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The Trigger
I thought it would
be easy. Unfortunately, when I opened the door and looked around,
absolutely nothing in the car was even remotely close to lining
up. In Fact, the door wouldn't close again because the body had
shifted once the bracing action of the door was removed.
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So.....
I decided I would
have to remove the car once again and reassemble the bottom panels,
specificly the heater channels, rear crossmembers and front firewall.
The firewall was of course welded in and had to removed to fit
everything properly.
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Just Tacked Together
This is the rear of
the heater channel connecting to the crossmember. I thought the
crossmember would drop nicely onto the channel, but it wasn't
even close. I definitely had to connect these pieces independantly
of the body.
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Completing the Ring
All the lower components
were now welded together to form a nice ring around the bottom
of the body. I finished the ring with most of the bolts in place
holding it in PROPER place on the lower chassis. The body now
could be lowered onto the lower chassis with the ring of lower
body parts still bolted in place.
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A Much Better Fit
The body fit onto
the chassis much nicer now. Both doors could open and be forced
closed. Getting the doors to close properly requires all the
components to be fit together perfectly. This will be a challenge.
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Settling Everything
In
Every part of the
body is now C-A R-E-F-U-L-L-Y measured to insure that everything
will fit when the time comes. You can't really see them, but
I've had to shim up various parts of the car with popsicle sticks
to bring everything into close alignment.
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Front Door Pillar
The time has come
to start replacing the door pillars. I consider these to be the
most critical parts to line up properly. If they don't go in
right, the doors won't close properly. This pillar is also a
major point of weight distribution, so it must go in and be solid
with no excess tensions on it.
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Removing the Old Pillar
I carefully traced
out the location for the pillar to be inserted. I used the air
chisel to get a nice straight line which will be handy when the
new piece goes in.
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Inner Wheel Well
At the same time as
putting in the pillar, it was also necessay to fit in the lower
front wheel well. This piece is very important in supporting
the front pillar and connecting the body to the heater channels.
Notice I'm using pop rivets to roughly fit these components,
grinding off tack welding is a real drag, the rivets come off
very quickly for repositioning.
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