Fender Fitment

[dz1087]

Trying to get my truck back together after taking it down to the frame for rust mitigation. I'm using repop doors, fender, rad support, and cowl panel. Now, I know that the repop pieces can have fitment issues, but I need some advice on how to proceed. My doors are aligned with the rear of the cab and the door gap is more or less consistent/centered. Both fenders are adjusted down as far as the holes will allow and there are no shims on either side, and no shims between the door hinges and the A-pillar.

Here's the top of the driver fender. It's pretty close.


However, the alignment right here where the two sheetmetal bends are is atrocious.



The passenger side top is farther off, sticking up and out quite a bit.


And once again the two sheetmetal bends are way off.



Now, this is the first time I've ever fit body panels, and I know I've got my work cut our for me by using all repop pieces (the old ones were too dang rusted up). I've also had to remove and replace the A-pillar bottoms, and I replaced the entire floor. Absolutely possible I've tweaked something in doing all I've done.


So, what can I do to start getting things to line up better, especially on the passenger side? I;m thinking about boring out the two top mounting holes in the fender to allow it to adjust down farther, but I don't think that will take care of how far it sticks out. Could I possibly get away with placing shims between the door hinges and the A-pillar to get the door to come out a bit?

As far as aligning the sheetmetal bends - only thing I can think of is cutting the fender and adding some metal. Not sure if my metal working skill or my tools are up to that task though.