Trunk gap problem after new 1/4's
Started doing body work professionally in 72, even the new cars require a board and a hammer sometimes to get the fit you are looking for, sounds primitive but until fortunately it's the truth
Yessir. It’s just mass production, it’s not perfect. There are tolerances, sometimes they stack up.
The owners manual for my ‘53 Dodge pickup shows you how to use a 2x4 to tweak the door to adjust your door gaps. This isn’t new.
Well, at least our Mopars don't have Bolt-on unibodies and shims holding everything together like adjustments to the front end starters stuff like that I mean what kind of junk is that man?
Actually, and I’m not an expert on what else had them, but I know for a fact the ‘66 Fury I had for a bit had a bolt on front unibody. ‘Cause I unbolted it and welded it into a ‘53 Dodge pickup.
But yeah, agree, our Mopars are not the worst out there.
never said that you are making things up
I didn’t say you said that, but clearly you think an 1/8” gap change is some catastrophic thing requiring warning everyone. An 1/8” variance on a replacement quarter should be well within your expectations, cause there’s lots worse than that out there. An 1/8” adjustment is par for the course.
I haven't welded it yet. What do you do? Stretch the panel?:rolleyes: I'll just move the door back a bit or a 1/8" weld a rod down the back side of the door to close it up. Its around 0.330" gap right now
Yeah, I’d stretch the panel. Unfold the front edge a little and move the bend an 1/8” forward. Just work that edge. Should be more than enough overlap to lose a little into the quarter.
Assuming of course the issue isn’t just that the panel is bowed out in the middle and that’s just pulling the front edge back. Make sure the outer wheel house is in the right place and the fit to the quarter lip there is good, because if you can pull the quarter in a bit there you’d probably be able to push that forward. An 1/8” isn’t much at all.
All I am saying is that you can spend $1000s on supposedly good sheet metal but you better have or develop serious body work skills or get deep pockets if you want to the car to look decent. I checked out lots of Darts at the local car shows and their panel fit and finish is decent and they were not big $$ cars.
Looking at painted cars at the car show doesn’t tell you what they did to get there. Decent and perfect are different things, seen plenty of stock cars with gaps bigger or smaller than a 1/4” with an 1/8” variation.
And yes, you can absolutely spend thousands and still need to do bodywork. That’s how it is, that’s how it’s always been, that’s not news. We’re lucky there’s even panels to buy, and the stuff from AMD is pretty good as far as accuracy goes.
If you want factory fits you can track down and buy NOS panels, but be forewarned, having them be an 1/8” off is not uncommon for all the reasons I’ve already mentioned. Factory body tolerances on these cars were way looser than an 1/8”.