Front Fascia/Hood Adjustment?

[Achilles99]

OK, this has been bothering me for several weeks, and I have tried to collect some info on hood/headlight/front fascia adjustment. From what I gather, it will be one heck of an ordeal. I wanted to get you guys' opinion. If you look at the picture, there is hardly any gap between the hood and the front right side of the front fascia (portion in front of the wheel well). The hood is currently touching the side of the fascia, and I don't want the paint to eventually chip! Which part, looking at the gap around the headlight, hood, etc., would you guys try to adjust first? How do you do it? I'm desperate here! Anyone have the body panel diagrams they could fax me? I'd like to get this fixed ASAP, as I'd hate to damage the car while driving

 

[Ulysses]

Open up the hood and take a close look at the hood latch. Mark it and raise it a tad. Close the hood and see if the gap is to your liking. If not, repeat. Then raise the rubber hood stop when you are done.

 

[scottgf]

Ulysses is correct,
Start where he said adjusting the latch a little....thats pretty easy....If that doesnt solve the problem, let me know and i will dig out the stuff Chuck sent me....that was a while back but I am pretty sure I have it at home.....Mine was way out of wack and I got it back pretty good, (close enough for me)...You can see what it USED to look like on my avatar.
Keep us posted,
Cheers,

 

[Achilles99]

I believe I tried the latch thing already, which is why I have that huge gap in between the hood and the top of the headlight. If you get a chance to dig it up, Scott, I'd appreciate it. I will definitely keep everyone posted, and I'll snap some shots, too. I love this board... problems are documented, and for those that aren't, we need to do so. Definitely the least I could do considering how much I learn myself from reading posts here...

BTW, I'm guessing there is a limit to raising the hood latches. I'm going to try and raise it more (better to have a gap than chipped paint!). Hopefully, the space between the hood and side sill will still remain parallel with each other.

I thought that American cars were known for their perfect fitment of body panels

 

[Ulysses]

For every incremental change you do on one side, there will be a slightly smaller incremental change in the opposite direction on the other side. Check and see if the other side has been raised too much. Other than that, these facias sometimes do not come out of the factory very symmetrical. Sometimes you might have to egg out the holes in the inside of the wheel well side of the facia and try to slide that side of the facia down to get it to not touch the hood. That is an option I would try to avoid and work with the latches.

 

[Kevin Stitely]

I also have a slight problem with hood alignment. In fact, it's the oppositie of Achilles99 problem. Specifically, my gap is larger than I'd like. The front right corner shows a gap between the hood and the facia. So, would I have to adjust the latch down to eliminate the excessive gap? Any and all advice welcome.

 

[Ulysses]

I also have a slight problem with hood alignment. In fact, it's the oppositie of Achilles99 problem. Specifically, my gap is larger than I'd like. The front right corner shows a gap between the hood and the facia. So, would I have to adjust the latch down to eliminate the excessive gap? Any and all advice welcome.

Yes, but take care as not to adjust the hood down so far that it is too close to the inside part of the headlamp assembly. Too close and it might rub the assembly. There is a clear coating on there and you don't want it to start peeling.

 

[Kevin Stitely]

By adjusting the latch down, how do I control which side is affected?

 

[Ulysses]

By adjusting the latch down, how do I control which side is affected?

There are 2 latches. One for the left side, one for the right.

 

[viper 505]

Front fascia seem to be over the head light it think that's your problem .Should be lower on that side. had that problem too,i readjusted front fascia.
good luck

 

[Achilles99]

Viper 505 (and whoever else might know),

How did you lower the front fascia? I think you are right... it does appear that the front may be a little over the headlight. Ulysses suggested egging out the screw holes along the inner wheel well. is this the only way to lower the side of the fascia down? It would appear as such

 

[shifter]

Had the exact same problem after some light grazing at a ViperDays event. I wasn't able to correct the slight contact between the facia and the hood by adjusting the hood alone. I did make progress, but raising the hood enough to prevent contact after hood slam, the front edge of the hood was raised and looked bad. I had some 3m clear tape on the facia for weeks to prevent scratching until I got up enough nerve to tackle the facia removal. It wasn't complicated, just daunting. Getting the pushpins out was a treat without removing the hood, but I did it with the help of a long handle X-mas tree fastener removal tool from Pep boys.

