Thread: Mounting body

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Hi Guys I am about to mount my 3 window body to the frame. Heres my question. Do you use any kind of mounting pads between the body and chassis ? I am afraid if i dont use anything there will be squakes when you are driving. Thanks guys

I've always used the woven liner you can buy at any antique auto or hot rod supply house, but I see Bob Drake has a new rubber styly adhesive backed liner that looks like it would work well.

He also sells some shims but they seem a bit pricey. I just get a bunch of front-end alignment shims to shim different areas of the body to line up door and hood gaps, reveal lines etc.

You will find there is a lot more to mounting the body than just bolting it down on the frame and to get everything lined up correctly sometimes turns into quite a chore.

Mick

You will need the 1.5 or 2" webbing and some shims. While the self stick stuff is OK, I just used some 2 sided carpet tape. The hardest part of doing this is cutting the bolt holes if you don't have any hole punches. To mark the holes, I cut the heads off whatever size bolts go in the holes and ground a point. I then put some masking tape in the general area and when happy with the location(while being held in place temporarily with masking tape), tapped at the sharpened bolts, then removed it and made my holes. You will have to 'pie' cut the webbing to follow the frame outline or the webbing will bunch up. The shims - I do agree with using front end alignment shims. If you can't get them from a local shop, Speedway has them, 10 for $3.99 http://www.speedwaymotors.com/A-ARM-...HIMS,3531.html

Now, if you haven't done a body to frame alignment yet, be prepared for anything from a very few to lots of hours

The hole punches Dave mentions are good to have for numerous reasons (fender welt holes would be one other example). However if you don't want to invest in a set (violating the man code of "...any excuse to buy a new tool") you can make your own. A piece of pipe ground to an circular edge (for those having trouble visualizing that think circular chisel) at one end. Punch the webbing on a block of wood to preserve the ground edge.

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

The hole punches Dave mentions are good to have for numerous reasons (fender welt holes would be one other example). However if you don't want to invest in a set (violating the man code of "...any excuse to buy a new tool") you can make your own. A piece of pipe ground to an circular edge (for those having trouble visualizing that think circular chisel) at one end. Punch the webbing on a block of wood to preserve the ground edge.

Bob - I have those homemade black pipe versions as well, but they are marginal - so in tune with that "manly" code.......... That block of wood - hard wood like a chunk of oak works best. (I also have some phenolic which is better yet)

I use the green woven cloth type, its sticky backed and stays stuck.
I use a cheap hole punch onto a block of wood, works good.
For shims i just cut them from stainless sheet off cuts, and yes shimming can take a while to get right

Should the webbing go under the firewall also?

I save old 3/8 drive sockets (especially the Japanese ones you somehow end up with in your box (?) ) and I grind a sharp point around the edge on those to make various size hole punches. If you hold the socket against your grinding wheel and spin it you can make a pretty good, even edge around the circumferance.

The bigger the socket the bigger the hole, and if you insert an old extension into the socket you have a handle to hold onto while you hit it with a brass hammer. Those are also good for making holes in gasket material when you need to create your own gasket. Because sockets are usually of some form of hardened steel the sharp edge stays sharp pretty long.

Don

Good Tip Don but to keep your fingers out of the grinder put the socket on an extension while grinding

Originally Posted by BillM

Should the webbing go under the firewall also?

Do you mean the legs coming off the firewall down to the frame? If so, yes.