Friday, December 08, 2006

Body and chassis reunited - briefly !

I thought it would never happen, but the chassis has made it out of the garage at last !

And the body briefly made it on top as well !

The aim of today, in between rain showers was to check the fit of the body on the new pans and front chassis bearer, and start to test seating positions.

I have very limited garage space so working on the body is only going to be possible once it is mounted on the chassis. However I cannot do this until I have finished the welding etc.

I did try and convince myself that a floor pan drop wouldn't be necessary, but even with the necessary Bedford rascal seats (runners removed) I was kidding myself. This was particularly evident once we got the dash and pedal set into place as well. A 3" drop, combined with keeping the seats right on the floor should enable my 6ft 3" to get behind the wheel !


Though little actual progress was made today it was a valuable process and bouncing ideas of others is always good in this situation. The last thing I want to do is mess up the seating position and curse to myself everytime I drive the car !

The gearstick, and possibly handbrake will need miving too, but this will be easier to judge once a fixed seat is in place and a steering column is roughly positioned.



If at all possible I would like to get the pans dropped and painted before Christmas, as then I can move the body into the dry. The gearstick etc can be moved later as access is reasonable, but dropping the pans is definately a 'body off' job. The positive today was rolling the chassis out and not hearing any grinding noises from my new brakes and bearings, and also seeing that the mounting holes on the body do line up with the chassis - always a good sign !

Right, back to the original build manual and the NOVA forums to decide upon the best drop procedure and out with the cutting gear !

Measure twice, cut once as my Dad would say !

Cheers to Dad and Nigel for lifting the roof on and off whilst I tried seating positions !