69 Dart top of fender/door margins

-
E

ewolfe

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2010
Messages
47
Reaction score
2
Location
Kentucky
Hello everyone,

I need help with the margins on my 69 Dart drop top. Can anyone send or post a pic of the margins where the top of the door/fender meet? The body guys needs to fix/redo or whatever needs done to continue with the process.

A pic is worth 1000 words, plus I can show him what they are supposed to look like. They are kind of jacked up looking right now :sad7:

Thanks in advance!
 
I could get a pic from 4 different cars and they would all look a little different.
That spot where the fender and door wrap around the cowl is your fudge area. The goal is to get good margins at fenders to hood, hood to header and hood to cowl. I've found it best to start at doors to quarters and rockers then square the front clip to the hood and doors.
Let the radius where fender and door meet the cowl fall where it may.
If you try to get those to a perfect margin the doors will lead away at the rockers and at the body lines where doors meet quarters. Then you have more issues with window alignment, wind noise, water leaks, etc...
It's a time consuming process any way you approach it. Knowing where to find some forgiveness helps.
 
Hey Redfish,

First of all, thanks for the response. I totally understand that each car will have differences, but the margins (I don't mean gaps, but shapes of margins) are jacked up where they meet. The fender has a nice cresent (moon) shape and the door has a strange S sort of shape to it...they do not jive. I think my question is too simple...All my other cars, all B bodies, have the same shaped margin (all different gaps and such) but all the same general shape...this deal is an S meeting a crecent...it has to be wrong, but I need a pic to be sure. Does that make sense? I'm assuming the door should match the fender (cresent shaped)...
 
I have a pic of the area on my pc, but I don't know how to load it. I can email it to you, if I had your address.

Thanks
 
Really, no one can produce a picture of the margins between the top of the fender and door???? This is for A bodys, right?
 
My 69 Swinger 340 car had the same issue as you describe. It was a no-hit car, too. Thats just the way they were.
My current Dart has glass fenders so I can't post an accurate pic for you.

George
 
Thank you very much George. This area of the car doesn't show up in "normal" everyday pictures, so a specific photo would have to be taken. I was lucky enough to find a 69 Dart on eBay that had a paint chip there he was pointing, so I was able to verify the odd shape of the margins. The guy painting the car is mostly familiar with Chevys and wanted to verify the margins as he is very anal about those (its a good thing.) So anyway, thank you for your response. They looks so strange, I needed confirmation from some A body guys that this was "normal."
 
You should be good to go.
Post a few pix of the car when you get time. We like that stuff around here ya know!

:D
 
I just looked at the linked picture. I have to say that I have never seen such bad craftsmanship on an older Mopar. I had to check my cars after seeing that. '67 New Yorker - perfect; '68 GTX - perfect; '68 'Cuda - not bad at all. I can't imagine that the stamping dies could have been in such bad shape as to produce such badly matching panels. I wonder if one of the components was damaged at the factory and was hammered back into shape and sent to the assembly line.
 
Thats a possibility as I worked at Ford for 13 years and I still can't believe how some "repairs" were performed and shipped out to the customers...I can just imagine what went on in the 60s and 70s. I too would think the crazy margins were a fluke...until you look at the other side of the car, same jacked-up margin. Who knows. We're going to finesse the margins to be presentable. This isn't a factory reso, but a modernization with a 5.7 Hemi and other modern complements, but we want to stick with factory appearance on the body.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top