[Greg Reid]

That's a big improvement. FWIW, you probably know this, but I'd spend as much time as needed to get the door to quarter right before I did anything else with the front clip.
Everything up front is built on the door to quarter/rocker fit and alignment.
Note: Novice Disclaimer

[fbrown]

The door to quarter will require filler to make match. The dynacorn quarter doesn't quite match the contour of the door. I am trying to get the whole front end assembled so I can determine what needs to be done. The hood is dynacorn and the fenders required repair so there will be a lot of work to make everything line up good. The bad thing is I will have to take everything apart to paint the jams.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by fbrown

The door to quarter will require filler to make match. The dynacorn quarter doesn't quite match the contour of the door. I am trying to get the whole front end assembled so I can determine what needs to be done. The hood is dynacorn and the fenders required repair so there will be a lot of work to make everything line up good. The bad thing is I will have to take everything apart to paint the jams.

Well, sounds like you know what you have to do better than I do.
As for taking it back apart, I've had mine together and apart 4 or 5 times while doing the bodywork. Just comes with the territory. Biggest mistake you can make would be to do all the repair work and wait until you're ready to paint before you find out if it fits right...and just like you, I'm working alone here. The hood is really a pain to install by yourself!
Once you get it where it all lines up to your satisfaction, install the trim too. Same reason: How else are you going to know if it still fits?

[fbrown]

It's been almost a month since I posted anything to this thread. I wish I could say all has been going well, but this is not the case. At times during the month I would have sent the car to a body shop to resolve the problems. But no shops around here want to work on my car.

These are some of the problems I have been dealing with over the last month.

1) Found out the Endura bumper I had was bent.
2) Passenger fender mount to body (the one you open the door to get to) was not positioned correctly. I did not have enough adjustment. It was nearly 1/4" off.
3) Driver fender still had plenty of twists and bends and would not align with the bumper.
4) Hood/Driver fender - Hit the side of the hood hard. Bolts couldn't be inserted.
5) The top of the passenger fender is not shaped correctly on my fender. It does not match the contour on the Endura Bumper.
6) Valence panel was bent up more that I thought.
7) Aligning the front sheet metal has been a nightmare.


Bumper

Starting condition




I spend several days working on this. This is the end result.





Passenger fender

I ended up removed the mount from the inner bracing and relocating it to the correct position. That is based on measurements of three other fenders. I also had to fix the incorrect contour. The profile gauge shows the shape of another fender. The profile gauge also matches the contour of the bumper.



The results of splitting and re-welding the fender




Driver Fender

There was still numerous problems that were not apparent until trying to install and line everything up. The hood channel was bend near the Front of the fender. It should be about 90 degrees but was maybe about 80. This meant the slots on the fender ran out of adjustment before the fender was aligned with the bumper.

This was my solution when a BFH is just not good enough. The 2x4 distributes the force of the jack so as not to bend the passenger fender. With a little jacking the hood channel was moved back into position.


Hood

No pictures here but I had to add 1/4" of spacers between the driver fender and the hinge in order to insert bolts into the hood. I then found there was not enough adjustments in the slots and had to add 1/4" of spacers between the hinge and the hood. Everything aligns now, but I don't think its proper to use shims between the fender and the hinge.

Valence

Typical restoration issues, it was beat up more than I though. Driver's turn signal opening was also bend. Not obvious until trying to install turn signal. In the end I spend about 5 hours beating numerous dents out.

You can see one of the bends here. This thing was also caked full of filler. Some of it a 1/2" deep.


The passenger turn signal fits fine.


The driver turn signal not so good. It looks better in the picture than it really fit.


This should be flat.


And how do you flatten this. Clamp it to a thick piece of metal at tap it flat with body hammers.


Fits as good as factory now. Not great but this how they all seem to fit.


I didn't take a picture of the valance panel but you can see it pretty good here. Dents removed and back to original shape. It shouldn't take more than a light skim coat of filler. Nothing is off more than the thickness of card stock.


It's too late to post more tonight. I will post my pictures of the final gaps tomorrow.

[Greg Reid]

Well, it looks like you're going in the right direction. Looks good. You pushed the front end of the fenders out to correct that problem...you may have to pull the rear end of the fender in to correct the shimmed hinge problem.

[PontGuy]

I wondered where you went.

X2 on the progress made, we knew it wasn't going to be easy!

I went through a lot of the same sort of stuff on a 67 Firebird I did myself years back and I didn't have near the tool collection that you have to work with. After all the messing around there was no way the hood was going to line up correctly with the bumper, and in a stroke of brilliance I built a cardboard form at the front of the hood and filled it with bondo-glass. Then shaped it to get the gap perfect. I am NOT recommending this, but funny thing it still looked great the last time I saw the car at least 10 years later. Where there's a will, there's a way..

Keep up the good work!