Body / Glass: Reshimming/rebushing between the body and frame after massive panel replacement

[Jeff T.]

Over the past few years I replaced the floor and the trunk floor in my 1962 Lark hardtop. Despite my attempts at "measure twice, cut once" I tweeked something enough that the doors don't fit as good as they should, for example the drivers door top front is 1/4 of an inch too far forward while the bottom of the door is parallel to the rocker but I will concede that I may be off when I fixed the mounts for the ends of the batwings. Before I began all the rust replacement the doors fit better, or as well as they could with the front floor sheet metal being like swiss cheese and the lower cowl also having rust problems.

Short of getting out my cut off wheel and perhaps cutting when I don't need to...

Can I square up the body as much as possible by replacing the rubber shims between the body and the frame, SI sells replacements in 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 inch.

Any suggestions are welcome, It's hard to drive a car when the doors wont shut properly

Jeff T.

[sweetolbob]

Personally, I'd raise the body off the frame and support the body by the front and rear mounts and level at those points. Jack the other points around and see if you can get the doors closed. If you can measure the distance of each body mounting point to the mount on the frame. The closest measurement between them is the point to put one rubber mount.

Use the same size rubber mount at all mounting points and make up the difference in measurements with steel shims. Lower the body and bolt it on. I only use one rubber spacer and the rest steel. Be sure the doors are shimmed and held solidly in place as you lower the body.

You can make your own rubber ones from conveyor belt (which I use) or tire sides.

If you can't get the doors square as above you will probably need to breakout the cutting tools. But if you modify it the method should work. That's how I have mounted my bodies for quite a while.

Good luck, Bob

[jimmijim8]

You are supposed to put X bracing within the body shell { right front to left rear and left front to right rear and possibly other areas to be stabilized on the inside of a car at critical points so not to have the body shift from being aligned before cutting into the body to replace rusted panels/sections/pieces. Very important if body is removed from frame. Sorta like when building a house on a foundation that is not square. Hope you can get it within specs. You will see this done a lot on those car rebuilding shows. Hope you can get your issues sorted through. jimmijim

[Jeff T.]

I did not do this patching all at once. I did the work over the course of a couple summers; I repaired the right side the first summer, the left side the following summer and the trunk the next summer. I had the Lark on jackstands under the axle and front suspension so I could get under the car if I needed to. I did have the body braced right to left, cross-ways, not so much.