De Dion Body Alignment

[richc]

Due to an imminent house move I fitted my wheels at the weekend and dropped the car off the axle stands that it's been on for the last year.

I'm a little concerned to find that the body seems to be sitting over to the offside of the car. There seems to be a 10-15mm over hang on the rear offside arch and the nearside wheel seems almost flush, the front is similar but not as pronounced.

I know my ride height needs set and there's some bumph in the manual about slackening all the suspension fastners to allow it to settle etc., but considering I set the body using a plumb line from the tops of the arches to datums on suspension mounts I'm concerned at the discrepency (I'm sure I tried the wheels before rivetting as well and didn't notice any mis-alignment). Looking at the fit of the internal mouldings and the boot lining at the shock mounts, there doesn't appear to be enough movement to allow adjustment (even of it wasn't already fastened down with 160 rivets and three tubes of Wurth!).

I'm hoping the tow to the new house will help everything settle down and align but fear it won't....

Has anyone else had a similar problem with a De Dion???

Rich

[dave]

Hi Rich.
The rear arches are not symetrical, if you have used a plumb line to align the 12 Oclock position then the rear of the off side rear arch sticks out more than the front of the arch whereas the near side arch does run pretty flush with the wheel.
If you have plumb lined the 12 Oclock position and are fitting wheels to Dax spec. everything will be fine for SVA etc.

[richc]

Originally Posted by dave

Hi Rich.
The rear arches are not symetrical, if you have used a plumb line to align the 12 Oclock position then the rear of the off side rear arch sticks out more than the front of the arch whereas the near side arch does run pretty flush with the wheel.
If you have plumb lined the 12 Oclock position and are fitting wheels to Dax spec. everything will be fine for SVA etc.

Cheers Dave,

That pretty well sums it up. The rear of the arch does seem to flare out more on the off side. I'll take a better look on my next trip home as it does look pretty sh1tty for a top line kit...hopefully setting the suspension up will even it out a little, the nearside is sitting a lot higher at the moment.

As for the body, did Dax take the mould from a well abused example, they seem to be getting a fair bit of stick over quality lately??

Ta

Rich

[dave]

"As for the body, did Dax take the mould from a well abused example",


I think "Well abused" were the only type available seeing as a lot of these cars went racing and that coupled with a car labeled the "Widow maker" I would say there is more than a slight chance of this.

[nbracken]

Rich my car is far from symetrical (a Unique Autocraft Python) - I know teh early mould was taken from an original car and then chopped and changed over the years. As Dave says teh originals were also no symmetrical when they were new either.

[Cobra289]

You can take contact with user “Skorpion” he knows everything about your problems or concerns.
His site it:
http://users.telenet.be/cobra427/

Regards,
Cobra289