hood, fender, grill alignment

Alright guys I need help. First off the old girl heads off to paint Monday after work. So I'm really running out of time. I know I should have caught this earlier. I'm just trying to dry fit everything up and the hood grill and fenders don't even come close to lining up. I've got a 3/4" gap from hood to fenders and inorder to get the grill to hood to align I half to off set the grill to the driver side by half an inch on the frame. The body is fiberglass of unknown make and year but very straight and is within a 1/16" centered left to right. I've added what I believe to be equal spacer under the grill to match the body. Also the fenders are flush to the bottom with the body. So if anyone has ideas. Please HELP. I'll add pics in a bit when I get inside.

 

Is the tub square with the frame and off to one side 1/16? Or is is sitting out of square (the back perfect or sitting the other direction from the front) if it is out of square when you atach the fenders and square them to the tub then they will be even more out of square with the tub maybe even up to your 1/2 inch... Just a thought stab in the dark hope it helps...

 

Correction they will be even more out of square with the FRAME not the tub...

 

The tub is as square to the frame as I cas possibly get it. Front to back side to side. It is sitting 1/16" to the passenger side but that's the whole tube. I m at a total loss right now..... One more thing. The tube measures 59" wide while the hood measures 59 1/4" wide after some heavy pushing lol I'm starting to think the glass tube is a bit off and the hood possibly got "flattened" out while sitting, falling, being transporting around for the last 5 months.

 

here are some pics. The one of the grill shows it being pushed back 1/2" on the driver side compared to the passenger side. 9 1/2'-10" respectively also the hood sticks out to both sides about 3/16". And the rest are pretty self explanatory.

 

Mine does the same exact thing...

 

Buddy of mine has a Scrambler with fiberglass tub and has similar problems he basically aligned it up that each side shares about the same and let go as that. Fiberglass is an easy way to repair a rusted out tub but comes with little problems like fitment issues not saying the replacement metal tubs are any better.

 

That last pic shows the hinge itself is not even properly oriented. Looks to me like very poor quality tub build. I know that I would not add the cost of a paint job to that until I got things in a lot better alignment. JMO

 

This is a steel hood and a glass tub? The hood shape does not match the cowl. The extra height in the curve of the hood is lifting the edge where the fender meets the hood. I adjusted my hood on my CJ-6 a lot, and made it line up better. I measured the changes that I wanted to the alignment, and took the hood off and bent it. It will bend - just bend it a little at a time. I set teh hood on my lawn and used my body weight to bend it to a better shape.

I suggest you make a template of the cowl shape, and take the hood off to bend it to match the cowl profile. Then put the hood back, do a little adjustment, remove and rebend, until the gap is even and the profiles match. Use your ingenuity to carefully bend and reshape; you can use wooden bock, cut a notch in a 2x4 to pry on the edges, etc. Steel will move around a lot if you go slowly and are persistent.

 

That's what I was doing late into the night. I've got it a bit better but no where close to what I want. Any suggestions on how to closecthe fender gap?

 

raise the rear of the fender .

 

I thought about that also but I figured that's trading one evil for another. Bottoms wouldn't line up then.

 

Shim the front of the tub? Fiberglass tubs are pretty notorious for needing adjustment to work with stock parts.


Sent from my iPhone

 

one thing ive learned in my 20 plus years as a bodyman is body work is full of compromises...best bet it to adjust all the gaps/edges as close as you can get em and back up 10 feet and look it over, itll look better when you look at the big picture. the following statement may offend some,they were never designed to be a Rolls or Bentley,they had iffy lines brand new. plus if you use it on the trail its prolly gonna get body damage at some point. ps ive got 3 with glass tubs and none of them are the same mine the hood is tight to the fenders(old 4wd tub),the boys fenders are too long at the bottom(unknown mfg) and the wifes fits the best its a shell valley (http://www.shellvalley.com)

 

Mine looked a bit like that. I had to shim the back of the jeep up a little bit to get the hood to align with the hood. I never did get it what I would call right (I think the tub sits too high on the frame but if I sit it lower it will hit the bellhousing). But it is acceptable.

After all, it is a Jeep.