Body Mounting Questions Again!

[Wbauman]

I did search and found most of my answers but not all.

This is a Completed car that I inherited from my deceased father. I built the car many years ago. It is a MK3. It always had small issues that I wanted to correct but he was having too much fun driving it to turn it loose. I am now trying to correct these issues.

What has started me down this rabbit hole is re doing the dash and not being able to get it to fit correctly. When I built this car way back in 2007 there weren't the resources available today.

I understand That the body needs to be in front of the striker tabs which I it is.

Start at the back and move forward. I plan on Kliner's coupler mod.

I measured the fender lip to the shock mount and it appears to be within a 1/16 side to side. I am not above the 3/4 tube 5/8 to 1". Is this critical if my hood is adjusted and aligned?

Will raising the front change the dash area or is that too far back?

I would like to change the dash mounted mirror to the top of the windshield and I see now that most are not securing the center of the dash and using the spacers.

The right side of my cowl looks as though it is being held up causing the dash to not be covered by the cowl on that side. The passenger firewall extension bulb seal seems to be extremely compressed and the hood opening is on the 3/4 tube. If you push the dash up far enough to hide the gap it is clearly running up hill to the right.

Is it common to have to trim the passenger side dash extension or is my body being held up by the hood opening lip on the 3/4 tube and I had to pry it down to get the side mounts to line up?

I plan on removing all my mounts and start all over refitting my body in the quest to get it correct.

I know its very tough to diagnose on a forum and a phone call would probably clear it all up.


Thanks for any help. I know 6 builds under my belt and I have questions. I suppose I was just lucky in the past..

[Indy Shu]

My 2 cents:
If the body, doors, hood, and trunk are all currently gapped and functioning reasonably well, that is your starting point. If you move the body at all, these things as well as the roll bars, windshield, and front mounts can be affected too.
I believe it was common to have to trim some height off of the right side of the dash (the part that curves around). It seems like i took off a 1/2" or 3/4".

Good luck!

[Wbauman]

Yeah i knew was common to trim dash in taking about the firewall extension. It seems like the bulb seal is very compressed compared to the rest of the firewall.

Doors currently off the car anyway.

[CraigS]

I see no problem w/ trimming the R side dash extension.
"I measured the fender lip to the shock mount and it appears to be within a 1/16 side to side. I am not above the 3/4 tube 5/8 to 1". Is this critical if my hood is adjusted and aligned?"
I 'think' the 'above the tube' started w/ MkIVs so your being on the tube or very close is normal for a MkIII.
Since you are doing all this body fitting anyway, you might want to consider doing the 'drop butt' mod. It brings the body to almost MkIV shape in side view which I feel is a huge improvement.

[Wbauman]

I've considered that Craig and have researched it in the past. I've been so busy at my business the cobra has been neglected and torn apart for 2 years.

I am hoping that trimming the Firewall will allow it to settle. I don't want to shove the dash up since it makes it an eyesore that the dash isn't parallel.

Did you do this to yours? Before and After Pics?

Thanks

[CraigS]

yes I dropped the butt on my MkII. Did the full drop to the 2.5in or so that is the distance between the bolts at the rear mount. My pics don't do the full justice of the drop. The hardtop and the flares make it less obvious but here are a couple anyway.
191084
191085

[Wbauman]

You did this on a completed/painted car? If so how do it affect the door gaps?

[CraigS]

Yes I did. I was very surprised that I had no problem w/ the door gaps. I am not going to say they were absolutely perfect but there was no noticeable change.