Fender/Door Gap Adjustment Tips?

Hey guys, I'm reassembling everything after paint and I remember this being a pain point when I was assembling it before in primer but this door/fender gap is really bugging me this time and making it look like a clown car.

What are the parts that are supposed to be loose when adjusting the fender/door gap? I'd expect the inner fender, fender to rad support, the two bolts from fender to firewall, the fender to a pillar bolt behind the door, and fender to frame (or pinch weld?) bolts on the bottom?

No matter what I do though I can't get the top gap to come in any more and it always leaves this ugly gap at the top of the door/fender area even though the vertical and in/out adjustments look fine.

The only thing I can think of loosening the dang radiator support bushings to be able to lift up the fender a bit to rock it back into place?? Then tighten that back down and let the bolt drag it the fender back down a bit? Seems like it'd but a good bit of stress on the fender to do that though?

My Dad's car has the same issue and it drives me crazy. Any thoughts on what I'm missing here?

 

Sometimes the radiator support mount bushings are bad and that pulls the fenders down when those 2 bolts are tightened.

All bolts need really neef to be loosened . The bottom fender is the first bolt(s( to tighten them work up and adjust the top of the fenders/ firewall bolts. Then move to the front. The wheel house are the last bolts to tighten.

Where at in " Chicago" are you. I'm in Plainfield.

 

You have to shim the core support to fix that.

The Chassis Service Manual's procedure is actually a really good place to start. You can download ea. section on teambuick.com if you don't have one.

 

I'm in Plainfield too! Would love to see your project man!

You are a WIZARD, SIR. I always wondered why I never had this problem on the passenger side and I've never replaced these core supports but look at the difference!
Passenger (without the gap problem)


Driver with the gap problem


I'll just order a set of rad support bushings! Hopefully I can slip these in without having to take everything back out but this is a great find! Thank you so much!

I've downloaded in the manual from teambuick awhile back (which is an insanely great resource) and was just about to look it up after I finished up for the night but I think these worn bushings would explain it all and I hopefully shouldn't need shims!

 

I had to go back and correct my initial response. Spell check changed some words on me.

I'm off Caton Farm Rd.

 

If you follow the assembly manual it calls for a shim pack at the core support when you start off. As Dano said, the chassis service manual Procedure is the best way to properly adjust the front sheet metal.

 

Got it. I’ll read through the manual while the bushings are coming in. Appreciate the advice

just sent you a PM 197064buickspec

 

CORRECT!
I ran into this issue just recently on a ‘68 Camaro at work, although I was dealing with AFTERMARKET inner wheelhouses, I had to elongate every hole, after I got the fender where I wanted it, I had to power in the bolts for the wheelhouse.
Point being, I’d don’t care if the wheelhouse is stressed in position, nobody sees it and sometimes that’s what yah gotta do with shitty reproduction parts.

 

I figured you had new bushings installed but nothing wrong with shimming the core support if that's what it takes even after new bushings.

Mark is spot on. Despite the repro '70-72 RF inner being a nice piece, a well-known restorer told me of an issue where one was causing a fender misalignment when tightened. He was reusing the fender itself & it aligned before the new inner was installed.

 

Oh I hope I didn't mislead anyone, these are the original fenders and inner fenders!

Turns out I had just overtightened the crap out of the driver side bushing apparently. Loosening it up along with everything else, and then going through the adjustment process got everything 90% of the way there and fixed the wide gap at the top!

I'm confused as to how to adjust the. Top body line to the door though. It's too low but somehow the swoop line and the bottom line are lined up so I'm not sure how that's possible, It's almost like it'd have to be rolled out a bit to stretch it up to fix that? Do people put shims under the top fender to firewall hole (third image) to work out that gap?

 

And whatever you do, do NOT try to get the panel gaps too close. When ypou jack up one side of the car like to change a tire, the frame has enough flex and the body WILL clos up on the gap, and the point where the door angles in at the fender WILL contact the fender and chip the paint. Learned that the hard way... At least it was on a mere 72 Slylark coupe and NOT either convertible...

 

There was a misalignment there from the factory on most cars (at least '70-72 & apparently '68-9 as well). As Adam said, some are better than others but the only real way to fix that is to cut the spot welds, adjust, & re-weld which is much more preferable to do prior to paint although can be done on a painted fender.

 

Appreciate all the input! Yeah maybe I'm being too hard on myself about it? Idk. Everything but top edge looks pretty good and adding that one shim made it slightly better maybe.

I've definitely adjusted it too close and crunched off some primer in the past! The gap does concern me each time I open it and I took a picture at the closest point but it still seems pretty dang close given the the gap is probably a bit more than 1/8"

 

Looks great!
Walk away, your done

 

Couldn't help but fiddle with it one last time and NOW I'm going to walk away lol. Had 2 shims on the pinch weld to lower fender connection. Changed that to 1 so that it could raise it up a bit. That lost the perfect alignment on the swoop and it's off ever so slightly now but the top door/fender gap along with the extra shim under the top firewall/fender connection I'd say got it incredibly acceptable.



Lost the perfect alignment here :-/

But this looks much better

 

This thread has been very helpful to me. Have the same issue on the Pass side. Looking to fix that issues soon.

 

Glad to hear it! In the spirit of being helpful, 2 paint sticks wrapped in painters tape were very helpful in getting the initial spacing set on the lower/rear part of the fender. Setting one behind the fender in between the fender and the pinch weld to set the in/out and one shoved in between the rocker and the bottom/back of the fender to set the door gap made it pretty easy to set and adjust slightly with light pressure.

 

Looks great!

It's a compromise until you start cutting the welds (& sometimes more).

 

I'm not a body shop guy, but imo, if you increase the fender/door gap just a little bit more, then the swoop might line up a little better. Every other line looks spot on.

Imo.

But if you leave it where it's at now, its still good.

Actually, looking at it again, it you increase the door gap slightly more at the bottom and then slightly more along the whole door gap, top to bottom, I think it would bring it all in.

edit...
Man, reading back what I wrote, makes me sound really critical of the great work you've done. Didn't mean it to come off sounding that way.