Panel gaps. Big deal?

[phantom]

Ok, this question is for all people in this forum, but mostly those with un-restored cars:

Do you pay much attention to your panel gaps? Are they perfect -- acceptable -- or bad? Which panels are most often not properly aligned?

Reason i ask is, i've been working on my project for two years now, and for the last year or so, the major task has been fitting new panels. Everything from the doors back is new, plus right front inner fender, cowl and left outer fender, so i've had pretty much the whole car to realign. And as i worked on my gaps, i got more and more focused on getting them as perfect as i could, to the point of obsession 

The first thing i look at when i see a picture of a Charger, or a real car at a show, is the panel gaps. Especially cars i know have been restored and/or modified. Sloppy panel gaps on restored cars might suggest sloppy work, right? I also know these cars werent exactly put together like they do today.

How about you guys that have restored your cars, how much attention did you pay to the gaps?

[tan top]

 having been a body & paint guy since I was 18ish  , in  1989 ,  was a mechanic before that !  ... time goes soo quick   ,


yes , GAPS  , important !  

thats one of the first things I look at , the gaps  ,

although  no more important  than doing & or seeing if ,  the welding / filling prepping & painting properly  , it all goes together  

mine had never been in a wreck , & still had its original panels  , the  panel alignment  was poor ,   when I done the nut & bolt resto  , spent a quite a bit of time adjusting etc to get them good enough , & was 100% better than the factorys handy work   ,  with out resorting to grinding / filing, cutting /moving  & or  adding metal to various edges  ,

obsession you say !! true  , can drive you  nuts ,  more you keep looking & tweeking  this & that !! can spend hours & hours    some people might say , what !  you been an hour aligning up & adjusting ...  but it looked ok before to me ... ,  but to us body & paint guys its soo important  !  these sort of things stand out to us , just like ,   big new chrome wheels to others , we see what the panel alignment is like  , followed by quality of paint job  & prep . long before we look at what wheels it has ,  & to even  check to see , if it even has  an engine under the hood ,    think I've got side tracked a bit  

[hemi-hampton]

I like my gaps perfect, The Chevelle I just did had poor gaps thanks to aftermarket parts. The Aftermarket parts many times come with what some Body Guys will call a roll, meaning panel at curved area does not make a nice sharp crisp 90 degree turn like factory but more of a rounded curve thats more like 135 degrees & this will leave your gaps wide. I'll cut & move to make it right. No Hammer & dolly is going to recurve this 1/4 gap. in the jam area. LEON.

[charger_fan_4ever]

I prefer better than factory gaps so yes panel gap is a thing to look at. if its all over the place makes you wonder whats under the paint 

[Troy]

The assembly line workers had a few minutes per panel to get them right. The gaps were not good...

Troy

[phantom]

Good to know i am not alone Hampton, thats a very nice gap 

[Charger-Bodie]

Actually most of the originals I've seen have had pretty nice gaps. Obviously not always buy not as sloppy as a lot of of people are lead to believe.

[Kern Dog]

I've seen many 68-70 b body cars with irregular gaps where the fenders meet the cowl. If you hang and adjust the doors, then the fenders, you are often stuck with whatever the gap is at the cowl.
Oddly, the panel gaps on early A body cars are more consistent and tighter. These were supposed to be the cheaper, entry level cars!

[tan top]

I like my gaps perfect, The Chevelle I just did had poor gaps thanks to aftermarket parts. The Aftermarket parts many times come with what some Body Guys will call a roll, meaning panel at curved area does not make a nice sharp crisp 90 degree turn like factory but more of a rounded curve thats more like 135 degrees & this will leave your gaps wide. I'll cut & move to make it right. No Hammer & dolly is going to recurve this 1/4 gap. in the jam area. LEON.

nice work 

[Troy]

Actually most of the originals I've seen have had pretty nice gaps. Obviously not always buy not as sloppy as a lot of of people are lead to believe.

And then 40 years later the unibody weakens and the cars bend..

