oldsguybry

Hey , It's been awhile and I couldn't find the correct source / thread that's buried in the list of dread for a complete set of Shims for my 72 CS fenders . I was searching for a bit and found sets of like 100 or 200 , and single shims but I was wondering if they had a complete set for both fenders ? I don't need any extra shims really , but I will take them if that's all they offer . I also need the Radiator Core Support bushings too . I was planning on buying these in the next month and storing them away for when I get to that part on the car . I still have to figure out how I'm going to deal with the cowl rust on the dash , along with getting that blasted vinyl top off , and the rear window area cleaned up and re-sealed .

Thanks Bryan

coppercutlass

For the shims you can buy a little box for like 15 bucks or so through harbor freight . If you want the factory style that's a diffrent story.

oldsguybry

Cool , I was also trying to get a guage of how many shims were used on a fender and where they're used . I took the fender off a long time ago when I first bought the car , and most of the shims hit the ground and/or were lost to begin with . I also remember there being at least two different shaped ones also . I know the real long forked one goes in the front top area ..... as far as the rest of them , my guess would be wherever they make the proper difference . I've messed with this fender enough now at this point that I should be able to get the lines almost perfect when I'm done . I don't think I will be able to obtain this without replacing the door bushings and core support bushings though .... long story

joe_padavano

The amount of shims used could vary from none to a lot. The whole point of the shims is to allow alignment of parts that are built with fairly loose manufacturing tolerances. There is no way to know how many shims your particular car needs until you put it together. It's trial and error.

oldsguybry

Ahhh , thanks Joe . That makes sense now .

I'm just going buy a variety pack , and I believe a good starting point on the fender fitment may be getting the lower part of the fender bolted with the correct amount of shims so it's lined up even with the bottom of the rocker panel . Then loosen and put the correct amount of shims needed ( if any ) on the top portion . This fender came off of this car so there has to be a way to get rid of the slight bow I have in the middle from taking the fender off the last time . I noticed the line at the bottom of the fender is up almost a 1/4 inch higher then it should be , so I probably don't have enough shims in the bottom which will in turn get rid of the bow in the middle part . I can post a pic if needed .

coppercutlass

Here is what I did to get my alignment close. With the hood off I got my door gaps good to the quarter then aligned the fenders to the doors. Now I measure my hoow across (flat hood) and gor 53.5 appx so knowing the height of the hood would add width since I was using a tape measure I knew I would not close the hood on the fenders. Once I got the hood on it closed but needed alignmen . Hinges where tweaked so I bent them in the correct direction and tilted them properly for the correct fit and that was about it. The new core support bushing may or may not be a p.I.t.a . As the body bushings will settle and the body will drop a bit your new core support bushings which will possibly make it a bit hard to bring the front of the fender down enough to match the sag that has happened over time and vise versam in my case the past summer. New body bushings meant new core support bushings. Duno if that makes sense I hope I explained it easy enough.

oldsguybry

Actually it makes great sense , thanks . I mentioned the Radiator Core Support Bushings because when I had the core off a long time ago the bushings looked real bad . One side was worse then the other . I was going to look for some new ones , and I was kind of hoping the metal portion of the bushings was included with it . I could probably use the ones I have , they just seen better days .

oldsguybry

This would also have to wait until I get the dash rust fixed ( it's pretty bad ). I want to know what my options are for that when the time comes . I'm sure the hood and maybe the fenders have to come off for that repair , and I don't want to take these fenders on and off too many more times lol . The only thing that would make sense for me to do with this car at this point is fix what HAS to be fixed , and then just make it faster .

coppercutlass

What you could do is do a temporary bushing knowing the originals are too tall and will not be "even" so to speak you could do something like a hockey puck drilled through for a bolt or something else. Imo even if you used a solid bushing the core support does not need much flex in all reality .