Ranger panel gap bumper to fender

[Saiga_V46]

Hi all

Is it possible to fix slight panel gap between the bumper and fender flare panel?

My left side is tight and looks good but the right is not.

Thanks!

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[NickTheEnforcer]

as a guy w/OCD...
there are odd body tolerance irregularities all over this truck, my last truck, my wife's '20 Escape, etc.
Her hood was so outta whack I made them align it in their body shop before I made my final offer to buy.

..anyways look past it, its not worth the hassle. tolerances on production vehicles are not made for people like us who notice.

 

[Saiga_V46]

as a guy w/OCD...
there are odd body tolerance irregularities all over this truck, my last truck, my wife's '20 Escape, etc.
Her hood was so outta whack I made them align it in their body shop before I made my final offer to buy.

..anyways look past it, its not worth the hassle. tolerances on production vehicles are not made for people like us who notice.

Having OCD is such a pain. With this car I guess its because its my first ever new car. My older trucks were scratched up because I got them like that and it never bothered me. Now that I have a pristine one my OCD has returned lol

 

[NickTheEnforcer]

Having OCD is such a pain. With this car I guess its because its my first ever new car. My older trucks were scratched up because I got them like that and it never bothered me. Now that I have a pristine one my OCD has returned lol

trust me I feel your pain. I annoy myself as much as I'm certain I annoy those around me with what I see that most dont.

 

[slowmachine]

I don't know about every car manufacturer, but back in the days of hand assembly, it was normal part of the build process to even the panel gaps, especially door openings, with molten lead. The worker would clean the target area, apply some flux, then spread some lead solder with a paddle. The lead would then be filed into the correct shape, primed, and painted with the rest of the body.

If you're restoring an older Porsche, you might replace a damaged door with a donor from another car, but it would be nothing short of miraculous if the door actually fit the opening on the target car. This type of highly-skilled labor is part of the high cost of these low-production cars.

Today we have relatively precise tolerances for body panel gaps, but they are built to a price point. You can most certainly duplicate the antique process and make it closer to perfect. Something about making a silk purse from a sow's ear comes to mind. I'm fine with it the way it is, at the current cost.

 

[CashSeeAO]

Hi all

Is it possible to fix slight panel gap between the bumper and fender flare panel?

My left side is tight and looks good but the right is not.

Thanks!

It doesn’t look that bad. Enjoy your Ranger.

Took me over a month after I bought my ‘20 Ranger to mentally get over the various gaps and misalignments of my truck’s hood, door, and front right quarter panel. I even took it to an official Ford body shop and they really did not want to deal with it. Their response was they frequently see these issues from Ford, and one might get into more problems trying to fix the issues. This was my biggest disappointment from my first Ford purchase. Never had to deal with body issues from Subaru, Honda, or Mazda (personal experience).

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