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Old 08-06-2020, 07:30 PM
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gtobird gtobird is offline
Chief Ponti-yacker
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Green Bay, Wisconsin
Posts: 570
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Well, no-one replied with a solution to the fitment, but I found multiple issues. I thought I would post what I found in case anyone else is not satisfied with the fitment of the parking / turn signal lights. In my case, I had multiple problems. Prior to disassembling my front end, my fenders had been replaced with NOS parts about 32 years ago right before I purchased the car.. When I bought the car, the GM stickers were still in the fenders. Anyway, I had purchased two sets of used corner pieces in pretty good condition during my frame off restoration. I took my time over several days comparing parts, assembling, disassembling and reassembling. I also had new NOS turn signal / parking light assemblies. purchased about 25 years ago. Stupidly, I had sold off the original light assemblies when I bought the NOS parts. First off, I found that the lenses on the light assemblies were poorly mounted on the metal housing. The thru holes on the lenses were not even close to being concentric with the holes in the metal base. There were two issues on the light assemblies alone. First, the lenses had sprues from the molding process at the ends. The sprues prevented the lenses from mounting properly and I cut them off.. Second, the screws that held the lenses in place were not 90 degrees to the base. I cut off the sprues and simply pushed sideways on the screws to square them up... Bingo!!!!! On to the fenders. Keep in mind, these were originally NOS replacements and I didn't record whether or not the light assemblies were mounted properly before dissassembly. I found that the front of the fenders by the light assemblies have corner supports spot welded in from the factory on the underside. One of them was welded in wrong and caused the inner edge where one light mounts to be cocked. I bent it in place with a screwdriver and ............ now just fine. On to the corner pieces. Variation of about 1/8" from one piece to another with respect to where the weld nuts are. That's cause there is a backside bracket that the weld nuts are on and they must have been welded in place by either trained monkeys or hungover workers. The fix is to either drill out the bracket and re-weld or slightly elongate the holes in the front splash pan.

After all that, I would say my fitment is about as good as I've seen in 8 out of 10 show cars. The best ones undoubtedly did surgery on the outer sheetmetal to make it perfect, cause it was never perfect to begin with. Now the only question I have left is whether or not the light assembly mounting screws were originally plated or phosphated. The repop screws are all plated, but not sure that's right. I'd love to hear from anyone that knows for sure.

Thanks
Old Joe