Couple q's for the guys who have been there already.

[331efiblue66]

I mocked up the front end on my car this weekend. New ford tooled fenders, new headlight buckets(aftermarket), and original lower valance, stone guard. My headlight buckets have a little 'tab' on the bottom, facing back toward the core support. Is this tab supposed to be resting against the core support? Mine seem to be about 3/8-1/2" off the core support, and I am having clearance issues with the leading edge of my fiberglass hood, it is hitting on the upper edge of the headlight bucket where the grille screws on. Do I need to tweak the headlight bucket to get it to seat against the core support to get things in proper alignment? I am going to attach the headlight cover tonight and see if I possibly need to bring the hood forward a little bit.

Second q, what are you guys with a 5.0 conversion using for a lower radiator hose? I ordered a conversion radiator with the outlet on driver side. Will a standard 5.0 stang lower hose work, or is there a part # for a lower hose I should use.
Thanks guys.

 

[86T-Top]

Not sure about the head light bucket, as I don't remember right now and I don;t have the car in front of me.

As for the lower radiator hose I used a lower hose from a 95 Mustang GT, and the upper hose from a 89 Mustang 5.0L.

Mario

 

[robbz28]

You will need a lot of patience when getting all those panels lined up. Before you get the fenders lined up, make sure your doors are lined up with the back quarter panels first. Then you can adjust your fenders accordingly. I'm not certain about the tab you speak of, but I can tell you that those fenders have room to slide back and forth a bit, so that gap might just be part of the adjustment. And as far as the hood goes, I have never purchased a fiberglass panel that didn't need some kind of work. I just bought a new shelby style hood for my 67 and it was 1/2" too long, so had to remove material from the rear of the hood, then a little from the front as well to make it line up with the headlight buckets. It will take a lot of bumping, nudging and twisting to get all of that lined up correctly.

 

[NMEMJCM]

Welcome to the fantastic world of great fitting pieces on these cars. It has been my experience that whenever I have seen a car with great body lines and gaps, it is usually sitting in a large puddle of the owners/body mans blood, sweat and tears. I had a similar problem, and ended up moving the fenders around to accommodate the hood location instead of tweaking with the hood to get the buckets and everything to line up.

 

[331efiblue66]

Panel alignment has been a real treat. I replaced the doors, which you can only get aftermarket, aligned them to the original fenders, then stripped the paint to find what appears some "bodyman" used a 2x4, a ball pein hammer and 1/2 gal body filler to repair damage from a wreck. I don't want that much mud in the car so I ordered the new fenders to find now the doors need adjusted on the hinges for the 3rd time. They are as high as I can get them, so I am going to have to use a die grinder & carbide burr to elongate the holes in the door to raise them to align. But hey, I am having a good time with it, and it is keeping me occupied and out of trouble....I am really looking forward to finishing the body work so I can start building the engine! That is what I really enjoy.

 

[robbz28]

I have the Dynacorn aftermarket doors on my car and I didn't have to do anything to the holes on the body of the car...make real certain you have adjusted it everywhere else you can first...especially the rear latch. The hinges should slide up and down on the body AND up and down on the door.

 

[2+2GT]

Pre-assembly is key, even if you use all original or original tool parts.