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Body work and making sure headlight mounts are correct

spudman5

Donation Time
The body of the SV I am working on has the typical dents and dings from parking lots and low speed hits, all of which had been poorly worked (if at all) and filled with lots of body putty by the previous owner. I working on removing the existing body putty and properly hammering out the dents and dings as much as possible before having to put on as thin a layer as possible of putty and then painting the car.
I am in the process of working on the headlight mounts on the fenders. One side had a pretty good crease on the hood side and I have been able to get it most of the way out. Neither side has a flat mounting rim where the headlight buckets attach, so I will also be flattening out the rims and making sure both headlight mounts are properly aligned with each other.

Question 1: What I'm not sure about, is are the headlight mounting rims supposed to be completely vertical when the car is sitting on 4 wheels?
Both of mine are slightly farther back at the top than at the bottom, which could be due to them having been dinged a few times, a weak rear suspension, or is that the way the factory specified them.

Question 2: Are the headlight mounting rims supposed to be perpendicular to the direction the car is facing? I want to make sure they are supposed to have any "toe-in" or "toe-out".

Question 3: Are there any specific measurements that can/need to be made to make sure the headlight mounts and the signal light mounts are in their proper location? It appears the headlight that had the big crease is also pushed back a little bit (1/4" to 1/2") at the bottom of the headlight hole. I am guessing on this since it appears that the hole for the front signal light on that side doesn't look to be in the same alignment with the other side of the car. Does anyone have any information on how to make sure the physical alignment of the headlights or the front signal light mounts are correct in relation to the rest of the fender?

I don't need the mounts to be perfect, but if I can get close, this will reduce any issues I will have when I install the headlight buckets and try to properly aim the headlights.

Thanks,
Mike Tanner
 

tom o

Donation Time
headlight rims

The headlight rims are perpendicular to the pinch weld along the bottom of the
rocker panels. This is the horizontal line of the car. Both of the headlight
rims should be on the same line. If you take a straight edge and lay it between
the headlights they should be straight across. The headlight adjusters take up
any small errors. Been there and done that. Good luck.

Tom o b395018322
 

spudman5

Donation Time
Tom,

Thank you for the information. I haven't gotten back to them since you replied (plenty of other Alpine work to keep me busy), but now I at least know what line to use.

Mike
 
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