Since the weather was nice here in CT yesterday, I took out my 'new' '78 that I just picked up a couple weeks ago to spruce her up with some polish/wax, etc.

Well, one thing that cleaning your car does, is that it gets you acquainted with all the flaws. And I noticed some that are really bothering me now.

It looks like the entire front clip was replaced at some point. There are two body alignment issues that may be related to this, but I'm not sure.

1) When I open the driver's side door, the hinge-side edge rubs slightly on the body in front of it (only when I open the door). However, the door seems to hang and close extremely well, and lines up everywhere else.

2) The hood on the front passenger-side corner is rubbing on the body.

Is there a way for me as a handy non-mechanic to fix these issues, or is it possible that the entire front clip is out of whack?

Thanks everybody....

-corky

 

ttt

 

Corky, it could be anything. How does the bumper look? Like it's been replaced or repaired? For the front end to be shifted, it seems like you'd have to see bumper damage.

You need to put the car up in the air and look at things underneathe to make a good determination.

 

Corky,

The door does have some movement fore and aft by adjusting the door on its hinges. If you want to go aft then you need to loosen all the bolts and then pull the door back. You will need to support the door while you are doing this. A floor jack with some wood and a piece of carpet on it to prevent scratches will do this. Moving the door aft does rely on the aft door gap being big enough to accomodate the movement. The alternative is to mark the fender and grind the rear edge until you have the right gap. You can also adjust the body mounts to shift the body around and hopefully make more room (ie gaps) but this will still require you to tweak the door gap when you are done.

The hood is an easy fix. Loosen the bolts on both side of the hinge and then push the hood across. Slowly lower the hood and check for rubbing. After doing this you will also need to adjust the locking latches for the hood. Loosen the bolts for this and move it over in small amount. DO NOT close the hood until you are happy that it is lined up. If you close it without adjusting the latches then you may not be able to release it.

Be sure to put masking tape on all edges so that you can test fit gaps without fibreglass rubbing while you make sure of alignment.

If you have questions IM me and we can talk about it.

 

Excellent! Thanks for your insight. I'm not going to tackle this for at least week, but if I have questions I'll let you know.

This forum is the best....hopefully someday I can give back what I get out of it.

-Corky