I am by no means a bodyman nor do I claim to be so I have a question for those that are. I recently replaced the front fenders on my 70 with Year One replacements and question the best way to shim them as so the body lines are in alignment? And where to start (The back, front,at the rocker)? I was also wondering if they require some bending / mild beating graemlins/clonk.gif to aide in the alignment of the body lines seeing as they are aftermarket. Any help would be appreciated.

Do a search on "Martin" "body basics".

DG,
Thanks for the site, answered alot of my questions. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Glad that could be of help. In the "Basics of Basics" nothing is mentioned about the aftermarket fender issue. Of course, even OEM fenders could need a little "massaging" of metal to get it to fit nice. However, with aftermarket, you are just about gauranteed that you will have to perform some serious "massaging" to get it within reason.

Don't be tweeked out if you are massaging the fender and you end up with some little damage that you will have to fill with polyester putty, it is likely going to happen. Sure, it is a NEW fender and you hate to have filler on it, but it is not the end of the world and a little filler done properly is MUCH, MUCH better than a poor fitting fender, at least that's my opinion. ;)

Ive got 2 brand new fenders from NPD, and a new hood, and a new door skin, the door skin has been through hell getting a proper fit, plus someone put a really nasty ding in it, I had to knock it out and clean it up with filler, everything still isnt straight graemlins/clonk.gif goodluck, just take your time, its frustrating I know :eek:

Yeah, I have found out that repo is just that, CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR. I felt that buying from Year One would put me alittle closer to an OEM....but not so. I have had to bend, shim and bend some more to get them to even hang on the car graemlins/clonk.gif . I wasn't really sure of the shim and bend process and where to start but after doing some reading I guess I'm somewhere in the ballpark or wrestling ring graemlins/hurray.gif .