After the pushpins, a few easy access bolts in the grille opening, and a few electrical connectors for the fog lights, the facia came off easily. There is a bracket that supports the side of the facia right where you are having the contact. I just loosened the bolts to the braket and angled it down a bit. You can then put the facia back on with a few bolts to check it before putting all the push pins back.

Getting the push pins back in wasn't too bad, but there are 2 pins, 1 each right above the headlight assy that I gave up on. Never got them back in, but no ill effects. You can barely see them, let alone getting a hand or tool in there and apply a downward force.

Good luck.

 

[Achilles99]

Shifter,

Did you have the egg out the holes along the inner wheel well? It sounds like your technique will work... I'm just unsure of how much movement I can do with the bracket adjustment, since it appears that the side of the fascia is fixed into position with those screws. What was your experience with that?

BTW, I'm interested in this tool from Pep Boys. Could you describe it a little more? I need all the help I can get before I tackle the front fascia removal!

 

[shifter]

No, I don't believe I had to enlarge any of the facia holes. What I did was loosen the inner plastic panel (which has the coolant bottle window in it) and adjusted that enough to get a decent alignment of the facia wheel well screws. You really don't need much to get the facia and hood alignment correct. Additionally, since the wheel well screws act like self tapping, a slight mis-alignment of those screws weren't a problem. Honestly, the hardest part was removing the x-mas tree fasteners under the front edge of the hood. I invented all kinds of crazy profane words during that part, and felt incomplete when I couldn't get the two outer ones back in. (make sure you use new ones, as you'll likely break and/or distort the original ones).

The tool has a "V" type head and a long handle. They are common, you can find them at Northern Tool, or Pep boys/Napa. It's called a long handle door trim removal tool. The short handle version is about 6" long. The long handle verion that I have is about 12+" long.

Just take your time and put towels over the facia as you work to ensure no scratches.

 

[Heysie]

You should probably also adjust your headlight, if you lower your facia, the gap between headlight and hood will increase.

 

[shifter]

Not exactly true. I do not believe the headlight is attached to the facia. I didn't have to touch mine.

 

[Achilles99]

Shifter,

Great ideas, I'll try that. When you said that since the screws were self-tapping and it wasn't a problem, did you have to actually tap new holes in the plastic?

 

[shifter]

As best as I can remember, I didn't create any new holes, I didn't have to move the facia that much. I had the opinion that the factory used the existing holes when new, so I should be able to get a perfect alignment without any modifications (and a lot of patience). In reality, I think I may have ever so slightly bent one of the facia brackets, which caused a partial blockage of one or two of the wheel well screws when I got it aligned the way I wanted it.

I managed to get the facia and hood adjusted to the nominal condition in the shop manual. It is dimensionally perfect now, but it took a while to get the hang of it. I'm not a fan of band-aiding a problem. all else held equal, if it was perfect once, you can make it perfect again without new holes or bending any of the brackets.

One last comment, though. My condition was caused by the front facia being bumped up when I went off roading. If you didn't have a similiar experience or a romance with a curb etc, I struggle to understand how your facia moved up. You mentioned that you worked the hood latches over and couldn't get it right... that would have been my first guess. I have had to adjust my hinges a couple times from the hinge getting a bit loose and dropping down a bit. Please double check before you start pulling off the facia.

 

[Achilles99]

Shifter,

Thanks for suggesting that I double-check... after talking with Chuck Tator and getting some more advice, I realized that I was confusing the latches with the bump stops (I know, newbie mistake!). So, I will attempt those adjustments one more time. I agree... I would rather not bandage the problem. Since there was no collision, you are probably correct in saying that it must be some kind of hinge slipment problem (hopefully). Although with a hand built car, you never know!

 

[GTS Dean]

Contrary to what most people have suggested (raising the hood) I think the adjustment needs to be at the outer corners of the fascia. On some cars, it is possible to get a 10 or 11 mm open end wrench between the headlight bucket and the fascia. There are 2 bolts on each side to loosen, then the corners can be moved slightly to control the gap. You can gain a little more clearance for the wrench by pulling the fascia screws out of the fender well and pulling the fascia clear of the inner splash shield/core support.

