I have a 79 Vette that I am in the process of doing a respray, everything is now sanded down, all paint removed. I never really noticed before but the top rear of the front wings stick out past the front edges of the doors, from about 4 inches down the door and the wings are perfectly alighned, is this normal or should the door tops and the top of the wings also be in line?

The verticle gap between the wings and the doors is fairly even from top to bottom so I don't think the bird cage is a problem. The bonnet (sorry hood) has really good close gaps between it and the wings (fenders) As I have no idea as to how many previous owners the vehicle has had I have no history, but I am fairly sure that it has had at least one small front end accident, could whoever repaired it have fitted the wings badly?

Not the best photo but it may help show what I am on about. The top of the front wing sticks out about 1/4" away from the door and then is level as you get lower down the door.


I have ordered a set of hinge pins as there is a bit of up and down movement but I have not removed any hinge spacers. If the wing and door are meant to be in line all the way then I might try adding some spacers to the back of the hinge but think it may well make the alighnment worse further down the door.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

 

It may not be perfect. But it is very common. The fit and finish on these cars new was anything but spectacular.
And yes you can try to get it better. Why not.
But rebonding the front clip is the ultimate answer. But way to much work. (Unless of course you have OCD).

 

Before you get too far down the proverbial rabbit hole on the fit and fair matter, get your sloppy door hinge issue locked down. Did you order the bronze bushings (spacers) along with the pins? I have replaced a lot more bushings over the years than the actual pins.

Make sure your door opens and closes properly before anything else. This includes how the window interfaces with the weatherstripping. You are almost guaranteed to introduce a leak if you add more shims to adjust the fit and fair. Those shims are intended to address how the door/window fits into the opening, not to adjust for fit and fair.

I’ve surgically cut the wings off about 8” from the door opening and repositioned to achieve fit/fair, but that involves a fair amount of glasswork/bodywork to blend the repair but it sure beats popping off the entire surround.

 

Thanks for the replies, I did wonder about the glass to screen interface and you have confirmed my worries. This all started off because I bounced the nose into a bollard and a large flake of paint came off plus it had some other paint issues and I thought why not paint the whole car and fix the other issues and as you say I have started down a rabbit hole.
I’m not going to do anymore bodywork, I will just have to live with it or I will never get it back on the road this year. It was never going to be a show winner, I just love driving it so I think all one colour and don’t worry about the fit at the rear of the wings. The rest of it is now respectable.
Once again thanks for input.

 

we need side door gap shots. it is possible that the rad support is a bit low and nose is dropping in front. which opens up the door gaps on top front of the doors.

 

The door gap on the passenger side is equal top to bottom at the front and rear of the door, the drivers side gap was wider at the top only on the front edge and I think that is the side of one of the previous accidents. I have now just added a slither of bondo to the rear edge of the fender to even it up.

You have got me thinking and when I can next get to do some time on it I will measure from the wheel centre to the bottom of the arch on both sides and see if tere is any difference, if the drivers side is lower then maybe I can do as you suggest on that side only and take the bondo back off to the original fender edge.

I will post results of what I find.