Initial 33 body fitment

[RoadRacer]

NOTE, FUTURE READERS! I have full Gen2 body and door hardware on a Gen1 chassis, so bear this in mind

As I posted elsewhere, my plan is to


fit the body to the firewall
raise the rear to get the quoted measurement in the manual
then before fixing in place, offer up the doors, trunk, hardtop to try to check for alignment issues, i.e. is door and body opening parallel both ends


one problem with this plan is that the doors and trunk aren't trimmed, so won't actually fit in the hole, and I don't want to trim until everything really is bolted in place. So I'm not sure if this plan will work very well.. but anyway, I'm at step 1 (fit to firewall) and already I'm not sure on best course of action.

I don't even know what the Gen 1 body looked like, but I was told early on to raise the cutout on the outside lower edge of the firewall "for the body" but now I'm offering up the Gen2 body there doesn't seem to be anything that needs that cutout. Perhaps this was the long lower side panel that isn't there any more *shrug*

133310 133311

But you can see that the body is being held off the chassis by that 3/4" lip on the 'glass (arrowed). My plan to is to cut a little over half that off, to leave some for the firewall to attach to, which I think will still leave a small gap at the bottom which I'll fill some other way.

Feel free to offer advice and opinions!

[peterh226]

I have the upper firewall attached to the body. The lower pieces are not attached to the firewall but are located by the side rail attachments around the door. The lower trim that goes up to the radiator is also going to keep the bottom from flexing a bit. I'm running full fenders and engine side panels with a GEN 2. I figured a little float was better than a squeak and no real attachment lip.
133481

[RoadRacer]

I have the upper firewall attached to the body. The lower pieces are not attached to the firewall but are located by the side rail attachments around the door. The lower trim that goes up to the radiator is also going to keep the bottom from flexing a bit. I'm running full fenders and engine side panels with a GEN 2. I figured a little float was better than a squeak and no real attachment lip.
133481

Ah, makes sense - the firewall aluminum shape changed, as I suspected. Thanks.

[RoadRacer]

Peter, I wonder if you have any close-up pictures of this area? I've been zooming in on all pictures I can find, but I still can't see enough detail of how much lip is left on the 'glass (if any), and how far the firewall aluminum sticks out past the vertical chassis rail.. in theory I could have zero overlap (aluminum flush and 'glass lip cut off) to move the body in, but I'm not sure what gen2 is *supposed* to do here.

133483

[Higgi56]

I will post some pics tonight. I am running into a similar issue with Gen 2 body and frame. To me it appears that the body tab needs to be cut out below the factory cut out (even with the factory cut out).

[RoadRacer]

I will post some pics tonight. I am running into a similar issue with Gen 2 body and frame. To me it appears that the body tab needs to be cut out below the factory cut out (even with the factory cut out).

Thanks. I've cut out a lot of the 'glass lip so far, and still have a little more to go. Taking it slow.

[Higgi56]

134376134377134378134379
Thanks. I've cut out a lot of the 'glass lip so far, and still have a little more to go. Taking it slow.

[Higgi56]

There’s maybe 1/8th to 3/16” of actual aluminum to overlap with in that area.

[RoadRacer]

Perfect, thanks. Exactly the same as what I had at the beginning. Pic 3 shows it best.. I'm cutting that 'glass back until the overlaps are much closer to the same, allowing me to bring the body inwards and lose the gap.

[TxMike64]

134378

(Pic three from above)

Is this amount of overlap typical for all, or unique to the Gen1 chassis with Gen2 body? Doesn't seem like enough overlap for the fasteners.

[RoadRacer]

Mike, most don't put fasteners down the sides, only along the top.

[TxMike64]

Mike, most don't put fasteners down the sides, only along the top.

Ah, OK.

[Higgi56]

Mike, most don't put fasteners down the sides, only along the top.

how did you level the body before fastening it in place? It seems its easy to get the front tight on the firewall. But the rear can get a lot of twist and side to side movement.

[RoadRacer]

how did you level the body before fastening it in place? It seems its easy to get the front tight on the firewall. But the rear can get a lot of twist and side to side movement.

Sorry for the late reply - partially because I haven't actually done it yet.

But, here's my plan that everyone seems to agree with from post 1 step 3 - attach as much as possible; doors, roof, waterfall, trunk and adjust everything to be the best mean fit. The roof will help with "level", as will the doors, sills, and waterfall. In the end, you want the errors to be as spread out as possible, not all in one door jamb, or whatever.

At least that's my theory, but I'm 996 cars of experience behind everyone else :D

[FF33rod]

My approach was as follows, and so far it seems to have worked. Something to keep in mind is that the body is not symmetrical, so don't expect it to be. One of the most important things is that you don't want things to look crooked visually.
- I leveled the chassis side to side, marked the center line on the chassis and put a laser line along it from the front.
- measured and marked the center of the body at the back of the waterfall (above the tank), for reference later.
- Placed the body on, tight up to the firewall. Checked the level of the front cowl, adjusted slightly for level. Clamped in place
- adjusted the level of the rear to achieve the cockpit dimension outlined in the manual, adjusted the body side to side to line up center of rear cockpit (as marked earlier) with center of chassis. Adjusted the rear of the body to ensure the area above the tank was level. When all 3 are setup, I drilled and attached the body to the frame at the wheel wells with the appropriate spacers.

Hope that helps
Steve