Body Panels

[vixenf6]

Ok I have a 3rd buddy buying now looking/buying a xr6t (ute). Went looking today at one and he is pretty keen on this FG .

Thing is all door panels line up nicely but where the front pillar joins the front right guard it looks a bit odd ? also the bonnet shut line is larger on this side (passenger)

We have checked all the welds, and the lower chassis brace (front end) and upper all seem to look "aged" and appropriate.

Anyways on the way home we stopped at a ford dealer and it seems with FG's that a lot were like this and QC isn't the same on each car

Any thoughts fellow forum pals.

[bunna]

Sounds like the fender was fitted with the wrong bolt sequence. There are 8 bolts on the FG fender, and their sequence is critical to the fit outcome.

[vixenf6]

Thanks for the reply Bunna , how would one go about fixing this ?

Cheers !

[bunna]

There's definitely a knack to it, but I'll try and explain.

The most thorough things to do is loosen all of the fender bolts and re-tighten in the correct sequence. The issue with this is that you'd have to break the paint and ecoat seal on each of the bolts, plus there is one bolt under the headlight (or bumper support bracket, I can't remember which), so you'd need to at least remove the bumper also to do it properly!

But what I would reccomend you do first if the hood to fender fushness is a bit weird is to play around with the adjustable rubber bumpstops on the underside of the hood. There are 2 fixed stops towards the centre of the hood, and 2 windable ones on the outer edges. Wind them in to lower the hood, and out to raise it.

As to the margins (gaps) if its uneven side to side on the hood you can either try and loosen a couple of the wider side fender bolts in the engine bay, push the fender in and re-tighten, or loosen one of the hood hinge bolts on either side and give the hood a short, sharp nudge over to the wider side.

Like I said - its an art rather than a science!