k24accord

Greetings

About 4 months back, I was involved in a minor accident. Ended up having the driver side fender and front bumper replaced. Fast forward to this past week, I noticed that the front bumper alignment is ever so slightly off and that the headlight on the driver side "sits in" a smidgen more. The gap between the bumper and hood is slightly larger on the passenger side by about 1-2mm and the headlight sits in more about 2-3mm. It's not a drastic difference, but as a car guy, I notice these things and it will continue to bother me untill it's perfect.

I called allstate, and explained it to them. Since it was done at one of their authorized repair facilities, they told me to bring it back and they would re-open the claim. However, it's such a small difference and I'm pretty car proficient, so I was thinking of pulling the bumper/headlight myself and re-adjusting. I was thinking of removing the bumper, loosening the headlight, fender and hood bolts, and just tweaking everything until it sits correct. Anything else I should be doing, or any tips on what else to play with to correct the gaps?

Thanks!

k24accord

Looks exactly like this, but on the driver side.



From this thread
https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/781...umper-to-hood/

I'll snap some pics of my car later today. Thanks!

realblag

Start by removing the bumper. Since the fenders, hood, bumper, and headlights all can move, adjust the gap between the fenders and the doors first, making sure to line up the body contours at the bottom of the fenders with the doors and making sure the fenders don't sit wider or narrower than the doors. After both fenders are the same, adjust the headlights so they fit into the openings in the fenders. Then put the bumper back on and adjust it as needed. Lastly, adjust the hood so it sits properly in the opening created by the other parts. You might have to loosen the bolts on the top edges of the fenders and do a little tweaking inwards or outwards from the hood after you get the hood moved to the correct distance from the edge of the bumper.
Try and have some help when you do the hood. Its a major PITA doing it by yourself. There are little tick marks at the hinges for adjustment but the weight of the hood, while raised, makes it want to move around before you can retighten the bolts. After you get everything to fit, don't be surprised if you need to adjust the hood latch and the rubber rests for the hood. Hope this helps.

k24accord

Thanks man! Going to have to wait until this tropical storm passes and then i'll give it a go.

k24accord

Finally got a chance to remove the bumper, and was able to tweak the panels and get the adjustment closer, but it's still not perfect.



I got the driver side headlight to sit more flush, but there is still about a 1-1.5mm difference between it and the passenger side light (passenger light sticks out a smidgen more). Also, the bumper gap is much better, but it's still slightly off, along with the gaps on the sides. I tried every which way adjusting it, and i can't get it any better.

What do you guys think? Should I take it back to the shop and let them have at it, or am I being overly obsessive?

k24accord

Played with the driver side fender a bit last night. I was able to slide it out a bit and redrilled one of the holes. I measured the gaps, and while barely off, it's not really noticeable.

As far as the headlights, the driver side one won't come out anymore, but the passenger one still has some wiggle room. The driver side light sits perfectly flush with the fender/bumper, while the passenger one sticks out a smidgen, so I'm just going to match the passenger one to the driver, instead of continuing to do it the other way around (matching driver with passenger)

realblag

Kinda odd that you had to redrill one of the holes to get everything to line up. Did the shop that worked on the car measure the front to see if everything was still square?

k24accord

The frame was measured as a precaution (initially thought there might be very mild frame damage, and there was none). Car aligns perfectly as well. I noticed before redrilling the hole, that the remaining holes for the fender all lined up perfectly with the holes in the body, minus the one hole I had to slightly enlarge. To be more accurate, the majority of the hole in the fender that I drilled out was directly over the bolt hole. I merely enlarged the hole about a half a millimeter if that just so the bolt wouldn't cross-thread, since a sliver of the metal was obscuring the hole.

Gonna play around with the headlights this weekend, and get them even

Princeneo

i have the same problem with mine, but its my passenger side, have you fixed it?

primetimeswole

What did you use to drill holes?

Also, where did you drill the new holes?