Fitting the Body

[SJ]

I'm stuck - and so's the body! I've got the body onto the chassis (de Dion) but the back end is held up about half an inch and is slightly to the right when viewed from the rear wheel alignment. No amount of pushing or pulling will make it budge. It's catching the back face of the cockpit rear on the tube uprights that take the roll bars (and chewing into the fibreglass). It's fully forward, with the footwells hard against the front chassis stops. Nothing obviously is getting in the way. The only thing that looks at all stressed (apart from me) is the left front wheel arch where it sits on the chassis rail, it's possibly taking a tad more strain than it should. Should this be filed back? Any suggestions?

SJ

[mclark]

Hi SJ,

I fitted my body to the de dion chassis last weekend and found it to fit like a glove.

The only places I had to trim the body were the mounting flaps in front inner wings and the engine bay (but only fractions though).

I did find that the rear needed a slight nudge when we lowered it on but nothing to write home about.

The body went in over the front and was about 5ft off the ground at the back, it was then lowered down into place and pushed forward to butt up to the front footwell plates.

When I cut the holes for the rollbars I did notice they were right up against the body (bulkhead) so this must be normal.

If you need me to go into the garage to check anything just say.

Michael

[SJ]

Hi Michael,

Glad to hear it can go together! I'll give it another go tomorrow. Can you recall whether the top of the bodywork touches the top of the seatbelt pillars when it's fully home? Mine doesn't at the moment (by about half an inch) and whilst it's close enough to push the back of the boot down onto the cross member, the tension it creates shows that something isn't right. I think I also may need to trim the flaps on the front inner wings, but as you mentioned there isn't much to go at, and I can't quite see why this should cause the problem at the back. Thanks for the advice.

SJ

[mclark]

Hi SJ,

There is a gap between the tops of the seat belt towers and the rollbar hoop mounting tubes.

I've attached a pic so hopefully you can see the space.

Michael



http://www.cobraclub.com/crcforum/user_files/4283.jpg

[SJ]

Morning Michael,

Happy Easter. My kids are currently making themselves sick on an excess of Easter Eggs so I'm off into the garage so I can claim plausable deniability when they are. Thanks for the picture. Mine's close but not quite there.

SJ

[mclark]

Happy Easter to you and your family.

If you need anything else mail me aas I may have pics of it already.

Cheers

Michael