Body's back on, but it won't sit quite right...

[King Fisher]

Nick's popped the body back on his S today, apparently it was quite an easy task and took them about 5 minutes (however he did get his finger trapped in the process!!). However, the boot of the car seems to be higher at the right than on the left. He's put some of the body mounting material on the tank cradle to try and shim it up, but it's not really changed anything. The roof doesn't close properly on the right, and the right hand door has a panel gap about half an inch across at the top. Any ideas on why this might be? Apart from this minor problem the project is flying together very quickly. Should be up and running in a few weeks.

[jwoffshore]

I had a similar problem and in my case it turned out to be the nut/washer securing the bottom mounting of the boot gas strut was catching on the top edge of the fuel tank. Try shifting the fuel tank across to the left slightly to clear it away from this nut. In the end, I made a new nut captive in the fibreglass which was virtually flush with the surface and did not foul on the tank under any circumstances.

[King Fisher]

Hi, thanks for the reply. Nick's car doesn't have a gas strut, it uses a metal bar that locks in place when the boot is opened. So it won't be that. I can see this is going to be a tough one. Hopefully the body doesn't have to come back off.

[kenpage]

right 2 thoughts mine did the same check the fuel filler pipe to the tank and if you have cable tied the fuel lines to the top of the chassis rails they can catch on the body just a maybe

[Barkychoc]

Has the fuel tan been off?
It doesn't sit in the middle of the cradle, its slightly offset I made a note at home somewhere.

[King Fisher]

Barkychoc said:

Has the fuel tan been off?
It doesn't sit in the middle of the cradle, its slightly offset I made a note at home somewhere.

As far as I know, he removed the tank in its cradle? Is it possible his chassis is twisted? It was being winched off its axle stands with an engine hoist and the hoist gave way, meaning the chassis tilted, one side on the axle stands, one off? It was quite a sharp jolt by all accounts, but the chassis never met the floor. it did have the engine and box in though so I imagine 200kg of iron could have twisted it? If so I expect he may sell the car for parts; he's reached the end of his patience now and wants to drive, not rebuild anymore. He has done 7 months of it!

[Barkychoc]

If the chassis was twisted (I don't think its likely) I would expect to see other evidence such as paint / powder coating cracks, flaking etc.

Is anything on top of the tank or the centre tunnel? Something must be stopping it dropping.
Just a case of more looking and perseverance I'm afraid.

[Gerald-TVR]

Had the same problem with a kit car some years ago, turned out to be a leggo brick placed by my duaghter on the chassis just as the body was lowered

[aero340]

take a break from it and try again in a couple of days you will see things in a different light .

[Donnysoutherner]

Tell him to stick with it, I doubt the chassis has twisted, it WILL be something stupid, or something caught between body and chassis. I would probably try lifting a couple of inches again and putting back down. Do all the holes marry up? Did he put all the packing back exactly where it came from?

[phillpot]

How extensive were the chassis repairs ?

Could something not be quite square and true ?

Or maybe someones just left a socket or something under there somewhere ?

[King Fisher]

Well, they got it so that the panel gaps have gone and the roof is right, BUT that body mount still doesn't fit, even though all the other body mounts are bang on (they've lifted it again and checked it). The body is hard up against the suspension mount, but an inch off the body mount, which makes it seem as if the body is longer along its bottom length than on its top length. Very odd. They've decided to put a piece of box section steel inbetween the body mount and the body and bolt it all together.