When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I bought this car in February, and have been working thru several issues with it, one of which is that the driver side headlight bucket is misaligned: as you can see in the picture, its scraping the fender and bumper, causing it to get caught sometimes when opening/closing. For context, the previous owner definitely hit something on this side, as the bumper where the turn signal is housed is cracked too. I know how to adjust the vertical alignment of the headlight, but I haven't found anyone talking about a solution to side to side alignment: is this even a possibility? If not, does anyone know where I should be looking for bent brackets or something that I could try and bend back into place? Thank you
There is only so much you can do with the bucket assembly to align the cover. Alignment does not cover shifting it a full inch in yaw. Possibly look at the mounting bllolts and bracket itself. I do not have solid guidance to offer here.
I offer only as a final solution as I do not like the fixed lighting options for C5s, but that is one direction to take it to avoid damaging paint if nothing else prevails.
Consult your local body shop. Maybe they have advice. Or a Corvette specific repair shop?
Thank you for the advice, I removed the bucket assembly and inspected the bracket and mounting points, and can't see anything visibly off. I also compared against the passenger side's headlight assembly, mainly comparing distances between the hood line and the assembly, and realized though theres a probably 1-2 mm difference, it doesn't account for the significant gap/misalignment with the bumper/fender. I'm now leaning more towards this being a combination of headlight assembly slightly misaligned, but more likely the bumper and fenders sagging/deformed, thank you for the advice though I will definitely be taking it to a local body shop if I can't figure this out
I bought this car in February, and have been working thru several issues with it, one of which is that the driver side headlight bucket is misaligned: as you can see in the picture, its scraping the fender and bumper, causing it to get caught sometimes when opening/closing. For context, the previous owner definitely hit something on this side, as the bumper where the turn signal is housed is cracked too. I know how to adjust the vertical alignment of the headlight, but I haven't found anyone talking about a solution to side to side alignment: is this even a possibility? If not, does anyone know where I should be looking for bent brackets or something that I could try and bend back into place? Thank you
Something is bent there. My first guess would be that the fender has been shifted back. Is the gap tight between the rear of the fender and the front of the door?
Hi, this is the gap between the fender and the door panel on the side with the alignment issues:
it seems to look about the same as the other side (I’m aware it’s hanging off a bit at the bottom, but when pressed down it right. However I did just notice the gap between the fender and the bumper seems strange:
And I’m not sure if it’s visible but the bumper is noticeably a bit closer to the center of the car than the fender there, though not sure how much of that is due to the bumper itself being a bit deformed.
Hi, this is the gap between the fender and the door panel on the side with the alignment issues:
it seems to look about the same as the other side (I’m aware it’s hanging off a bit at the bottom, but when pressed down it right. However I did just notice the gap between the fender and the bumper seems strange:
And I’m not sure if it’s visible but the bumper is noticeably a bit closer to the center of the car than the fender there, though not sure how much of that is due to the bumper itself being a bit deformed.
You do understand that that's not the actual bumper, correct? That's just a pretty plastic cover. The actual bumper is under that cover, and I think you're gonna need to remove the cover to take a look what's going on under there. You might be able to see from underneath if you remove the air shields.
Headlight bucket side to side alignment
