Jack Bolt Alignments

[Cleve]

My jack bolts on the front of the car come through the holes in the body. Unfortunately they are pretty much off to one side or the other and neither the bolts or body can be moved to fix this problem. We purchased the rubber inserts for the jack bolts with the bolts being hard off to one side , they would destroy the rubber inserts. The only way I can see to fix this problem is to plug the holes with Fiberglass matt and determine the proper placement of the holes. Then cut out the new holes. Any other solutions would be appreciated. Nothings easy.

[Jeff Kleiner]

First question; is the front of the body centered? By that I mean centered so that when you measure from the coilover mount tower out to the wheelwell lip both sides are the same? If so you can easily bend the 3/4" square frame extensions that run out to the bumper/jack mounts to better align them with the openings (FYI, it's very common for the left one to need to move inward). Whether those need to move or not you'll have to open up the holes in the body for the rubber grommets and to properly fit them the FFR supplied stainless steel tubes should be replaced with 3/4" O.D. tubing. I use is 0.75" OD x 0.125" Wall x 0.50" ID Stainless Round Tube from onlinemetals.com.

Jeff

[edwardb]

Not unusual for the front frames, where the quick jacks attach, to be off laterally one way or the other. It's just thinwall tubing, and even though fixtured when the frame is welded, they can get out of alignment. First confirm the body is centered properly by measuring the front wheel lips against the same frame part on each side. If still off, with the body removed, I use a 2x4 flat against the frame and bump with a relatively heavy hammer. They move pretty easily. May take a couple tries but that should do it. Every Roadster I've built required a bit of tweaking like this.

Edit: Once again a race against Jeff, and I lost... At least our messages are similar. :(