[SAAC2110]

I'VE PRETTY MUCH BURNED THROUGH THE WHOLE DAY ON GETTING MY HOOD ALIGNED AFTER ABOUT ANOTHE DAY ALIGNING THE DOORS AND FENDERS ON MY 71 GP AND STILL HAVE MY FRONT LEFT FENDER MOUNTED FARTHER FORWARD THAN MY RIGHT FENDER JUST TO HAVE TOLLERABLE GAPS ALONG THE LINES. THE FRONT LEFT FENDER IS ALSO BURIED AGAINST THE ROCKER PANEL AT THE BOTTOM JUST TO CLOSE UP THE GAPS. HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD THIS MUCH TROUBLE ON ALIGNING BODY PANELS ON THESE CARS? I'VE NEVER HAD THIS MUCH TROUBLE ALIGNING AND SHIMMING BODY PANELS LIKE THIS BEFORE!

THANKS, STEVE

[mike nixon]

Steve, I'm going to move this to the body forum as it's the same for most cars.

Align the doors with the 1/4's first, then adjust the front accordingly.

Mike

[dhutton]

Post some pics if you can. Doors to rocker and quarters, fenders to doors, hood to fenders, fenders to firewall, etc.

Did you replace the body mount bushings? Core support bushings?

Don

[rohrt]

Are the panels painted?

[SAAC2110]

Working on getting the pictures shot and posted, the panels were painted away from the body after body work was performed, the front cowl or radiator support had rot at the bushing hole and was repaired along with replacing the front bushings before I began the body work to the car and did give myself ample room at the fender to door gap area to prevent any schaffing between the panels. The big problem we had was after the body work was done one of my employes had left an argon bottle unattended as usual and got knocked over onto the left side of the fender - oh goody!! Sooo.....We procured another fender from a 72 grand prix and did a rough install but we also failed to mount it with the header panel and hood on. We had good alignment of the panel and were reassured from reliable sources that the 71 and 72 fender are the same but the donor panel is giving me the most heartache right now. I have the lower portion of the fender butted up against the rocker panel while the passenger side has almost a 3/16 inch gap running parallel with the door and rocker to the fender, also only need sim for the inner fender to firewall support that also doubles as the anchor for the hood hinge - perfect fit and gap all the way to the header. Drivers side thats a whole different story.... Big question right now is a 72 fender that different from a 71 and they are both factory?

I'll get the shots of the problem areas posted hopefully tonight. Its not off that much but da%&$$$ this is really bugging the crap out of me. I've been doing restos, frame straightening for 13 years and this car has by far been the most aganizing to date!

Thanks loads John Delorean!!!


Steve

[400 4spd.]

With your past experience, this may sound like a stupid question, but here goes.
Do you have the car sitting on it's front wheels, or jack stands? These GP's sag really bad when on stands.

[Mr_GTO]

Originally Posted by 400 4spd.

With your past experience, this may sound like a stupid question, but here goes.
Do you have the car sitting on it's front wheels, or jack stands? These GP's sag really bad when on stands.

And when the front cross member isn't supported especially when an engine is still in the car.

[SAAC2110]

I've either had the car on the drive on rack or on the ground, like to do panel install with the vehicle unsupported on all four wheels. I usually take the car out afterwards to flex it out a bit and make sure everything settles. The car is pretty clean underneath and remaining O.E. body bushings are still in good shape along with the mounting areas.
I have been trying to look through some of the shots of the car before disassembly to look at the alignment and gaps but previous shots were take with a cheap phone camera and hard to make out fine details. Hopefully I'll get those pictures today.

[rohrt]

My 77 GP gaps were and are still terrible.

[SAAC2110]

hopefully these shots will post

[SAAC2110]

more shots

[SAAC2110]

and yet more shots

[SAAC2110]

Its hard to tell from the crappy shots but hopefully enough detail to show what I'm dealing with here. Front left fender is my main trouble area as you can see.

[mike nixon]

TMK, Noone has repopped steel G/P fenders so the sheetmetal is GM.

71 and 72 fenders interchange.

Mike

[SAAC2110]

Thats what I thought also. Its hard to tell in the pictures but I've had to move my drivers side door back to keep it from rubbing the fender and its shoved but up against the rocker panel and still protudes to far out at the front. Really don't want to move everything on the passenger side forward just to compensate for the fender but if you looked at the front of the car in person the overhang on the fender is pretty noticeable.
Just really getting tired of chasing these gaps to try and keep everything equal on the car.

[beemergary]

I've longated holes and put shims were the factory never did. I worked for GM and it was Quanity Control no Quality Control. Stuff never fit to our standards. Did a 4 door 61 tempest wagon awile back OMG. I"ve built up edges to get a better reveal but if everything painted its to late. Feel your flustration-have a beer-give er hell tomorrow

[SAAC2110]

Well I think I found out what happened after I had a friend of mine stop by that had been helping us with the cars. When I was called out of town I had my buddy watching things at the shop and lend a hand to my apprentice who does love working on cars he hates doing anything body work related and for some reason decided to take it upon himself to do some fitting on the header I had loosely installed. Okay the kid did show some injunuity but his bright idea was to file the header panel with the edge of the hood - the hood was just sitting on the car! It wasn't even bolted down, just held down at the hood latch! After my bud told me this we took a six inch pair of calipers and measured from the top edge of the header nearest the hood and followed the curve where it goes to the flat front face of the header, yes you guessed it - almost a quarter of an inch was removed from the edge of the header!!

I'm going to be having a meeting tomorrow and guess what might be covered in the discussion.

Also does anyone know if "castration" can be covered under workers compensation?

[GT182]

Originally Posted by SAAC2110

I'm going to be having a meeting tomorrow and guess what might be covered in the discussion.

Also does anyone know if "castration" can be covered under workers compensation?

If they knew the reason... No, I don't believe it would covered. I'd grind a 1/4" off his johnson and see how he likes it. You know his girlfriend or wife wouldn't. LOL

Give him 3 choices. Make him buy a replacement, make him fix it... or "castration".