Body on Pan Question

[newkitman]

Okay folks. When the body is on the pan the instructions say to drill up from the bottom to make the holes for all the bolts. How high off the ground do you have the car? Right now mine is only about 6 inches off the ground. Should I jack up one side and then the other? Thanks for your support. We now take you to the regularly scheduled SuperBowl. newkitman2013-02-03 20:42:22

Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The Shack

[edward ericson]

If it were me I would try to lift the car up about a foot all around with jack stands. I would put them under the suspension points too, to recreate as well as possible the “on-road” loads and stresses on the pan. Then measure the body again & make sure it was right exactly where I wanted it. Then try to secure it somehow–clamps, bungies–something.

THEN drill the first hole, put in a bolt and drill the next one on the opposite side, up or back from the first one–like tightening head bolts.

That’s how I’d do it, in my imagination, if I had the skill it takes to actually assemble the whole car instead of putzing around with the gauges and the dash.

[newkitman]

My main concern is the area where the body attaches (bolts) to the rear of the chassis. I have to start with a locator hole underneath and then I guess lift the body off the pan to drill the holes larger. I may have to jack one side of the car up about 18 inches to get the pilot hole and follow after with the other side. I just don’t want to crawl on the grass to get underneath half the car but I guess there is no other way. Thanks for your thoughs Ed.

Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The Shack

[edward ericson]

Cardboard box on the grass.

[Royal]

Allen, glad you are ok.  I fell hard this past summer and was OOC for 5 weeks.  

     I think that you are at the stage in construction where I wish that the factory had taken a moment more before “nailing it”.  My engine cover only clears the #4 exhaust elbow by about 1/4″.  Way too close.  I have seen fiberglass fires on boats and this makes me very uncomfortable.  

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