body lines and gaps. not 100% perfect

[jeffl9682]

i just bought a 2004 mustang gt about 2 months ago. I was told it was never hit but when i put it in the air to do the first oil change i noticed masking tape on the underside of the front bumper. So after fighting with the dealership i found out from the previous owner that he hit a bike and the front bumper was replaced. oh well, no big deal. Anyways, i never really noticed it till i had the car on my lift at work. I noticed the gap on the bottom of the drivers door and the gap on the bottom of the passenger doors are very different. One side has about 1/2 gap which from other mustang pics i have seen seems to be the normal gap. the other side the bottom of the door and the sideskirt are just about touching, just the bottom of the front part of the door. the rear part has a little gap. I then looked at the body line that runs along the side of the car and that is off to. I just seems to me that one of the doors has to raised up and one door has to be adjusted down slightly.
I then went to a local body shop cause i wanted to see how much it would be and how hard it would be to realign all the seems and whatnot. He then told me that with ford they are known for not having the best fitment and perfect body lines.
I was just wondering if anyone else has ran into this problem. I know the front bumper was done but it really doesnt look like any of the other panels have been removed or anything. No scratching on any of the hardware from sockets or anything like that.

 

[Matt's 03 GT]

Jeff:

I have heard that this is very typical for our "New edge" body style. It also seems to be a problem in the later model years like '03 (mine) and '04. It seems that Ford, knowing that the body style was changing decided to not maintain the die tollerances...

Matt

 

[RedHorse04]

I have an 04 gt and my door gaps are off quite abit and I bought straight of the truck from ford. They just suck.

 

[Mustang5L5]

My '03, while never being hit, does have some interesting gap differences.

Nothing the average person would ever notice, but when you hand wash your car twice a week, you tend to notice every line on it.


Just look at Ford's lovely door/fender alignment

 

[Dan_Soprano]

My 04 Cobra was the same deal. Pass. door body lines sucked balls bigtime. I notice that with almost ALL 04 cars, same thing.....pass. door line is off. alot of later build 03's too.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Mine's an early '03 and it's off

 

[Dan_Soprano]

Mine's an early '03 and it's off

wow......must be a total 03/04 thing then. My 01 GT wasn't off.

 

[Henceforward]

 

[jeffl9682]

HOLY CRAP!!! i just thought the body man was blowing smoke up my butt. But it seems that its a common problem. You would think ford would take pride in their automobiles. mustang5l5- thats a little worse then mine. But that is exactly what im talking about. and you cant really loosen the door cause its frameless. If you bring the door down to much you will get wind noises. I guess we are just stuck with the alignment issues.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Wow, now ever time i walk to the passenger side of my car i'll think of that lovely picture. Thanks Hence lol

 

[markwsoil]

The driver's side door on my '98 is misaligned - you can see it at the back edge more than the front. I thought it was the standard hinge pin wear, but my body man told me the pin is OK. He said that sometimes they just don't get aligned right. He said the doors are placed by a machine. Makes you wonder how a machine could mess up like that.

 

[mijo_latino]

heh, my 98's is misaligned aswell, but from my own doing. You never know how hard it is to align these doors til' you do it yourself. My driver's side hinges went bad awhile back and it took me 4 hours to replace and align them to bearable standards . Never again will i do that myself.

 

[CanadaStang]

Sounds like your typical " Made in America" vehicle to me.

 

[1low03gt]

Mine has the same issue aswell,and the same for guys i hang around that have the '03 newer,and some '97/'98 stangs .

 

[DTMach1]

Welcome to the wonderful world of snap together models!

FWIW, Ford addressed alot of these issues with the S197...compare your SN95's body lines to a S197 and check out dem gaps!

I've just come to live with it...hell my decklid has paint chips because it's not aligned perfectly

 

[Robs96]

Mine isn't a newer 'Stang but I'll say I have a 96 GT vert and I know mine has been wrecked from the metal roll in the inside rear driver quarter tire well. Also my rear window on that side doesn't roll up and seal right. I DID notice however, that the core support on each side where it attaches to the fender rails at the top, has the crappiest weld I have ever seen. I thought it was just my car, but I recently picked up a 95 vert with a bad tranny and I noticed the same *****ty weld on each end. I have looked at many 94 to 98's since and I have noticed the same on all of them. I've also experienced and watched others and on those same years try to close their hoods and other than dropping them from halfway up, you can't lower it and gently close it, unlike every other car I've ever had. I tried to oil and lube the latch and it doesn't make any difference. Anyone in those same years had trouble getting the vert top up? Sometimes the top comes up and can be closed easily and sometimes it comes up short and has to be pulled hard into position to latch.

 

[DTMach1]

Mine isn't a newer 'Stang but I'll say I have a 96 GT vert and I know mine has been wrecked from the metal roll in the inside rear driver quarter tire well. Also my rear window on that side doesn't roll up and seal right. I DID notice however, that the core support on each side where it attaches to the fender rails at the top, has the crappiest weld I have ever seen. I thought it was just my car, but I recently picked up a 95 vert with a bad tranny and I noticed the same *****ty weld on each end. I have looked at many 94 to 98's since and I have noticed the same on all of them. I've also experienced and watched others and on those same years try to close their hoods and other than dropping them from halfway up, you can't lower it and gently close it, unlike every other car I've ever had. I tried to oil and lube the latch and it doesn't make any difference. Anyone in those same years had trouble getting the vert top up? Sometimes the top comes up and can be closed easily and sometimes it comes up short and has to be pulled hard into position to latch.

Do what I do, blame it on the Ford Robots!

 

[Robs96]

Do what I do, blame it on the Ford Robots!

I knew it was mechanical mannequins at the factories and dealership...especially after asking the dealer about these problems and all they could say was, "you can trade it in on a new one". They have some cute fembots though!

 

[mity2]

almost all 99+ are crop when it comes to body aligment. thats why insurance company are giving me a crop that my car was never fixed right at the bodyshop

"all these 99+ have tallolance of 2mm to 5 mm from factory"....

 

[bigcat]

industry standard is +/- 3mm of tolerance for any part. the thing is, with 3mm, all gaps should still line up properly. the 3mm tolerance is for adjustablilty, not an excuse for poor gaps. mity, you are getting screwed.

as far as the fender gaps, this is the most common thing you can see. the dealership i used to work at would send mustangs in by the truckload to adjust the fender gaps for the new edge stangs. dunno about older ones. never had any S197 alignment issues come in.