Hood front adjustment at Grill

[widowmaker77]

The grill is almost never the problem. That area that makes a “T” where the fender, grill, hood meet is your only concern. The gap the grill makes along the end of the fender is another issue that is taken care of with body work. Just make sure the “T” is perfectly aligned. In your pics the PS looks really good but the DS grill is slightly misaligned from the fender. Fix that first.
Now look at your hood tip to grill. Both fenders need to be moved back. DS more than PS. This will require a lot of loosening, shifting, pushing, pulling, and in most cases just a bit of metal mod where something is butting up against something else and keeping you from moving fender back. You may think it just won’t work, but keep at it and it will!
Once you get the hood tips to match the grill, we can dial in the hood gaps. After that the door gaps, which may require metal mods.
Remember, the fender grill combo is a static piece. Think of it as a single body part called the front clip. While it can be modified with cutting and welding, normally, unless you are using really flawed parts, they will align together into one clip. That becomes the standard that everything else is fitted around. Hoods and doors can be shimmed, and even shaved to make perfect gaps. But they are normally always reacting to the alignment and lockdown location of the front clip.

Thank you for all the input here! Maybe next weekend can try to get some of the fitment issues dialed in more. Really been working on get my explorer motor running correctly and all bugs worked out of it

 

[widowmaker77]

I see what you’re saying. Really good insight you have there. I know I’m skipping ahead here in what you say to do but I have a concern about the door frame to Windsheild gap. If I move the fenders back to fix the hood to grill line, then I will have to move the doors back especially on the pass side. I already have more of a gap than I want at the door frame to Windsheild. So wouldn’t that gap get even worse?

 

[Torkman66]

For every action there is a reaction. Are you mounting a hard top or no top? Windshield to door gap is a function of angle of windshield frame and position of door. If you have a hard top, you can set the angle by where the frame mounts to the top (and slightly modify the mounting position). If you are running topless, you need support arms coming from your roll bar (which should also be adjustable (Hiem Joints).. Either way, I don't think you will have an issue. Pics would tell us more, but you may find that once you get hood, grill, fenders, and doors aligned, windshield frame is fine. Key is that your door drives the windshield gap (as you note) and then the angle the windshield gap is whatever is required to make the gap parallel to the door frame. On mine, the windshield gap on the DS was a perfect 5/16" all the way up, but the PS actually touched the door frame. I got into the Bronco and "twisted the windshield frame by hand, pulling on the drivers side while pushing out on the passenger side. I also had my windshield frame off and reattached it with multiple low profile self tapping screws. So one can make some minor adjustment on how the frame is mounted to the cowl, but very minor.

Here are mine, and as I said, they started out way off.

 

[widowmaker77]

For every action there is a reaction. Are you mounting a hard top or no top? Windshield to door gap is a function of angle of windshield frame and position of door. If you have a hard top, you can set the angle by where the frame mounts to the top (and slightly modify the mounting position). If you are running topless, you need support arms coming from your roll bar (which should also be adjustable (Hiem Joints).. Either way, I don't think you will have an issue. Pics would tell us more, but you may find that once you get hood, grill, fenders, and doors aligned, windshield frame is fine. Key is that your door drives the windshield gap (as you note) and then the angle the windshield gap is whatever is required to make the gap parallel to the door frame. On mine, the windshield gap on the DS was a perfect 5/16" all the way up, but the PS actually touched the door frame. I got into the Bronco and "twisted the windshield frame by hand, pulling on the drivers side while pushing out on the passenger side. I also had my windshield frame off and reattached it with multiple low profile self tapping screws. So one can make some minor adjustment on how the frame is mounted to the cowl, but very minor.

Here are mine, and as I said, they started out way off.
View attachment 897242 View attachment 897243

I gotcha. I am running a hard top. I’ve played around with this gap some moving Windsheild frame forward and backwards at the cowl mounting point ( my frame bolts on) and also moving my top forward and backwards to set the top of the gap. finally I just took my angle finder and matched the Windsheild frame to door frame angle. It’s still off. The top of the gap is closer than the bottom of the gap. I was just curious what you thoughts were on having to love the door back and causing this windshield gap to open up more. Thanks for the info!!

 

[Jc.av8r]

My concern is loosening shit and then inevitably making it worse than it is now.

I’m chasing a dragon and I know it and I think it’s probably best left untouched at this point.

Nobody notices this stuff but me.

I was once advised to assess the quality of our cars “at 10ft or 10mph”. Anything less is futility.

 

[Torkman66]

BEFORE:


AFTER:


BEFORE:


AFTER:


I think if you are pre-paint, it is worth the effort. Post paint, I think there a some minor adjustments that might be considered but everyone must use their own judgment on what is acceptable to them. I have seen tons of classics with messed up gaps and body lines that still looked great overall. But I have also seen classics that have near perfect body lines that are amazing. All that matters is you like what you have...that makes this a great club to be in.