Fascia alignment

[TTait]

I need to do some tweaking on both the front and rear fascias to reduce some of the awful gaps. On my other car I did a rear fascia swap and found a piece of angle iron installed to tweak the position of the upper edge. I understand some cars have that and others do not? Was it a factory or QAC mod, or something the PO had done in that case?

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It sure looks like my current car would benefit greatly from some additional lift to the upper outer corners of the rear fascia, I can manually pull it up into a better position and it seems that the angle iron insert would be just the ticket. I tossed the part from the other car years ago when I moved, does anyone have any additional info on how this was done, and how to do it correctly?

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Any other tips on fascia tweaking? The front looks... challenging. Probably as I have never pulled one all the way off and don't know the mounting details.

Hoping to get the fascias aligned and painted in the next two weeks. Any advice or help appreciated.

Tom

[Rich_NYS]

I'm going to pull my front fascia off this week to fix the eyebrows & work on the headlights. I'll be taking pics and will share here if you'd like a closer look at anything in particular.

My front gap looks a lot like yours and I'm planning to try & resolve it...I'll post my progress on that mission also.

At DCS, Justin from Canada mentioned one of their guys wasn't able to fix the front gap so he put some type of weatherstripping (or something) to effectively "camoflague" the gap. If all else fails, I'll do that.

[TTait]

I'm going to pull my front fascia off this week to fix the eyebrows & work on the headlights. I'll be taking pics and will share here if you'd like a closer look at anything in particular.

My front gap looks a lot like yours and I'm planning to try & resolve it...I'll post my progress on that mission also.

At DCS, Justin from Canada mentioned one of their guys wasn't able to fix the front gap so he put some type of weatherstripping (or something) to effectively "camoflague" the gap. If all else fails, I'll do that.

I just did eyebrows - excellent results. Know that you don't need to remove the fascia to do that. It took about 1-2 hours per side. Very do-able with it still on the car.

T

[TTait]

It looks like the studs t allow adjustments of the upper corners of the front fascia are accessed behind the headlight assemblies?

[TTait]

Made significant progress with the front fascia today. Not perfect but a lot better...

Took a few measurements on the rear and picked up a length 1f 1.5" angle. It appears that it will help significantly on the rear. Need to do some trimming on the angle - will get a fresh cutting disk tomorrow.

Found an old reference in one thread to the angle iron mod being done at the QAC centers - Dave S. asked James to post more info on it years ago and it ended there. I'll try to recreate the process.

T

[TTait]

Talking to myself here - but someday someone may read this... so..

I think I've roughly replicated what was done on my other car - probably at the QAC. Bought a piece of angle iron at home depot - I chose the one with pre-drilled slots and holes. 1.5" x 1.5". The length was perfect. The angle used by the QAC was solid, no pre-drilled holes. That could look cleaner, and some day I may redo this but for now its a thousand percent improvement, and its time to move on.

Removed screws at top edge of fascia going into the top of the fiberglass form, and lifted the urethane along its length. and slid/rotated in the angle. I marked the spots where it would mount with bolts down into the fiberglass form, one bolt on each side of the latch and one at each end, and then cut away most of the rest of the angle on what becomes the bottom side. Primed and painted the angle black. It lifts the top edge of the urethane perfectly - very happy with the height of the top of the fascia now - the middle and bottom were always fine.

The fascia now sits a bit too far forward as its currently not screwed back into the new angle. The old hardware wont work so I'm going to pick up some self tapping screws tomorrow with washers and tap back into the angle, and pull the fascia back at the centerline enough to let the lower engine cover close properly.

It's not perfect, you will be able to see some of the angle plate when the engine cover is open - but at least the fascias line up with the body now. Not bad for a few hours of work and a few dollars, literally. Danny said the fascias had shrunk and my best bet was to buy new ones - glad I did not.

I'll post a couple pics at some point if this thread comes to life (its late, and nobody else seems to need to do this I guess). If not - send me a PM in a couple years if anyone ever comes across this thread again.

This is Dr. Ryan Stone, sole survivor of the Shuttle Explorer STS157 transmitting in the blind from the International Space Station... Can anyone hear me?

Tom

PS - if a moderator ever comes across this thread could you change the category to frame and body and delete this line? Thanks.

[ALEXAKOS]

I hear ya Dr. stone!! I am solely floating in orbit and hope to see some images! 10-4

[Dangermouse]

My front fascia looks like your before picture, so I'd be very interested in how you overcame that. I have done the eyebrows with success too.

[TTait]

So for the front - here is the before and after:

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Removed the hood and the rusted out screws (and 2 bolts( that hold the fascia/stiffener to the underbody. I pushed the fascia into the preferred position and my daughter tightened the new stainless screws and bolts down. Bot going for flush, just truing to get a somewhat uniform gap of a few mm.


Here is before and after of the rear:

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And a shot showing the angle where it bolts to the rear stiffener.

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here is the other side, which was also awful before:

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[Rich_NYS]

It looks like the studs t allow adjustments of the upper corners of the front fascia are accessed behind the headlight assemblies?

I took my front fascia off and didn't note if those studs were accessible, but I did find what I believe to be the solution to getting the corners fixed and it does have to do with the studs. When I reassemble this evening, I'll take pics and note what can be accessed where.

In the meantime, here's the cliff notes:

There's a strip the runs along the top of the front fascia, it has holes the entire length that studs in the fascia go through, and another set of holes for attaching to the body near the hinged part of the hood. The holes with the fascia studs have enough tolerance for adjustment.

I think the issue with the front corner gap is caused by the eyebrows. It appears to me that when the eyebrows form, the fascia is pulled away from the front corner of the fenders.

Dave mentioned sometimes being able to resolve that gap, but then having trouble where the hood hits the center. So, when I worked on the eyebrows I loosened the last 4 nuts on each end (leaving the center secured) to allow the end portions more easily move back into place. After fixing the eyebrows I also coaxed the corners [of the fascia] a bit before tightening those nuts and I expect the gap to be resolved (or close to it) when I re-install the fascia.

I've heard mentioned a few times that the fascia shrinks, therefore the gaps can't be fixed, but I'm not yet convinced. I don't think it's shrunken....I think it's pulled. I also think removing the fascia to work on it is the way to go; I was able to see that the eyebrows pulled the corners out of place, and I was able to access everything.

I took a bunch of pics of the removal, I'll take some after I reassemble & post the results.