Trunk gap problem after new 1/4's

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72bluNblu said:
:rolleyes: If you need your replacement panel to fit perfectly out of the box you're destined for failure.
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never said that you are making things up

72bluNblu said:
Since you said you had the doors in place when you did the quarters, I assume you had the gap right before you started welding. Which means your welding process pulled the panel. Otherwise, the time to address that 1/8" difference was before you welded the quarters on.
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I haven't welded it yet. What do you do? Stretch the panel?:rolleyes: I'll just move the door back a bit or a 1/8" weld a rod down the back side of the door to close it up. Its around 0.330" gap right now

All I am saying is that you can spend $1000s on supposedly good sheet metal but you better have or develop serious body work skills or get deep pockets if you want to the car to look decent. I checked out lots of Darts at the local car shows and their panel fit and finish is decent and they were not big $$ cars.
 
andysauto1 said:
Started doing body work professionally in 72, even the new cars require a board and a hammer sometimes to get the fit you are looking for, sounds primitive but until fortunately it's the truth
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Yessir. It’s just mass production, it’s not perfect. There are tolerances, sometimes they stack up.

The owners manual for my ‘53 Dodge pickup shows you how to use a 2x4 to tweak the door to adjust your door gaps. This isn’t new.

Ironracer said:
Well, at least our Mopars don't have Bolt-on unibodies and shims holding everything together like adjustments to the front end starters stuff like that I mean what kind of junk is that man?
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Actually, and I’m not an expert on what else had them, but I know for a fact the ‘66 Fury I had for a bit had a bolt on front unibody. ‘Cause I unbolted it and welded it into a ‘53 Dodge pickup.

But yeah, agree, our Mopars are not the worst out there.

1MeanA said:
never said that you are making things up
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I didn’t say you said that, but clearly you think an 1/8” gap change is some catastrophic thing requiring warning everyone. An 1/8” variance on a replacement quarter should be well within your expectations, cause there’s lots worse than that out there. An 1/8” adjustment is par for the course.

1MeanA said:
I haven't welded it yet. What do you do? Stretch the panel?:rolleyes: I'll just move the door back a bit or a 1/8" weld a rod down the back side of the door to close it up. Its around 0.330" gap right now
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Yeah, I’d stretch the panel. Unfold the front edge a little and move the bend an 1/8” forward. Just work that edge. Should be more than enough overlap to lose a little into the quarter.

Assuming of course the issue isn’t just that the panel is bowed out in the middle and that’s just pulling the front edge back. Make sure the outer wheel house is in the right place and the fit to the quarter lip there is good, because if you can pull the quarter in a bit there you’d probably be able to push that forward. An 1/8” isn’t much at all.

1MeanA said:
All I am saying is that you can spend $1000s on supposedly good sheet metal but you better have or develop serious body work skills or get deep pockets if you want to the car to look decent. I checked out lots of Darts at the local car shows and their panel fit and finish is decent and they were not big $$ cars.
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Looking at painted cars at the car show doesn’t tell you what they did to get there. Decent and perfect are different things, seen plenty of stock cars with gaps bigger or smaller than a 1/4” with an 1/8” variation.

And yes, you can absolutely spend thousands and still need to do bodywork. That’s how it is, that’s how it’s always been, that’s not news. We’re lucky there’s even panels to buy, and the stuff from AMD is pretty good as far as accuracy goes.

If you want factory fits you can track down and buy NOS panels, but be forewarned, having them be an 1/8” off is not uncommon for all the reasons I’ve already mentioned. Factory body tolerances on these cars were way looser than an 1/8”.
 
On a lighter note, manufacturing tolerances have become very accurate. 3mm is the tolerance. If they could get that to zero, life for a modern collision repair person would be easier.
 
Bodyperson said:
On a lighter note, manufacturing tolerances have become very accurate. 3mm is the tolerance. If they could get that to zero, life for a modern collision repair person would be easier.
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Lol. 3mm is .118”, so, still basically talking an 1/8” variance. Give or take .007” :).

