Techno Duck

Some of you may remember my accident from late November...



Well ive gotten it fixed for the most part. The problems im facing now are trying to just get everything lined up. The drivers side headlight bucket is still a little funky in its allignment, the hood has a sizable gap between the headlight bucket and the edge of the hood, and the hood sits to high on the passenger side.

Its such a pain in the butt. I had my car at my friends shop last week to let them have a go at it. They managed to get the hood to sit a little lower on the passenger side and fixed the allignment of the headlight bucket. They feel the frame might be tweaked just enough causing my problems with the hood. So possibly this summer we are going to throw it on the frame machine again to double check.

I messed around with the four bolts that connect the hood to the hinge to try and fill that gap in. I have the hood as far foward on the passenger side, the gap is not nearly as bad as before but still noticable. Tomorrow im going to try and move the headlight bucket back on the passenger side a little to see if that makes any difference. The only problem now is the hood sits a little bit to high on the passenger side again.







Body work really is the most miserable thing in the world. I have another 931 vented nose, but it needs the drilled out welds filled in and a slight crease in the metal worked out. The problem is that this is all being done as a favor. So i feel bad being all meticulous about everything. I am thinking of taking this to another place and just paying straight up to get it fixed.

Finnaly got around to lowering the rear of my car using the camber eccentric trick. Much easier than i thought. Dosent look as goofy now with the wheel gap gone.

xsboost90

look pretty good from here! what happened to the old vented nose- it would make a good candidate to cut up for a turbo nose transplanting the vents.

I love porsche

yes, pannel fitting is a pain!

trying to get the panels to fit correctly on my 914 is hell, and i havent even began with the doors yet,

oh boy....

but good luck with getting this fixed, post some pics when its done

Techno Duck

Dan, still hae the old panel. I was going to hang it on my wall as a reminder to not follow so closely. I dont think the holes for the vents are still usable as a template or anything, they are pretty badly warped.

Its a shame what happened to it, it looked freaken awsome when i got it back from the body shop.

GOSANE

Jon, as always the devil is in the details ;^)

Tom R.

Jon,
This is exactly why I sold the firebird. the panel gaps were all spot on, everything lined up, but there were imperfections in the paint from 20 years ago, there was a small rust spot forming on the bottom of a door. I couldnt bear to strip the whole car down to bare metal again because the paints today wont match the lustre of the lacquer on it. i just canned the whole project and decided to look for a nice inexpensive miata or 3 sereis convertible instead. And, most importantly, set the bar much lower from the get-go.

Izzy

If the nose is out of alignment, its an easy fix. Just turn on the headlights, and play with the bolts right in front down in the headlight recess, you can loosen them and move the header panel around to some extent.

Techno Duck

Tom, it is a hard life to be a perfectionist. Or atleast being **** about things like this. It really is not bad at all, my mom came out side and i asked her to see if she can see the difference in the panels from about 5 feet away. She said it looked fine. To me, every time i see the big gap between the hood and headlight...its a reminder of how i screwed the car up in the first place!

Izzy, i had the nose panel off a for a good amount of time to get the 931 vented nose on in the first place. I dont think it was possible to get any type of adjustment out of it considering where it bolts to the fenders and along the top of the upper radiator support.

All im looking to do at this point is close that gap with the hood and header / headlight panel and fix the hood sitting to high up. After im done with that, all i want to do is get the other 931 nose on and im set. I never have to deal with body work again! (knocks on wood).

One reason i like being a mechanic...if it dosent fit, use a pry bar. If it still dosent fit, hit it with a hammer. If it still dosent fit, hit it with a bigger hammer. And if it still really dosent fit, hit it with a sledge hammer. Body work to me...seems like its hope there is enough adjustment to slide everything into place by hand!

RedlineMan

Hey;

Been doing it for almost 25 years, and it never gets any easier. Porsches are not easy cars to align. 944 noses are the second worst front to line up I've ever done, bested only by the Z28/TransAm from the late 80s. They were HORRENDOUS!

Don't go too nuts, as the 944 sheetmetal was never perfect to start with. Headlamps have a ton of adjustment points, so keep working. If you cannot get your hood to sit with even gaps on all three sides, the front is tweaked. Which gaps are what way will tell you. If you took pics from directly above the full length of the gaps, I could tell you.

Kurt R

Have you looked close at your hood hinges? They seem to bend fairly easy. The hood might also be a little twisted, the passenger side rear and driver side front look low, maybe the hood is twisted a little too.

Here's a pic of my hood hinges, bent one and straight one.

Techno Duck

I will defenetley take a closer look at the hinges tomorrow to see if they are bent.

RedlineMan, i do have a strong feeling the front is tweaked. The gap between the fender and the hood is huge on the drivers side. I can almost stick my index finger inbetween the gap. I seem to remember it being like this well before the accident also, but really i cant remember. I will take a few more pictures once the rain stops.

I should drive my car up so you can have a go at it..its only like a 5 hour drive

As a really last resort, i suppose i could elongate the holes on the hinges so the hood can slide foward a little more. Thats sort of a shoddy solution however.

Perry 951

3 years after I completed my rebuild I am still trying to get the hood, lights, and nose panel aligned. Looking at the pics, I'd say you've still got some room for adjustment. Get the hood set correctly first, lined up with the fenders, and then move to the lights for the correct fender and hood gap, then the nose panel last. Just stay after it and you should be able to get it pretty close.

mark944turbo

I have been there, done that, several times. AND I HATE IT!!! Definately look at the hinges. Also, you can move the headlights a significant amount by loosening the 2 10mm bolts on each side that hold the bar assembly to the chassis. You can move one back a little to compensate for the gap without making it too obvious.

mark944turbo

And, to fix the hood being high, mess with the rubber shims between the hood and the fenders. That always was easier for me than adjusting at the hinges, which is also possible.

Techno Duck

Is it possible to get any adjustment from the nose panel? I really do not see how its possible short of pulling the radiator support in either direction i need it to go.

Mark, thats exactly what i plan to do with the headlights. Going to slide it back a little to try and compensate for the gap. The gap between the header panel and hood isnt to bad, and its not really noticable with the header panels black strip (where the screws go). Im also going to try and take out the rubber shim that is at the halfway mark on the passenger side, that might fix the height problem in regards to the fender. I can tell the shim isnt a problem for the front part being uneven with the headlight / header panel. I can easily push down on that corner of the hood before it touches the rubber piece.