Brian Smith
Well-known member
Having removed the fascia three times over the last two weeks I have a little experience with this. Since we don't have jigs and the manual doesn't address this I had to experiment with causing the fascia outside edges, where the hood is supposed to meet in the same plane, meet.
My experience showed that the hood seemed to have expanded or the bumper shrank. Knowing the hood is a fixed width the error must be in the fascia. This process can a little trial and error oriented. The trial and error part is taking an accurate reference measurement with the hood closed and a tape inserted horizontally and into the vertical radiator support member you measure to the edge of the fascia and the edge of the hood. Open the hood to see where you should be resting the end of the tape measure when the hood is closed. Then you measure and see how much it has to go out to align properly with the outside edge of the hood. For example, if the outside edge of the hood is 3/16 wider than the fascia you have to see how far the fascia has to move outboard to meet allignment. Use that as a starting point. The fascia has to be moved out that far and it has to happen with the hood open so measure carefully. Take your time in this part. You can save much time doing careful measurements now.
Once you have the fascia pushed out to meet the measurement that you got when you did your reference measurements you then tighten the outside most fascia fasteners where the fascia frame bolts (in the hood opening under the lip of the rear of the fascia). Then, and here's where the time is, you remove the dowel and trim strip (so you can close the hood (cause the wood pieces will interfere with closing and fall out) and see how it went. Repeat as necessary. Don't get rushed..when frustration occurs have a smoke and a drink of water and take another run at it.
I used a piece of 1" dowel with one end ground to a crude point and the other end flat. I selected the length so it was about 12.5" long. Then I had a 3/4" x 2" x 6-8" long piece of wood trim. Put the pointed end of the dowel in the metal corner support bracket of the fascia. Put the other end inboard (toward the structural rail that is roughly parallel to the ground. This support "rail" is just outside of the radiator. If you slip the end of the dowel against the strip of trim laying against rail and secure it with light friction you will note that if you tap on the opposite end of the trim toward the front of the car, with the dowel wedged against the other end (about 1/3 of the way back from the front most end, you can drive the wood trim piece forward and with the dowel pushing away from the center of the car it will push the fascia outward. Do one side at a time.
Using your initial measurements of how far the fascia has to go to meet the reference spot where the hood meets it. You tap that trim board in very small increments while someone holds the tape measure to check progress. I say small increments because if it goes out too far you have to start over and since there isn't enough room to tap the trim board backwards to undo your greedy efforts it will fall out every time. I even thought of putting some sort of friction inducing material between the trim and the frame rail to allow backward movement but decided against it. Why mar something that isn't sratched because I can't be patient. Now getting the wife to be patient while I tapped required some patience on her part.
It is a trial and error kind of thing. I did the driver side and got it right first try. One would not think it a easily possible to "stretch" the fascia but it seems to work. Don't tighten any fasteners except the most outboard one at the hood end of the fascia. Start all of them but only tighten the outboard three once you fascia is where you want it. Then do the other side and tighten the same three fasteners there also. The you can tighten all of them in between. Then go underneath and put the air dam stuff back and then do the fender well fasteners. Hope this helps and good luck!
My experience showed that the hood seemed to have expanded or the bumper shrank. Knowing the hood is a fixed width the error must be in the fascia. This process can a little trial and error oriented. The trial and error part is taking an accurate reference measurement with the hood closed and a tape inserted horizontally and into the vertical radiator support member you measure to the edge of the fascia and the edge of the hood. Open the hood to see where you should be resting the end of the tape measure when the hood is closed. Then you measure and see how much it has to go out to align properly with the outside edge of the hood. For example, if the outside edge of the hood is 3/16 wider than the fascia you have to see how far the fascia has to move outboard to meet allignment. Use that as a starting point. The fascia has to be moved out that far and it has to happen with the hood open so measure carefully. Take your time in this part. You can save much time doing careful measurements now.
Once you have the fascia pushed out to meet the measurement that you got when you did your reference measurements you then tighten the outside most fascia fasteners where the fascia frame bolts (in the hood opening under the lip of the rear of the fascia). Then, and here's where the time is, you remove the dowel and trim strip (so you can close the hood (cause the wood pieces will interfere with closing and fall out) and see how it went. Repeat as necessary. Don't get rushed..when frustration occurs have a smoke and a drink of water and take another run at it.
I used a piece of 1" dowel with one end ground to a crude point and the other end flat. I selected the length so it was about 12.5" long. Then I had a 3/4" x 2" x 6-8" long piece of wood trim. Put the pointed end of the dowel in the metal corner support bracket of the fascia. Put the other end inboard (toward the structural rail that is roughly parallel to the ground. This support "rail" is just outside of the radiator. If you slip the end of the dowel against the strip of trim laying against rail and secure it with light friction you will note that if you tap on the opposite end of the trim toward the front of the car, with the dowel wedged against the other end (about 1/3 of the way back from the front most end, you can drive the wood trim piece forward and with the dowel pushing away from the center of the car it will push the fascia outward. Do one side at a time.
Using your initial measurements of how far the fascia has to go to meet the reference spot where the hood meets it. You tap that trim board in very small increments while someone holds the tape measure to check progress. I say small increments because if it goes out too far you have to start over and since there isn't enough room to tap the trim board backwards to undo your greedy efforts it will fall out every time. I even thought of putting some sort of friction inducing material between the trim and the frame rail to allow backward movement but decided against it. Why mar something that isn't sratched because I can't be patient. Now getting the wife to be patient while I tapped required some patience on her part.
It is a trial and error kind of thing. I did the driver side and got it right first try. One would not think it a easily possible to "stretch" the fascia but it seems to work. Don't tighten any fasteners except the most outboard one at the hood end of the fascia. Start all of them but only tighten the outboard three once you fascia is where you want it. Then do the other side and tighten the same three fasteners there also. The you can tighten all of them in between. Then go underneath and put the air dam stuff back and then do the fender well fasteners. Hope this helps and good luck!
Brian-
