I believe I read every thread on this topic and couldnīt find the answer. My Chilton also doesnīt cover this topic, so any advice wil be appreciated.
The passenger side fender, hood and header panel donīt line up on my 87 wagon. The upper edge of the header panel to the upper edge of the fender is off about 1/4" and the panel is "sagged" about 1/2" under the passenger side part of the hood. Reason must be a past accident, someone must have hit the fender, as the dent is still visible despite 5 lbs. of plaster an a re-spray. At least the PO replaced the bumper. Anyways, the bad fitment bothers me every time I look at it.
First I thought I could simply realign the hood, but since it meets the fender quite well I guess the header panel rather needs to be lifted. My plan is to hopefully be able to (partly) take the header panel off (or loosen the bolts some) and then shim it to bring it up, say, 1/2" or so.
I canīt seem to find the bolts holding the panel, tho.
Laying under the front end, I saw three bolts on the very right, holding the header panel to the fender. The two lower ones are not tightend as the vertical 90° fender edge has been warped in the hit. The top bolt seems to hold the panel for the most part. How can the top bolt be accessed? It seems to be so far up and under the upper horizontal fender edge that I donīt know how to reach it. I have not taken off the turn signal/head lamp trim yet to see if the upper screw can be accessed from there. Does anybody know?
Next, there are two bolts by the high beam pod, holding the header panel to the radiator support. The plastic tabs on the panel are broken off and too low to align with the support, so I will have to fabricate something. There will be quite some tension in the panel once I have forced it up for better alignment (will heat help??) due to the warped fender. Of course there is a crack in the header panel as well, but I have decided to live with that for the time being cuz otherwise Iīd have to do paint work which is not in the budget right now.
Can somebody please tell me if I missed some bolts that hold the panel and how to reach especially the top one I mentioned?
The passenger side fender, hood and header panel donīt line up on my 87 wagon. The upper edge of the header panel to the upper edge of the fender is off about 1/4" and the panel is "sagged" about 1/2" under the passenger side part of the hood. Reason must be a past accident, someone must have hit the fender, as the dent is still visible despite 5 lbs. of plaster an a re-spray. At least the PO replaced the bumper. Anyways, the bad fitment bothers me every time I look at it.
First I thought I could simply realign the hood, but since it meets the fender quite well I guess the header panel rather needs to be lifted. My plan is to hopefully be able to (partly) take the header panel off (or loosen the bolts some) and then shim it to bring it up, say, 1/2" or so.
I canīt seem to find the bolts holding the panel, tho.
Laying under the front end, I saw three bolts on the very right, holding the header panel to the fender. The two lower ones are not tightend as the vertical 90° fender edge has been warped in the hit. The top bolt seems to hold the panel for the most part. How can the top bolt be accessed? It seems to be so far up and under the upper horizontal fender edge that I donīt know how to reach it. I have not taken off the turn signal/head lamp trim yet to see if the upper screw can be accessed from there. Does anybody know?
Next, there are two bolts by the high beam pod, holding the header panel to the radiator support. The plastic tabs on the panel are broken off and too low to align with the support, so I will have to fabricate something. There will be quite some tension in the panel once I have forced it up for better alignment (will heat help??) due to the warped fender. Of course there is a crack in the header panel as well, but I have decided to live with that for the time being cuz otherwise Iīd have to do paint work which is not in the budget right now.
Can somebody please tell me if I missed some bolts that hold the panel and how to reach especially the top one I mentioned?
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