The headlight bucket looks to me like it needs to be shimmed up. Getting to the back nut is a real pain with the fascia on.

 

[AviP]

There are numerous adjustments that can be done to get the alignment of the hood, fascia and headlights right. I've listed some of them.

Headlights:
1. Front to back with the 4 screws.
2. Diagonally with the 4 screws.
3. Up and down with shims.

Fascia:
1. Up and down with the screws by the side (wheelwell).
2. Front to back with the screws on the underside.
3. Side alignment with the hood making the wheelwell look round with the diagonal crossbar in front of the headlight (behind the fascia).
4. Front to back with the pushpins on the top.

NOTE: The 2 annoying pushpins under the headlight can be easily accessed from the round access panel in the wheelwell.

Hood:
1. Alignment with the top of the fascia can be controlled to some degree by turning the bump pads appropriately.
2. I'm sure there's more here but I don't have the experience.

The bottomline is that the RT's and GTS' body parts are shimmed all over and are much harder to align. I believe the SRT has fixed this problem with it's new body on frame design.

 

[Achilles99]

It's really random... I'm not sure what the problem is. The (headlight/fascia alignment) looks great. The (front of the hood/fascia alignment) is perfect.

On the passenger side, the hood where it meets the top of the headlight is fine. The side of the hood where it meets the fascia is fine.

However, on the driver's side, the hood looks SLIGHTLY high above the headlight, and the side of the hood looks SLIGHTLY high above the fascia.

Last night, I left the hood unlatched, but down. This morning, when I went to close it, the gaps looked better on the driver's side. It had shrunk from a 1/2" gap to a 1/4" gap. I don't think it had anything to do with how I closed the hood. I closed it about 10 times last night to get the gaps correct. It took me one time this morning.

Would having the car in the shop with the hood up cause this? I'm thinking that the hood has been temporarily mis-shaped, and is slowly regaining it's original shape.

 

[AviP]

Would having the car in the shop with the hood up cause this? I'm thinking that the hood has been temporarily mis-shaped, and is slowly regaining it's original shape.

I seriously doubt it. That hood is flexible but it's too strong to morph under it's own weight. That curve along the wheelwell is pretty strong.

 

[scottgf]

99,
Lets see a few pics of the hood....
My hood was out of wack and I got it back pretty darn close.
Cheers,

 

[Achilles99]

I've never been able to post pics Even after following the tutorials...

 

[GR8_ASP]

Here is one from your gallery. If you post pictures there someone can show you how to get them here.

 

[Ulysses]

As GTS Dean has suggested earlier, one thing to check is the support bracket and the two bolts associated with it underneath the facia at the tip top corner of the facia where it meets the hood. If you remove the wheel well facia screws, you can peel the facia back a bit and see a rod at that corner below the headlight casing that is flattened where the bolts go through. The bolts bolt into the radiator support. Sometimes they loosen and the support drops a bit. You can pull up on the support and tighten the bolts. Just be careful not to scratch your facia or crank too ******* the bolts and crack the radiator support.

Another thing you might try is tightening the facia/bumper mounting nuts. Looking through the crosshairs you'll see 4 large nuts, 2 on either side. Tighten the outer 2. If you raise the front part of the hood and peer in behind the facia but in front of the frame rails/bumper, you'll see 2 locking nuts, one on each side just to the outside of the latches. Sometimes these come loose as well and need to be retightened but are a bit of a pain to get to.

Good luck.

 

[Achilles99]

OK, I took some pics, but they don't show the problem too well. In fact, it makes it look like nothing is wrong

I took a few days off from the problem, and decided to take some measurements. I thought the hood was too high on the driver's side. From my measurements, it looks like the side of the fascia is too low.

I loosened the two bolts that hold the flattened rod to the corner of the fascia. I couldn't get any movement there...

I'm going to try Ulysses suggestion about the front mounting bolts. Any other suggestions to get the side of the fascia raised about 1/4"? The hood is aligned at the front with the fascia, so I don't want to move the entire thing too much. Any way to raise just the outside portion? The wheelwell screws don't seem to have much play, either...