Engine cover alignment and Exhaust Flange access?

[jnirenstein]

Hi all,
I'm a new owner of an 06 Heritage car. I just noticed a couple small "defects" that need work. The car came with a Borla Exhaust. It appears that when they installed the exhaust they didn't get the engine cover aligned quite right and also either missed a flange bolt (from the header to the collector 1 of 3) or it rattled off completely.. The rear deck lid works fine and looks great but it has an ever so slight rub when opened all the way against the tail section. It bugs me cause it's clearly touching and I can already see signs of wear. It is the type of distance that could be easily fixed by using some clear helicopter tape but I also want to install the flange bolt and it appears that I will need to remove some of the lower panels to accomplish that... 2 questions:

1 By loosening the hinge bolts on the deck lid and moving the lid forward towards the roof 1/16 or so I suspect that will solve that problem. Is it that simple?

2. Is there a detailed step by step on the forum somewhere (Can't find it) that will tell me what I need to remove to get to the passenger side lower exhaust flange below the collector to insert the 3rd missing bolt?

Your help will be graciously accepted!!
Cheers,
John

 

[mmlcobra]

Welcome John.
Congrats on your new purchase.
I'm sure that you will find the answers that you seek here.
The people here are great!
My Best,
Mark

 

[debtdrives]

photos of your car? History? Miles? etc? Welcome, Keith

 

[ultrasportracing]

Hi, Alignment of the panels can be quite problematic ,, Check to see if the gap along the roof line and the clamshell is even, if it is then an eay fix is to move the clamshell a little but then the gap along the roof line will be out, the other way is to reposition the rear clip section(sometimes referred to as the bumper) which is quite involved.

 

[nota4re]

Congrats on the Heritage purchase!! That small contact/rub is relatively common. Do the helicopter tape asap which will prolong the paint life. Re-orient your thinking/temptation to adjust the clamshell. In almost all cases the correct procedure is to adjust the other panels TO the clamshell, not the other way around. There are some ways to get the rear tail section to give you that wee-bit of additional clearance but it a little involved to try to describe here. You really need to disassemble a lot of panels on the back of the GT and set aside the time and hopefully have the skills and confidence to do that. Feel free to PM me - we can always chat by phone which may be infinitely easier.

As for the missing bolt, that shouldn't be too difficult. You can remove the air cleaner box very easily and significantly improve your access. I would think that you could reach down and install the missing bolt/washer/lockwasher and nut from the top.

Hope this helps.

 

[jnirenstein]

Thanks for the welcome!! Nota4re, I did think about attacking the panel alignment from the perspective of moving the rear "tail section." It does appear that on the drivers side it is slightly higher than the adjoining clamshell. Lowering the "tail" would probably achieve the desired effect but looked very involved. When I'm ready to attack it I will give you a call. How bout a DIY how to on removing the air cleaner box or is that self-explanatory? Haven't looked at it yet...
Cheers,
john

 

[fjpikul]

jn, there are posts here about panel alignment. Work from the wheel well with the braces. There are shims there that you canremove to adjust. If you look at some drawings in the Service Manual, it should be understandable.

 

[RALPHIE]

Welcome Aboard!! :thumbsup

:cheers

 

[Shadowman]

I will be glad to walk you through the process; it is not terribly daunting and no you will not remove the rear portion.

Takes care

Shadowman

 

[Vince H]

Welcome. As you can already see the gentlemen on this board are top shelf. Hope all your repairs go smoothly.

Vince H

 

[partssmann]

Welcome aboard and you will love your FGT. I have seen this clam shell rub issue adjusted by Rich a well know GT Tech. It was was done by loosening several rear tail fasteners and then pulling on the rear tail to clam shell gap while tightening the fasteners.

 

[jnirenstein]

Thanks to everyone for the help and suggestions! I'm going to try and tackle the issues this week and will let you all know how it went! Cheers!!