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Go bother your wife or somebody else!

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Okay, it occured to me that MAYBE this job is harder than it seems. I have dismantled and assembled so many in the last 20 years, it seems so easy. I wish my skills with electrical systems were as automatic!
Heres what I do.
Find a few wooden paint mixing sticks. The ones I use measure about 1/4 inch. This will be your "guage" of gap between all body panels. In actuality, I have heard that these cars were never very consistent, but that doesnt mean that we cant improve on Ma Mopars sloppiness. An enthusiast that assembles his car isnt expected to crank out 25 cars a day, right?
I hang the doors first. Yes, a helper can be a huge asset here. I start the bolts and shift the door to achieve an even gap along the door/quarter panel edges. I put all the bolts in and snug them up. Keep in mind that there may be some additional tweaking to make the leading edge of the door blend with the fender. The top edge of the door, where the door meets the cowl can be guaged with the shaft of a screwdriver with a diameter of 1/4 inch, same as the paint sticks. I wrap a thinner one with masking tape to prevent scratches. This gap here is an ideal, but it is likely that it will end up wider or narrower to get everything to align.
The fenders mount up next. The studs that the factory installed in the attachment point near the cowl should be retained. In some cases I have seen shim washers used, but most cars that I have seen did not. I try fitment without them first, then if the fender sits too low, I'll add them as needed. In some cases, one fender will need them and the other will not. Mopar wasnt selling aerospace equipment after all. As previously mentioned, with both fenders in place, perform cross measurements ( Also known as X measurements) from the left leading edge of the fender to the right rear edge of the cowl and vice versa. The numbers should match. adjust the fenders via the bolts to the fender aprons. The hood is the easy part. There is a large range of articulation built into these hoods, so getting it to align with a car that hasn't been wrecked is fairly simple. An assistant really helps here as well.
Finally, remember that there will be some uneven gaps between body panels in many cases. I have rarely seen perfect alignment, but it can happen. My Charger was never wrecked, but when I was putting it back together after paint, I couldnt get the fender to cowl gaps consistent from side to side. Everything else was nearly perfect. Then I looked closer at other cars and saw the same thing. After talking to others, The issue became clearer. Personally, I have even gone so far as to add and file metal to edges of doors, fenders, hoods and trunklids to close up gaps that otherwise were too wide. This effort requires some forethought though. You have to do all this prior to paint and bodywork. The sad thing is, this is an effort that is lost on most car lovers. MOST people will never notice it, and few will spend the time to "blueprint" a 318 car this way. I notice these things, but I am sure that I am in the minority.
I hope this helps. Please respond with updates.

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