I assume the techniques are the same regardless of the car, but to clarify, this is for my fiancee's Amigo/Trooper/Passport SUV.

She rear ended someone about a month ago and we picked up a font clip (in the same color and year, no less!) to start swapping over to her truck. There was some serious damage to the sheetmetal (subframe?) at both front corners.

There is a piece of sheet metal that goes across the front of the chassis, around the radiator. The passenger side was pushed back nearly five inches and the driver side about three or four. We cut the good panel out of the front clip and bolted it over the damaged area, using bolts to space it out where we wanted it. (No welder and we could not pound the original panel out adequately with our tools/timeframe.)

I can bolt everything up and it looks about 90% as good as new now. Headlights sit right (haven't aimed yet), turn signals bolt to both headlight and fenders, fenders bolt to chassis where they should. Once it's all bolted up where it should be I have the following issues:

The fenders, which form the base of the A-pillar (windshield), align perfectly with the rest of the pillar. The passenger side, which was most fuckered up, runs beautifully with the edge of the hood. I mean, the passenger side looks cherry at the windshield, hood, headlight, and grille. Driver's side fender-hood gap gets wider at front edge of hood. I tried "wobbling" the mounting holes on the fender to allow some play back towards the hood, but no dice. Also, the hood, when latched, sits above fender level. I suspect more frame damage, but I'm not sure.

Now, when the fenders are in place at the top, when I go to bolt them up at the bottom (managed to close my finger in the door this past weekend in the process), both doors interfere with the fenders.

So, my question is, since this isn't going to a shop to be done, and it's an off-road vehicle that has it's share of dings/dents/scratches, we're more concerned with getting it back to being a "Ten-footer;" a car that looks fine from ten feet away.

Anyone have any tricks/tips/or suggestions on finessing these fenders so the doors won't pop over them during open/close? Please let me know. I would be eager to learn more about this.

Thanks.

Pics?

Sounds like an alignment problem with the fender apron, or possibly something wrong with the core support.

I'll try to get some pics up tonight. Thank you, sir.

under normal circumstances at least.... this SHOULD help...
http://www.popularmechanics.com/how_to_central/automotive/1272336.html

if youve got damage somewhere thats preventing you from adjusting the gaps... you may have to get creative. let us know what happens, bro.

Good read. A lot of that seems like common sense, but I didn't even stop to think that maybe, just maybe, I can work the door hinges just a bit. I mean, it looks like I need less than 2mm of adjustment.

Sorry no pictures yet, fellas. Wedding coordinator was over late and then I had to finish getting a website fixed. I will be back at this project early next week, when I will post pictures. Some are pretty good, actually. I picked up the front clip with a Uhaul truck. I've got a shot of this white Isuzu Amigo "parked" in the back. ;)