It also helps to consider time and distance. The farther away the parts supplier is located from your front door, the higher the shipping cost (generally) and the longer it takes to get the parts (sometimes). But I don’t let either of these factors stop me from using a company that has treated me like a real customer in the past. At one time or another, I have either ordered from or sought information from all of the companies listed in chapter 1 of this book. That’s why they’re here: they all treated me like I was the only customer they had that day.
After stripping the exterior and the interior, the Mustang is a shell with the engine, drivetrain, and dash assembly still in it. I have an engine stand just waiting for the engine, but something I learned a long time ago is that engines and drivetrains are a lot easier to remove with the front sheet metal already off the car. But because panel-to-panel alignment back in the days of “build it faster because everything looks good at 80 mph” was not a priority, I still have a lot of sheet metal work to do to this car. So for now, the engine stays put and the body hammer comes out.
The next step in the restoration project is to work on the sheet metal. This includes aligning both fenders to the hood and making a serious lead repair on the right fender.
ALIGN THE FRONT PANELS
Body Shop 101 teaches body repair technicians that every panel on the front of the car aligns to the hood. That is to say if the hood isn’t in perfect alignment with the body structure of the car, nothing else, including the doors, will line up.
What do the doors have to do with the front sheet metal alignment? Photo 1 is a good example of what I’m talking about. Think of this fender as if it were hinged near the front of the door. Swinging the front of the fender out-board will cause the rear of the fender to shift inboard, particularly at the point marked by the X. That, in turn, closes the gap between the fender and the door just below the stripe (lower arrow). This also causes the gap at the top of the fender to widen (top arrow). A closer look shows this is exactly what is wrong with this fender. It has been shifted outboard at the front, causing the gap at the top to widen and the gap near the bottom to narrow.
Note: When I shifted the right fender, shown in photo 1, inboard at the front, the top rear of the fender moved back and outboard slightly. This slight shift closed the wide gap at that point and caused the gap along the area near the X in photo 1 to widen slightly. The result was a better gap line between the door and the fender, which was what I needed to happen in the first place. That’s why alignment always starts with the hood. The alignment of everything else keys off this single panel.
PHOTO 1: The door to fender alignment is terrible. The door rubs the fender near the lower arrow, and the gap is much too wide near the upper arrow. All of this is because the fender has been shifted outboard at the front.
Photo 2 shows where I’ll start the alignment process. The hood must be aligned with the cowl, which means the gap between the cowl and the rear edge of the hood must be even and parallel. I make the necessary adjustments by loosening the hinge bolts and shifting the hood either forward or backward as needed. I use the Eastwood Panel Gap Gauge shown in chapter 2 to help make this gap perfect.
PHOTO 2: Fender alignment actually starts here, with the hood. The hood must be aligned with the cowl first, then the fenders aligned with the hood.
PHOTO 3: Although the hood and cowl alignment is critical, the alignment between the hood and the tip of the headlamp housing is critical as well.
PHOTO 4: This is the result of our alignment work. All gaps are even, about ¼ inch wide, and the tips of the headlamp housings align with the leading edge of the hood.
At the same time the rear gap in the hood is being established, attention must be paid to the alignment between the leading edge of the headlamp housing and the leading edge of the hood. Recall I had left the headlamp housings in place? I did this because they play an important role in getting the hood into perfect alignment with all the other front sheet metal pieces, such as the fenders.
Note: The fit between this headlamp housing and the fender is far from acceptable, but it isn’t something to worry about at this time. Whoever installed this housing failed to attach all of the mounting bolts, so the housing moves at will. I’ve already had the headlamp housing off once, and I know I can easily shift it into the correct position when needed.
When both fenders are in perfect alignment with the hood, you should have the result you see in photo 4. All gaps are even and not too wide, about ¼-inch width is normal, and the hood is in alignment with the leading edge of both headlamp housings. What are all the marks on the panels? When the initial inspection of this car was made, I marked every problem area I could find, including dents and alignment problems, so that nothing would be overlooked once I began the sheet metal repair work on the car.
Did I have to do anything special to reach this point in getting all the front panels aligned? Other than adjusting the hood and loosening the fender bolts shown in photo 5 (arrows) to shift the right fender inboard, not really. Whoever worked on this car previously simply did a poor job of aligning the panels. Speaking of fender bolts, look closely at photo 5, and note the two additional fender bolts at the front of the radiator support. These bolts must be loosened any time fender alignment adjustments are made.
But then, everything isn’t dipped in chocolate sauce here in Mustang land. The left fender, the Taiwan refugee, still fits like a saddle on a hog because the top rear of the fender stands a full ¼-inch taller than the cowl panel in that area.
TIP
If a perfect alignment between the leading edge of the headlamp housing and the hood cannot be made, the problem lies with the fender. It will need to be shifted either forward or backward until alignment is achieved.
I mentioned in chapter 3 that this fender would need some major rebuilding to make it fit. My thought was that the fender had been stamped incorrectly and the only solution would be to turn to the Eastwood Planishing Hammer #28116 PH and reform this portion of the fender. But I got lucky. Once the fender was removed from the car, I noticed the edge of the fender (photo 6) had been left too tall. This was a manufacturing flaw, but one with an easy fix. The cure was to grind away the excess metal in that area. That allowed the fender to sit lower on the cowl, and—presto—my fender troubles were over.
REPAIR THE RIGHT FENDER
I spent a couple of hours getting the front sheet metal on this car aligned and looking good. But after all that work, I still had one major problem to overcome. The body line where the right fender meets the hood is crushed about midway along the length of the fender, shown in the marked area about mid-fender in photo 4. I can hammer and dolly-work this area to bring it to a point where only a small amount of filler will be required to finish the job, but this is an area I don’t like to apply plastic body filler to. Old cars need maintenance, and that means people leaning over the fenders to access the engine. The last thing I want is to risk having a tiny bit of filler chipped away from the edge of the fender by someone’s belt buckle.
So instead of using plastic body filler to complete
