of the time I find that with this procedure that the front fender will bulge out a bit .But dont worry .As long as it is square to the driver side and is not rubbing the fender you can tighten the hood hinge bolts .Now that the hood is tightened square adjust the gap from fender to hood .Then crank all bolts to 45lbs and you should be done..Good luck man

 

Oh I almost forgot ..Pics please when done...

 

ill definitly get some pics when its done. However doubt that will be for a few months, im not going to go through all that work until i have an alignment done and i get someone to check the car out to make sure there isnt damage that im just not seeing. Not to mention its freezing in the garage and i dont exactly have the money for a space heater. Thanks for the tips though im going to book mark this page and ill come back to it when im able to work on the car. Thanks again for the info

 

As everyone says, the bottom fender bolt is probally the culprit. The tab is always bent upwards when put on a lift. The drivers side tab on my firebird was bad enough I had to hack it off. Now I have to make my own bracket...

Anyways, also try the top fender bolts, each on is on a clip in a oval hole. If you loosen it up and have someone push it into alignment while you tighten it up, it might fix the problem.

 

How does the left fender meet the left door and hood

 

Wow, noc... thank you captain 'Ressurect the 4 month old thread'. Good to see people are searching, but please pay attention to how old what you're looking at is while you are.

but hey.. while it's here, was there a conclusion to this, 19doug90?