Rebuilding a 4 speed

[70 Challenger Lover]

The tower and frame rail look great but the new inner panel definitely doesn't line up as it should. If I pull the tower out, it lines up perfect. I dropped a plumb line down on both towers and this one is definitely up a couple degrees more than the other side. Even though the car is level, it becomes clear that the driver side is higher when I drop a weighted string down from the top of the two towers and measure the distance. The inner panel on the other side fits perfect.

I have another car where the front end is all new and all panels have been tested and fit perfectly. The distance between the top of the two towers on this car is an inch narrower than the other car where everything fits right which confirms that there is something going on with this tower.

I don't see any bending or other damage to the shock tower so I can't explain why it is where it is. Unfortunately I never got to see the car after the accident so I can only guess how the original front end damage was.

[70 Challenger Lover]

@Rich G.  thanks for the book recommendation. I just got my book in the mail today and I have all night at work to pour through it.

Also, I removed some of the original factory shock tower welds and was able to pull the tower exactly as needed. Turns out it wasn't off that far but I wanted to get it as perfect as I could before putting everything back together. After pulling it and removing all equipment, I put it back up on rails, leveled it all out and remeasured everything on the front rails. All checks out perfect now and it looks really good too. While I would never hide the info that it was once crashed and recently repaired, most people would be hard pressed to see that anything is different. Only differences will be some new welds, a few less original spot welds, and the fact that the upper radiator support does not have the serial number stamped on it.

[Rich G.]

Glad to hear it all worked out!