Hello,

Finally got around to aligning the body panels on the 1969 Charger ans having problems with the trunk lid alignment. I have made the lip of the trunk flush with the rear panel and the side gaps are nice like this, but the Dutchman to trink lid panel gap is pretty big, which I think is how it came from the factory. The previous paint job had a build up of filler to extent the Dutchman panel 1/8 inch to make up the gap. Is there a better fix?

The other problem are the 1/4 panel end caps. These protrude past the deck lid, which I have flush with the tail panel. I have stripped the end caps and it made it better, but I do hesitate on grinding them.

Thanks,
Carl

Be interesting to see how many factory original cars have gap and alignment issues.

I've seen other cars with a good size gap between the 2 panels. I was about to have a welding rod tig welded to the trunk lid to make up the gap but my body man is against it because of the risk of warpage. He would rather grind the 1/4 end caps and leave out the end cap plastic seals.

How did the end cap alignment look before the body work started?

Car was repainted one time before so I can't go off of that since they took the trunk off and it was sub par work. But the trunk was aligned that time to the end caps and not the tail panel. So it protruded beyond the tail panel. The gap was filled with filler.

Do you know if all the panels are factory originols? Aftermarket panels and how they were installed could play a factor.

Check out other cars, I did this with my Cuda and found that the bulk of them had the same issue I was trying to correct. The handful that didn't I wrote up to some bodyman making corrections.

Since your in AZ I know you have access to some great car shows and auctions throughout the year to compare to your fitment

I did have to replace the deck filler panel (dutchman panel) There was no room to pull it back to close the gap as the rear window chrome would have been way off.

I have seen other cars too with the same big gap so I think it is factory. The only way to really close it up I think is to extend the back edge of the trunk lid. My body man is against it. It would be more work as the lid is already perfectly strait.

The "gap" between the dutchman and the trunk lid has always been a sore point on the 2nd gen chargers, I have NOS qtrs and other NOS/original sheetmetal on the rear half of my 70 Charger, and I was dealing with a 1/2" or better gap at the dutchman/trunk area, my solution was to eliminate the end cap plastic gaskets, grind/sand the face of the caps, becareful with that, but the biggest place to remove material is the mating edge of the cap, becareful of the lower tang that rolls into the bumper well, use a course file to carve down the front mating edge, I had to slightly taper the side profile so that I could "tip" in the top edge that lines up with the trunk edge, worked out well just manipulating the end caps, allowed me to close up the front dutchman/trunk gap to just under 3/8, which was a LOT better than the "Great Divide" that was present before, and no one even notices the end caps are slightly thinner in thickness

Mike

Thanks Mike, that is a great idea. We had decided to not use the cap rubbers and had been contemplating grinding the caps. I will try the file method as opposed to an electric grinder, which I fear could get out of control quickly.

Thanks,
Carl

Mike,

That is a wicked paint job, BTW!