I think there's a difference between "acceptable" gaps (which I tend to have) and "show car" gaps. It seems the people chasing perfect gaps are the unhappy ones. Until someone mentioned to me that they should be uniform I never noticed it!

Troy

[charge69]

Gaps mattered to me and my friend when we put the rear quarters and Dutchman's panel back on ( I had the original trunk piece) and, after we got that right, the rest of the gaps mattered.
A nice restoration is judged by a lot of factors but, gaps are definitely one of them.  It is probably the first thing I look at.  Just me but a good restorer always pays attention to his "GAPS".

[ws23rt]

The gaps are one of those things you don't see when they are good but the avg. joe won't see the little issues quite like those that work to make them good.

Those that do body and paint work always see gaps, panel contours, paint flaws,etc in a way the general public doesn't.  Just like a carpenter looking at a wall will notice out of plumb and out of square issues that otherwise may go unnoticed.

We do have keen eyes but are not always seeing the same things at a glance or in passing.

[hemi-hampton]

Last car I did (chevelle) the Trunk gaps were about a inch wide on each side, & the quarter was pushed in & bottomed out as far as it would go. Before & after pic. LEON.

[hemi-hampton]

Probably can't see it in these pics but work hard & many hours to get the panels fit & gaps perfect. All the body panels were rust free originals which made it much easier then cheap after market. LEON.

[Kern Dog]

The gaps are one of those things you don't see when they are good but the avg. joe won't.
  Just like a carpenter looking at a wall will notice out of plumb and out of square issues that otherwise may go unnoticed.

We do have keen eyes but are not always seeing the same things at a glance or in passing.

As a Carpenter, I wish I could NOT notice crooked framing, out of level fascia and gutters, poor door fitment, etc !

[green69rt]

I'm working my gaps as we speak.  What I've learned (IMO) is that the gaps need to be uniform.  A gap that starts out as 3/16 and at the end of the panel is 3/8 is really noticeable.  Getting them all even is a big step in making it look good.  Modern cars come in at about 1/8 or 3/16, seems to me.  The older cars are all over the place.  My biggest peeve is a gap that has one panel rubbing against another, zero gap!  I've looked at many, if you're building a show car then you need the gaps spot-on, if not then just get even and close.  Whatever you do, it takes some time.  An equal problem is matching the profile of each panel.  Does the fender match the profile of the door(?), does the hood match the profile of the cowl....it goes on and on.  Welcome to the world of old cars!!!

[DAY CLONA]

Gap uniformity is a must in my "book", thru-out the entire car, and when I mean uniformity, I mean all gaps are the same dimension, not just a parallel run between panels, gaps are very critical on white/light colored cars because the gaps shadow more and define the panel gap/opening more to the human eye, the other issue regardless on how nice the gap is, is when the door's lower corner/bottom edge wings out, or the trunk lid or hood edge doesn't follow the contour of the body, usually you see these kind of things in a resto where 1 the bodyman lacked the skills, 2 didn't care, 3 bodyworked and painted all the panels off the car, never actually fitting/tweaking them until final assy after paint day and is stuck with what he created


here's a nice example of piss poor gap work (GYC)  

[charge69]

OK, here are a couple of pics of my "Gaps" finished and started on the restoration.





And when it was ready for all the work to put it together. We tried (pretty successfully) to keep the Gaps a uniform width throughout the Charger. It was quite a test !!

[john108]

It appears that quite a few of you are excellent at body work.
It would be nice if a few of you would move to Folsom, CA
John

[Mike DC]

It appears that quite a few of you are excellent at body work.
It would be nice if a few of you would move to Folsom, CA
John

They get that good from spending decades living with cars rustier than Cali residents ever imagine . . .   

[Troy]

It appears that quite a few of you are excellent at body work.
It would be nice if a few of you would move to Folsom, CA
John

They get that good from spending decades living with cars rustier than Cali residents ever imagine . . .   

True!!!

Troy