Problems

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I have this situation on both sides of the inner fender panels.
Two existing bolt holes weren't re-used and not filled in.

 

I saw these on Jason's custom made inner fender panels.  There are two holes and these 4 kinda crummy looking patches.  These panels were all new creations of Jason's.

 

I attempted to install the hood latch and latch the hood and discovered that the radiator hit the hood.
Jason had warned me that he thought clearance was a problem, but I couldn't figure out why, since I had checked that clearance before handing the car off to you.  Then it hit me and it's related to this picture I already sent.  The air conditioning coil should be extending down below the splash apron... not sitting on top of it.

In order to get the engine to fit, the radiator had to be moved forward.  But with it this far forward, the radiator moves into the area of the hood where it's curving down.  To solve that problem I cut down the cross member that the radiator sits on.  I extended the core support 2" down and dropped the radiator 2".  When Jason ran into the problem of the hood prop being too long he started looking at the core support being wrong.

Jason decided to restore the core support to the original dimensions.  When he did that, he raised the radiator up two inches and now I have my original problem back.

So, I could possibly have the radiator cap location moved.  I still need to fix where the condenser is sitting on the apron.  That will wear through and destroy the condenser.  Or we push the radiator down where I had it.

 

But there's still something wrong.  First, the hood prop is still too long.  How can that be?  It's at least one inch too long.

Then I noticed that the radiator was crooked.  I finally figured out a way to prove it.  I set a straight edge on top of the radiator and took this picture that includes the horizontal seam on the firewall.  The radiator is crooked by a LOT.  My measurements with a level confirm what this picture shows.  The radiator is really crooked.

There were still some things bugging me.  The radiator is nearly square in the core support.  How can it be crooked?

 

This picture shows how low the radiator sat when I delivered the car to Resurrection.

I don't think it's reasonable to lift the radiator this much and not realize there's going to be clearance problems.

 

The answer is the fenders are also crooked.  Measured from the same point on the front apron to the ground, the right side is 10" and the left 11 1/2".

 

How can the fenders be crooked?

I measured from the frame mounting hole for the bumper to the ground on both sides.  The right side is at least 1/2" lower to the ground.

Then I measured from a hole behind each wheel to the ground.  The distance was exactly the same.

What this tells me, is that the reworked chassis is twisted.  If this is borne out, that's a major problem.  The entire front end and engine would have to be removed and the front suspension cut apart and reassembled.

I also have the 1 1/2" difference in the splash apron and at least 1/2" difference in the bumper.  Having the bumper 1/2" lower on one side will be very noticeable.

 

 

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