I’m in the market for buying a 69 convertible. very nice and restored car, only thing I was wondering is this:
it has several washers underneath the fenderbolts, where fender meets side of car. My 68 doesnt have these. when I asked the owner about it, and asked him why this is the case with his 69, he pointed at square indentations at every fender bolt area on the chassis, to hold washers in place. He is sure the car has never been in a wreck and that these washers are used sometimes in 69. Why? because when painting the fenders, they are held up in the air by hanging the fender at the thin rim ( where fender bolt holes are) . By hanging them like this, sometimes the thin rim sags a little bit and therefore you need the washers to fill the gap. Does that sound familiar to anyone? IS that a good explanation? Ive never seen it in another cougar.
But I cannot see any sign of previous wreckage. The seller has won numerous prizes with this car, particularly because of its clean body lines.
Think you will find the recesses help compensate for the thickness of the J clips.
IMHO yes sometimes spacers were used at the factory to get the alignment of fenders just right but most of the time not needed so they are not typically found on original cars though they can be. Of course plenty of body shops and repair places use them to fix short comings but those are often shaped differently or even made of different materials. The original spacers/shim can often be shaped differently from the after market ones and the shapes were different over the years and where they were installed. In general they can look like a large “U” or “W” shaped metal plate
From the factory I usually see shims on the front top fender bolt at the core support. Normally the rest of the bolts down the fender doesn’t have them.