I surrender-hood fender alignment help needed

[nick68]

For the life of me I can not get the fender to line up. The problem is on one fender. The hood lines up front and back and is even in those two places and the gap is good and straight however, the hood seems to rise up in the middle of the fender . Almost like there is a curve in the middle of the hood along the fender gap/line more than normal curve of course.

The hood is new, the fenders are used, but in mint condition , I even strippped them to bare metal, and not a single ding or dent, much less accident damage.

The passenger side is good. But the driver side just won't follow the hood line, I tried shims and everything I can think of. What am I doing wrong ?

[Chryco Psycho]

if the hood rises in the middle the hood is bent

[ted]

exactly

[nick68]

GRRRRRR


Any way to unbend it without making it worse ?

[wally426ci]

Ive seen fiberglass hoods do this, I dont think you could bend it back...... maybe the springs are crazy strong?

[somedaysoon]

 How much rise? Pete

[nick68]

How much rise? Pete

It is out by about the thickness of a paint stick. My Super calibrated paint sticks are my constant source of precision measuring. Or about 1/4 inch

[Kapteenikosmos]

Mine had about same amount of error on passenger side and when compared to drivers side it was very obvious that the shape on the passenger side fender was not correct. The shape and curvature of the upper edge that comes along the hood edge was way different than on the drivers side which followed the hood pretty good. My fenders had some minor dings on the lower areas but no signs of major damage or any obvious reason why the curvature was wrong. My guess is that it has been like that from the factory, poor quality control or something. I fixed it by tons of fiberglass reinforced bondo. I'm not happy about it but atleast it looks right now and hopefully it wont crack.

[nick68]

I thinking its the fender now. It never fit well with the old hood, in fact now that I think about it, ther same problem existed with the old hood. So that leads to another dilema. Bondo or lead or what ?

[torredcuda]

It is out by about the thickness of a paint stick. My Super calibrated paint sticks are my constant source of precision measuring. Or about 1/4 inch

That`s a thick paint stick!My sticks are more like 1/8" or less which is well within the factory tolerances back in the `70`s.I find a happy middle ground and live with it for a driver.To find out if it`s the fender or hood get a roll of paper and lay it against the egde of the hood and draw a line down the edge ,then use that as a template to check the other side to see if it`s the same.A good bodyman could try bending the hood or you have to fill either with plastic filler or lead.Another option might be to cut slits in the hood inner structure and split and reweld flattening out the curve.

[CHL2T]

I fixed this very problem on the 69 Charger hood. I simply put a 2x block of wood on the hood bumper and pressed down in the middle of the offending hump, worked like a charm

[Alaskan_TA]

Shim the fender up to meet it. You can get body shims from most body shops. Washers work too.

[LAA66]

I thinking its the fender now. It never fit well with the old hood, in fact now that I think about it, ther same problem existed with the old hood. So that leads to another dilema. Bondo or lead or what ?

I would suggest replacing the fender. You could try shimming the 1/4" but it may deform the inner fender panel so be careful.  

 I installed a re[lacement passenger fender from the factory back in the 80's and it still haunts me to this day. It just wasn't made properly from the git go.   

[nick68]

I wish i had kept the old fender. But when you move into a new house, you tend to pitch " what you don't need ".

I like the idea of making a template and comparing sides. Thanks for the tip. i will do that and then be able to make a better decision.  thank you all , your the greatest !!

[venomus1]

the 2x4 idea is right on i do it all the time you won't beleive how easy it will move