body fitting

[viperjim]

hello people , not posted for a while and its time to get my finger out and spend some time on the viper. going to dummy fit the body so i can hang the doors boot and bonnet but i hav`nt a clue where to start . So questions ; 1/ WHERE DO I START ?

[Iain]

Originally Posted by viperjim

hello people , not posted for a while and its time to get my finger out and spend some time on the viper. going to dummy fit the body so i can hang the doors boot and bonnet but i hav`nt a clue where to start . So questions ; 1/ WHERE DO I START ?

Hi There!

That's a damn good question!

Where abouts are you located in the country? It may help you if you saw a Viper with the body already fitted.

My advice would not be to do so much of a dummy fit but do it properly. The bonnet and boot hangs off the body so just dummy fitting it may not help. It's pretty much the same with the doors but they hang off the chassis and not the body.

I would be tempted to look at it something like this :-

Put the body on the chassis
Choc up the front (under the oil cooler aperture) so that the front is the correct height
Do the same with the rear end
Centre the wheels in the arches as best you can front to back
Centre the body across the wheels front and back
Check and double check ALL measurements
make sure that the sides of the body (that fits along the chassis rails) actually touch the chassis rails. If they do not then when you press them in then the body will pinch and the shape will change.

Ride height will affect the wheels in the arches and if it's anything like mine was (I had been supplied the wrong suspension) then it may even look like a 4x4! I actually had to cut my body in half and lengthen it by nearly two inches just to get the wheels centred in the arches.

I would spend a lot of time doing this and a lot of time looking at how it looks. Once you're happy with it then I'd drill some holes in the side of the chassis/body for rivets, add some bonding compound and rivet it on.

The front end will require some brackets making and welding to the chassis. I had some made and fitted to where the front nudge bars mount. I then riveted the front of the body to those brackets. I also made some supports and welded those to the chassis to cradle the body just behind the centre of the front wheel. I fibreglassed those supports into the body. More supports were welded to the chassis just behind the door aperture. These were riveted and fibreglassed into the body. These were so that when getting in and out of the car you could just about put your whole weight on the body at the point just above where door striker goes (kind of hard to explain so let me know if you want some more info on that). I then fibreglassed the rear end of the chassis to the body.

Once all the inner wheel arches are fibreglassed in it becomes a pretty rigid body! Then you can start looking at the doors, bonnet and boot. I threw away the Viper door hinges because they were SH1T! and instead modified some AK hinges to suit. More info can be supplied if needed. Make sure you fibreglass the bonnet hinge into the body before you fit the body to the chassis. A quick idea here is to assemble the bonnet/hinges etc. and position in the bonnet opening (shim if required to get the fit right). Then go under the body and fibreglass the hinge to the body. Make sure that the bonnet will open properly before going too far with this. It might be better to do a temp fit with some P40 first, set your hinge lengths and positions and then fibreglass the hinge in position.

Let me know if you want more info, or if you're local then you're welcome to call round and have a look.

Hope this helps!

[hfbradley01]

Originally Posted by viperjim

hello people , not posted for a while and its time to get my finger out and spend some time on the viper. going to dummy fit the body so i can hang the doors boot and bonnet but i hav`nt a clue where to start . So questions ; 1/ WHERE DO I START ?

Hi Jim

I worked with Iain to get the bodies on our cars and I can verify everything he has said. If you can get to see his car I would recommend it as there are many points that you need to take into consideration.

It's a daunting task but good results are achievable.

Hope everything goes well.

cheers

[Deck]

Put the body on the chassis
Choc up the front (under the oil cooler aperture) so that the front is the correct height
Do the same with the rear end
[/quote]

Nice one Iain! Pretty comprehensive instructions there.
Just want to point out this bit as i think "correct height" mis leads a bit. I think it really just refers to the side sills and their alignment with the chassis as the wheels are nothing to go by and everything else moves about...boot skin, front brackets? etc...

What did you use as reference?

Best of luck with it Jim!
Dec

[Iain]

Originally Posted by Deck

Just want to point out this bit as i think "correct height" mis leads a bit. I think it really just refers to the side sills and their alignment with the chassis as the wheels are nothing to go by and everything else moves about...boot skin, front brackets? etc...

What did you use as reference?

Dek, you have a certain amount of adjustment on the side sills and overall, it's how the car looks in general rather than making sure the side sills look right. Afterall, they can be hidden with side pipes if necessary. I would have to disagree with you about the wheels bit. It is very important to use the wheels as a point of reference. You wouldn't want the wheels inset by 10mm on one side and sticking out by 10mm on the other side now would you? I put my Halibrands on the car before I fit the body and then used them to centre the body.

As for a reference, I personally used the Metal scuttle on the chassis. It would appear to vary from chassis to chassis though because my body is actually resting on the metal scuttle. I know of other Viper owners who's bodies are as much as an inch higher (or more!) than the metal scuttle. This just backs up the theory of no jigs for the chassis.

At the end of the day, it's worth spending a lot of time setting the body on the chassis. It's certainly a job you don't want to rush. It's also worth mentioning that you want to get the car on as much of a flat surface as possible. Also, adjusting the suspension so that the car is level would be a good starting point too.

Cheers...

[viperjim]

thanks iain , i`m in warrington so a bit far to come and have a look . ive got one of the fitters at work making some brackets for bracing . You said you rivet`d the brackets to the body , did you just drill through the shell then grind and fill the rivet , i never even thought of doing that

[hfbradley01]

Originally Posted by viperjim

thanks iain , i`m in warrington so a bit far to come and have a look . ive got one of the fitters at work making some brackets for bracing . You said you rivet`d the brackets to the body , did you just drill through the shell then grind and fill the rivet , i never even thought of doing that

Hi Jim

Iain and I fitted our bodies at the same time and in terms of bracketing are the same. I'm just the other side of Chester from you, so you're only about 1 hours drive from me. If you want to come and check out how we did it you're welcome.

Cheers