A little background: I bought my FC 1986 RX-7 FC GXL a couple months ago for very cheap, this is because the car was drifted in to a tree, the suspension was damaged but I have repaired that. The passenger's side fender looked came in a tin-foil like state. I removed the damaged fender and attempted to install a new fender I had bought off of Craigslist.

My Issue: The new fender doesn't fit quite right, the hood won't close all the way and the headlight won't popup without scratching the paint (the whole car will be painted soon) and making a terrible noise. The area where the hood should sit at the top is too narrow and leaves the hood resting on the fender, and the area where the headlight should be when closed is also too narrow, I didn't have either of these problems with the old damaged fender. I have put in all off the bolts I could manage to get in, the places where the fender is not bolted in that I can find are;
1) The rear hole on the underside of the car in front of the door
2) The upper hole that is visible only when the door is open
3) The lower bolt that sticks out that is only visible when the door is open.

Does anyone have any tips? Should having a couple friends come over and help me align the fender with those holes help fix my problems? Is this fender from a different year when the hood was different? Is the frame of my car damaged?

Thanks
- Orion Smith

 

All fenders are the same. Your frame is probably bent. Take it to a body shop and have them pull the frame straight and you fender should fit like a glove.

 

Alright, do you have an idea of how much this would normally cost?

 

Most likely your frame is damaged or bent. Pull it and try it again.

 

Is this something that is feasible to do at home?

 

no

 

correction, there is a slight difference between S4 and S5 fenders but namely it is where the bumper meets the fender and in the channels where the trim sits. this has nothing to do with how your frame is bent though.

 

Ah, the Craigslist listing said s4 fenders, the thing that confuses me is that the damaged fender didn't rub against the hood or the headlight, the area where the tree hit was from a couple inches behind the front of the door to somewhere along the wheel (I know this because the strut was bent).

 

Of course the damaged fender fit. It was all damaged together. That wrinkled fender will fit the wrinkle in the frame perfectly. The average cost for a frame pull is about 400.00. It can be as high as six or as low as 250.00. But if you don't do it, parts won't fit right and you will never be able to properly align it which means you will be buying tires more often.

 

Sounds like I don't really have a choice then, I guess I will try and take it to a shop and get an estimate.

 

Bent frames SUCK