Today we want to talk to you about one of the most critical things you can do during restoration; body panel gaps. What you want to do is assure that you have even gaps going around your hood deck lid doors most importantly you want to make sure that during reassembly you’re not chipping fresh paint like what you can see above. You can see this chip here this happened when we were coming on assembling the hood so let’s show you how to prevent this with the new Eastwood pin alignment system.
The pin alignment system includes two 1/8″ drill bits and alignment pins. Typically this is done when you’re in primer, but we’ll show you on this car. After finishing your major metal work you can go ahead and get everything set and adjusted at the doors, hood trunklid, etc and tighten all of the bolts down. Now you come back with the included drill bits and drill two alignment holes in each of the hinges.
Then you can go disassemble for paint or perform any other minor bodywork you need. This way you’re assured during reassembly everything will fit nicely. With everything painted you can now take the magnetic pins and insert them in the small holes you drilled before. Because we drilled the pin alignment holes you know that you’re not going to have any misalignment issues. You can then snug up your hardware and slowly shut the panel.
This technique will help assure you get panels that fit well after paint and no headaches of chipping paint during assembly. To get your pin alignment kit you can visit the product page HERE.