How do you do your gaps and alignment?

[68protouring454]

as i said, get them as best as possible then go to filler/primer. every top shop does it that way.
And no welding solid rod and forming the gap is not butchering anything, its being a craftsmen so when metal finished you cant tell what went on other then the gaps are perfect. The key is to finish both sides not just the outside.
sounds like elite has not done many old cars, the gaps are no where near what new cars are.
I try to get everything as straight as possible. most camaros doors move in multiple directions and are different where the fender meets and where the quarter meets so they can only be so straight as the panels need to do different things in different areas.

[elitecustombody]

Originally Posted by 68protouring454

And no welding solid rod and forming the gap is not butchering anything, its being a craftsmen so when metal finished you cant tell what went on other then the gaps are perfect. The key is to finish both sides not just the outside.
sounds like elite has not done many old cars, the gaps are no where near what new cars are..

Any monkey can weld a rod to edges of panels to fix gaps,and that is the cheater's easy way of fixing things,far from true craftsmanship ,might as well slap some bondo,why bother welding?

Uneven gaps usually means that there is something wrong.There could be old frame damage that was never repaired or half-assed,could be previously damaged body panels with distorted shape, Even if quality control wasn't as strict back then, cars would not leave factory with crooked eneven gaps,they were within certain tolerance .

It's possible the shops that do the rod welding gap adjusting mod simply don't have access to a frame machine

I don't care how old the car is,don't blame that on the age of a car, I've owned and worked on enough cars in last 20 years to know that new car can't leave a factory with gaps so bad ,that the only way to fix them is to weld rods to edges of panels and grind for perfect gap.