And that’s modern manufacturing, still doesn’t help us. Even if every reproduction quarter were perfectly accurate to the factory spec, there’d still be folks here saying their quarters didn’t fit by well over an 1/8” because these cars weren’t that close.
 
72bluNblu said:
Lol. 3mm is .118”, so, still basically talking an 1/8” variance. Give or take .007” :).

And that’s modern manufacturing, still doesn’t help us. Even if every reproduction quarter were perfectly accurate to the factory spec, there’d still be folks here saying their quarters didn’t fit by well over an 1/8” because these cars weren’t that close.
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Hmm, so much for "a lighter note"
 
72bluNblu said:
If you want factory fits you can track down and buy NOS panels, but be forewarned, having them be an 1/8” off is not uncommon for all the reasons I’ve already mentioned. Factory body tolerances on these cars were way looser than an 1/8”.
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My Demon has OEM replacement quarters and yes, the door to quarter gap is tapered. Have to deal with that

IMG_1692.JPG
 
My car wont be perfect only because I'll know where the flaws are... Im blocking it out for the "second time" now...people are starting to say "it looks good" though which is an indicator...when your average person cant see the flaws its getting close...:)
 
I had to do a pie slice to get my gap right on my AMD quarter on my 71 Barracuda, did pretty much the same thing for my door gaps as well.

IMG_0159.jpeg
 
Lots of ppl have to cut, stretch, weld, reshape AMD 1/4s to get the fit they want. Just need to get expectations in line going into it and hope the tweaking required is not too extensive or beyond your skill set.

And like others said these cars were real sloppy from the factory but a lot of us want nice uniform gaps. That is not how they were when new and back then no one cared either.
 
I worked on these cars when they where almost new a a Chrysler dealership, gaps where all over the place. Put a new quarter panel on a. 69 road runner and inside in the udercoating a factory worker had scribbled fxxk Chrysler. Not a good sign for workmanship
 
andysauto1 said:
I worked on these cars when they where almost new a a Chrysler dealership, gaps where all over the place. Put a new quarter panel on a. 69 road runner and inside in the udercoating a factory worker had scribbled fxxk Chrysler. Not a good sign for workmanship
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My buddy was a carpenter in Michigan back then. He helped build some of the factories. He said those people didnt give a ahit about quality and were drunk and stoned.
My 67 Barracuda has really nice gaps.
 
Not knocking Chrysler, but you guys building these cars probably do a better job then Chrysler did back in the day, trust me I'm experiencing the same problem on my 72 demon with the and quarters
 
Bodyperson said:
My buddy was a carpenter in Michigan back then. He helped build some of the factories. He said those people didnt give a ahit about quality and were drunk and stoned.
My 67 Barracuda has really nice gaps.
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Think about it. Big Northern City and Assembly Line Workers. African American workers formed DRUM in 68. Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement, in The Main Detriot plant... It WAS the 60s and 70s.....
 
Ironracer said:
Think about it. Big Northern City and Assembly Line Workers. African American workers formed DRUM in 68. Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement, in The Main Detriot plant... It WAS the 60s and 70s.....
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He talked about a guy who would steal paint in his thermos. Lol. Never talked about skin color.
 
Bodyperson said:
He talked about a guy who would steal paint in his thermos. Lol. Never talked about skin color.
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I had a great neighbour...................That's how I got antifreeze for my car when I was a kid. He belonged to a big union. If you murdered someone on the job, you got a written reprimand.:lol:
 
I hope to take the leap and start welding the quarters on today. I bought another trunk lid that fits a little better. It seems to be slightly narrower.

ps Some guy that worked for my Dad in the '70s stole a drill press in his lunchbox. He disassembled it and took home piece by piece. I have no idea how he got the big bits home....perhaps that's how he got caught.
 
My 72 demon , took the new AMD quarters on and off several times to make good lines little bump here and there before I was satisfied, screwed every thing together first until I was happy with the fit
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