[Sebro1231]

Trying to put the finishing touches on 69 Vert for my daughters graduation present now ... down to a couple of challenges.
Endura is not yet installed but/and I have a fitment issue never experienced. I hope one of you more experienced gents can help.

When looking from the front of the car at the " inboard ends or edges" of the front fender on the drivers side it appears kiltered downward to the inboard edge where it attaches to the core support. Measurements say that it is same height as inboard edge of passenger fender. The core support appears level.

Looking closer discovered that the "outward upper edge" of the front end of the drivers fender (while looking from the front of the car) is 1/2 inch higher than the opposite passenger side (in comparison to the inward edge the car is level on frame) thus leading to the kiltered appearence when compare to the more "level" opposite fender.

How could this be? The fender appears fine in all respects and is fitted to door, innner fender and core support pretty decently. Can a fender be twisted and still fit ok or have any of you experenced a varience like this. It is almost as if the front of the fender needs to be rotated outward and downward but this will cause issues in hood body line and door relationship.

Any help appreciated!
Merry Christmas
Steve

[400 4spd.]

Sounds like the core support is lower on the driver's side.
Car on jack stands?
New sub-frame bushings?
Any signs of old frame or core support damage?
New core support bushings?
Next you need to establish if you have any twist,starting low.
With the car on it's wheels, I would confirm the rocker height is equal on both sides. By that I mean the right and left rear corners match, and the right and left front corners match, regardless of differences front to rear. Then move to the front frame rails where the core support attaches. Confirm that the rail ends match in height.
If the body is right at the rockers but something further forward is off, you may need to shim the sub-frame or core support.

Another question-when you bolted up the lower driver's fender, did it want to rub the rocker and have to be forced forward, or bulge outward behind the wheel?

[Sebro1231]

Good response ... thanks.

Frame is straight with all new bushions.

Core support IS lower to the ground on drivers side (re-pop core support) can't yet determine why.

The car is on jack stands at present but the same scenerio exist when wheels down.

I think I have determined that the fender is somewhat "twisted" near the front in fitment possibly due to inner fender / battery tray. Gonna try working backwards from front.

Will update.

[61-63]

It may have been that way before you took it apart and you just didn't notice it. I've been involved now in taking a few cars apart and putting them back together and every time putting them back together things start showing up that I/we didn't see taking them apart. The first car I helped a friend with was a '64 GTO and we wondered what in the world we were doing wrong as we just couldn't get the gaps right. We did the best we could and just put it all back together. A year or so later we got to look at a couple of survivor '64 and '65 GTOs that had never been apart and it turns out we were not doing anything wrong that is just the way they were built, but we hadn't noticed it when we were taking my friend's car apart.

[craigs69]

I just finished up my 69 Vert and experienced the very same issue. When I took the car apart, I taped all of the body shims together and labeled them to be certain that they all went back in the same place. I did not remove the tub from the frame and re-used the fenders and core support, so I thought assembly would be a no-brainer. When I put the car back together, NOTHING fit. You would have sworn that everything was from a different car. My drivers side front fender was low in the front but the highest point along the body line where the endura mates to the fender was 3/8" higher than the passenger side. It didn't make sense. I ended up shimming the core support down on the passenger side and putting 1/8" shims between the top of the fender and core support on the drivers side. I must have 20+ hours getting the gaps correct, but it all looks really good now. Even my body guy was impressed, he didn't think it would come out that good. Keep at it......it will be a bit of a pain but worth it in the end.

[Greg Reid]

In my limited experience, it's a waste of time to make notes on how many shims were where when you took one apart. Every time I've done it, I've found that it's better/easier to just start from scratch and adjust everything to look right today...
Also, I've found that it makes a surprisingly BIG difference whether the car is supported by it's suspension parts or by the chassis behind the door hinges...Especially on the '68/'69 A body cars with those heavy endura bumpers hanging out there off the end of the frame...not to mention, the suspension parts themselves and... the engine!

[400 4spd.]

In my post I mentioned "sub-frame", thinking it was an F-body. Same would apply to full frame bodies as well.

[69Customs]

You did put back in the rubber snubbers under the fender that sit on the core support? They can change a lot of things. It takes a lot of hours to line it up. the curve of the fender on the 69 can be changed just by pushing in or out on it which can also change the top. Like Greg Reid says it changes every time you take it apart. It took me 4-5 times aligning it from scratch before I got it to my liking. Maybe I just got better the more times I fooled with it. And then if you jack the body up and put the frame on jack stands it does all kinds of things to the gaps until you get it back down on the wheels.

[Sebro1231]

Still fighting the issue. I did replace the rubber fender (rest) and it appears all well. The fitment of all panels do change when placed on frame vs. suspension. I have the car up now to fix the brake dust shields ( put dropped spindles on it) but will get it back on ground and get back on the fender issue. It is a puzzle....., will update!
Thanks,
STeve