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Hood/grill alignment/body work question

10K views 20 replies 5 participants last post by  westtxrocket 
#1 ·
Hey guys. I have some barricade flat fenders sitting in the shop at work. I am going to put them on soon, but I have some questions. If you look at the pictures, you see where the fender is bent, and the hood is higher than it should be. Is there a way to lower the hood and grille both? When I install the fenders, I want to make sure everything is parallel like it should be. Also in the pictures of the hood hinges, you can see how the left side is lower than the right. I am clueless on body work so I'm not sure how I could go about fixing it, or at least getting it closer to straight/even. Here are some pictures of what I am referring to. I'm assuming the PO before the PO ran into something or jumped it or something....radiator and all that looks original, no frame issues, but the grill and hood and fenders are off. I don't know if the hood will go down enough with the new, non-raised/bent fenders or if I need to lower the grill, how to do it. Thanks for your help, hopefully there's some body guys on here that fix wrecked vehicles!









 
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#3 ·
I am thinking the fenders (more specifically, the hood latches) won't let the hood go all the way down. But will I be able to adjust the grill down a hair to get the aft end of the hood parallel to the body panel? I am already spending too much on this Jeep, so bringing it to a body guy is out of the question (not to mention the nearest one is 150 miles away). I have access to any and every kind of tool and cutter and welder you can think of, I just don't know what to do.
 
#7 ·
I think the only way is to pull the oem fenders off, and see how the new fenders align. The bent oem fenders could be causing all the issues, but if the frame is tweaked, your are like going to have to do some custom mounting adjustments to the new fenders..or get the frame pulled straight.
 
#11 ·
You can't lower the grill. It bolts to the front of frame. Check that spot for damage, it may be bent upwards. Center of grill at the bottom of it
 
#13 ·
I have my bumper of right now, here is what the grill is bolted to. Center at bottom an 3 bolts on each side, plus 2 or 3 on back side of grill approximately where the 3 side bolts are
 

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#14 ·
From your photes, both of your fenders look buckled above the wheel in the (not bent). Each fender is attached to the center grille with 6 bolts. While there is a center body body mount attaching the grille to the frame, the grille rests on 2 bumpers on each frame rail.

the amount of gap at the bottom rear edge of the hood would suggest there should be at least a 1 to 2 inch gap between the hood and the grille. Your pictures don't show that, so they suggest the grille itself is either 1 to 2 inches too high or the rear of the hood is too low.

The only logical explanation here is the frame is pushing your grille up.

Do not waste your time trying to fix this with fender upgrades that fit over cut back stock ones. In order for that work, the stock ones need to be straight. That obviously can't happen until you get the grille lowered.

I highgly suggest you have the frame checked.

Was this a salvage vehicle ?
 
#15 ·
It has a clean title. So we spent about 10 hours dicking with it to see what we could do. After messing with the grill and fender bolts, the hood hinges, and putting a spacer in the middle body mounts but not the front one, we got it to accept the fender. Had a hell of a time getting everything to line up. But so far, so good. I'm assuming the front was bent down or something, because we had to jack the body up 1.5" to get the grill and fenders to line up and get straight with everything else. But take a look. Also found my body mounts are rusting into the frame in number 3 and 4 mounts on both sides, so have to fix that. I will get some pictures up, looking good actually. Unbelieveable tho.
 
#20 ·
Westtxrocket, happy for you. What did you use for spacers on the body mounts under the tub ?

Did you determine if the 1.5 inches is due to the frame or sagging mounts under the tub ?
 
#16 ·
Check out the pictures. Notice how it's straight now, and the hood to the fender and body is straight and parallel. I'm parked on slightly crooked dirt so ignore any funkiness....parked in the shop everything is level finally. The hood latch isn't installed on the right side, that's why the hood is a little high. I want to get the other fender installed because I will have to move my grill a little to line up again, and then I will drill for hood latches.




 
#21 ·
I made them out of nylon. I plan to make them out of steel soon tho, tapped for 1/2-20 and welded to the frame for the bushing bolts to bolt into (I'm using longer, grade 8 bolts).

I'm not sure what happened still. the grill is a little too far forward to rest on the bumpers, the lip on the bottom of the grill is sitting on the bolts for the sway bar brackets. But everything else lines up. I would assume the very front of the frame is bent up, but I just can't tell where from looking at the frame. Got the other fender on, after I replace the hardware, tap the holes to clean then up, and get them lined up perfectly, I will then do my hood latches. I sure wish I knew exactly what happened, but I'm happy I'm on the way to at least making it look normal on the outside haha
 
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