body fitment!

[miker351w]

Hello I have a mark4 roadster. I am almost ready for paint. As of right now I have the body re-mounted on the chassis. My question is with the front quick check bolts. When the bolts are lined up and tightened down, the fenders are Levitating about a half of an inch above the engine bay frame rails where the hood is. I attached a photograph. Can anyone tell me if this is how the body should sit or if it should rest on the foam, which is attached to the frame rails??

To clarify the firewall seems to be nice and tight against the weatherstripping.

[egchewy79]

this is normal, I believe. The body at the hood opening should be 1/2-3/4" above the frame rails where it connects to the radiator support. Some of the body/paint guys will use rubber shims or even plywood here to prop the body up. I've seen another forum member shape of piece of PVC tubing to put under the fenders on top of the rails to support the body but not sure if that's necessary.

[ggunter]

Go to Home Depot and by a piece of Fypon moulding. Basically it's plastic trim moulding for houses, there are various shapes and sizes but I used a piece of brick moulding which is a piece that surrounds the outside of a front door because it is thick, about 1.25x2.25" and you can shape and sand it to fit. If you have a band saw you can really make it fit nice otherwise a regular jig saw will work. When you have it so it fits well to fill that gap you can JB weld it to the underside of the body and it will support the fender very well. Mine is about 18" long and goes from about 5/8" down to 1/4". You can lean on it with no deflection of the fender. It fills that gap nicely. Touch it up with some flat black spray and you can't tell its there.

[miker351w]

Thank you for the quick reply! I am glad that it is seemingly normal to have the gap. Ill see what I can do for filler:)