Hey guys,
I bought an 88 GT few years back and put a 3800 in it. the car has 188 000 km on the body.
I finished with the engine swap and everything, the car drives great so I started working on the body. Now the hood/fenders/bumper always looked a little wonky. The spacing between them wasn't even, nothing seemed aligned really, and the front bumper had quite a sag in the middle. I always ignored it cause I figured it just needed some slight easy adjustment, and I focused on the mechanical issues first. Well I found a new bumper this week from an 85 GT, and from what I've seen and read on here the front bumpers are interchangeable between all years. Yay. The bumper from the 85 had no sag, Looks much better than my other one.
When I took off my bumper I noticed that the mounting bracket for the bumper that's up by the hood was slightly bent, and not all the holes lined up to the mounting holes on the body of the car. So I went back to the pick n pull and grabbed the bracket from the 85 who's bumper I already took. The holes in that bracket don't line up either.
I made this post that has all the pictures that show the issues:
https://imgur.com/a/RRQsONow, the drivers side door and fender seem to have been replaced, I sanded the car and found that those two pieces were red underneath, instead of the grey primer that's on the rest of the car. That drivers side fender doesn't line up the same as the passenger side, there isn't the same spacing, and the fender can't be adjusted further because then it's too close to the door and you can't open it.
one hood hinge also looked bend, I straightened it back out, but it's still not 100% there. Check the chase for visible damage but can't see anything noticible with the eye.
So what's going on here? Could there be frame damage? Do I have the wrong bumper fender or door? I've spent a good 7 hours adjusting everything and I can't make it sit right.
Thanks in advance for your time