[44boggers]

Alright guys, please try to calm my OCD and craziness. Short story before I get into the main question. After fixing the gaps on the fender, doing some body filler work to get the gaps spot on I started sanding the rest of the fender to get it ready for final primer. Everything was blocked down to 180 and looking great, including the body lines and i was ready to move onto 220. Then I noticed at the front of the fender near the body line, right where the fender has its tightest concave part leading into the bodyline, there was a small line. So I stared at it for 20 minutes telling it, that it better not be a crack. Finally I pushed on it with my finger and it sprung back at me. Mudda F........! I hit the crack with some air and pop pop. Little by little i was taking chunks out. The slick sand in that area somehow lifted. So after a small freakout I decided I need to start sanding all of that back and make sure the rest of the fender didnt have the same issue. Everything feathered out nicely and all was good. But now I stepped back a few years when I last primed it. But at least I knew I was safe.
So now that was taken care of, I laid down some new body filler on the sections I sanded out and got it all nice and flat and actually much less material than I originally used to get it flat.

Now here is my question. What is the best method to get the fender body lines straight. What do you trust? Tape/eye or a straight edge? Is it even possible to go off a straight edge since the fender bulges out in the middle, my guess is that you should be able to but just here me out and look at my pictures. For example when I lay down tape on the door using my eye ball, it matches perfect when i put the straight edge along my tape line, so check on that!
But with the fender, if I put the straight edge on the bottom side of the fender it is telling me that I need to move the body line down in the middle of the fender.
Then when I lay the straight edge above the body line it tells me I need to move the body line up.

BUT pretty much every time I use my eye and tape, no matter if it is masking tape or fine line tape. I hit the exact same body line every time.

Just for reference, the straight edge I am using is 3ft long. One end is lined up with the back edge of the fender and the front of the straight edge is lined up with the body line. So basically everything in between those two points are not lined up.


So what do I trust? I know I am driving myself crazy but I dont want to get this thing into paint and then I step back and the body line looks all whacked out.

My guess is that I should trust the tape/eye, because I think the curvature of the fender will not allow the straight edge to actually make a "straight line top and bottom because the straight edge "bows out" when the fender bulges. Right or wrong?


Here are some pics for reference.