Underhood dimensions 71 Swinger

72bluNblu said
I saw in your thread you've got a car that was hit and is no longer square. In my opinion, you should be using frame dimensions from the factory to make your checks. Comparing the locations of the fender bolts isn't a great reference IMHO, there's a lot of adjustment to be had there. The body measurements on these cars are all over the place, even on cars that are straight. A 1/4" of variation was factory tolerance on the suspension points, let alone the body points.

These are the factory frame dimensions for a '71 Dart, same for a '70. This is what I would check. The fender bolt locations I'd be a lot less concerned about unless the fender wouldn't bolt up or align with the hood. But again, there's a ton of adjustment there. As long as the rails are straight, the rest is just getting the gaps to line up. I'm not saying a reference isn't useful, but, I wouldn't count the measurements off another A-body as gospel, even if they were off a straight car. Guidelines maybe.

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Ive seen this picture online already and it gives no real indication on what specific points that it is using. It is a generic almost useless diagram completely unnecessary in my case since the car Im working on suffered a light hit and no severe frame damage, just a little sway on the bottom and quite a bit more on the top.

Squaring off the lower rails ( and the upper rails for that matter ) is nothing more than finding safe points on the vehicle that have been unaffected, ( one on each side ) and from there building the car outward.

I guarantee ( regardless of what may be read online ) that with the measurements Ive given above once the top is square than the sheetmetal will literally fall into place and will require very little adjustment to line up correctly even if I were to do nothing with the lower rails.

I plan to of course straighten the lower rails, foolish not to and it could affect allignment.