I am looking into buying a 71-71 Mach 1. In my search I have not seen one car where the hood is well aligned. I saw one where the stripes were misaligned between the door and rear, and another where the trunk seemed misaligned. The one with the misaligned trunk showed all the signs of having been in a wreck. However, my question is, is misalignment of the body panels an immediate red flag? Are there other issues causing a misaligned hood rather than a wreck? Is this a common issue?
Thank you in advance. I have been learning a lot from all of you members answering my simple questions. I just want to be as prepared as possible before I let my hard earned money flow.
Hood misalignment (sitting too far forward or low/high on one side) is common, but not correct. Either of the mentioned adjustments are relatively easy, unless both fenders are set too narrow and close to the hood.
The hood height on this car can easily be fixed:
The fenders on this car are set too close together. The hood will rub at the back when lifted, and chip the paint on the LH side:
^
Set low on the RH to compensate for the hood curve. I prefer to allow the hood gaps to be off and match up the caps at the nose.
It is normal to find some difference in the curve of the hood and the curve of the fenders - much more if someone forgot to put the factory shims under the fenders.
Door-to-front fender gap should be smooth. Gap won't necessarily be even, but the lines should meld together well.
Same applies to the door-to-rear quarter, and - especially on convertibles - there should be no visible narrowing of the door gap as you trace it upwards. The feature line/crease on the side of the body will often be lower than the crease on the quarter, even if the door isn't sagging.
Good gap:
Trunk lids on Sportsroofs generally fit well - the end caps on either side are what you want to look out for. If they sit too close to the trunk and also sit too far outboard, the quarter isn't installed correctly. However, some quarters from factory were spot welded to their end plates a bit off, so it's not unusual to see an end cap that matches the quarter's curve, but sits a bit low to the tapering roofline. So long as the cap is parallel with the trunk edge, this is fine.
However, if the cap is at an angle to the trunk to compensate, this is a red flag for badly-installed quarter skins (though not so if the end cap is set inwards of the bodyside) or some such poor workmanship:
Sloppy RH fit:
Nice looking, but questionably tight fit on both:
Completely unacceptable:
^
Doors are funky on the blue one too.
Trunk is a bit inboard, but the gaps are good. These are workable gaps:
Ironically enough, the Gas Monkey car has pretty good gaps which look more or less factory. Trunk sits higher on the left than the right, and this is likely original fit. Gaps are good:
-Kurt
