After a good few years gathering dust, the body is finally on.
Still to be squared up and settled properly but not too difficult so far. I know that's going to change and it's a long way off fitting properly but nice to see it looking like a car again.
Slightly disappointing to discover that the new body doesn't come with full sills.
At least I'f still got the old sections that went under the tanks albeit that they're badly damaged. Should be good enough to make up new panels from, though.
Just another task that I didn't expect to have to do.
Ok, so I've pulled, pushed, lifted, pressed down, grunted and groaned for a few days now and I've got the following:-
Body sitting on chassis and equidistant on both sides at least according to my bit of string method.
Body sitting on dashboard with no visible gaps and reasonable distance between screen lip and point where wiper spindles are likely to come out.
Ground to top of headlight rim (minus chrome trim) 32" both sides.
Ground to top of rear fin 30 1/4" offside, 30 1/2" nearside.
How is that sounding so far???
I'm struggling to resolve that 1/4" difference at the rear. Offside doesn't want to come up any more and any attempts to do so result in the chassis going up too. Nearside won't come down either as the bit of the body that fits over the rear crossmember is down on the rail as far as it will go. To get it any lower would mean cutting the body to let that side drop. Not something I really want to do.
Tbh, to my eyes, it looks fine and I'm maybe being a bit paranoid.
In terms of Peerless body fitment, am I just being silly trying to get it spot on all round?
Incidentally, I tried Nigels trick of placing both hands on the wings close to the leading edge of the bonnet. The one where you put your thumbs in the gutters. Thats a bit of an eye opener! But can I see it when I stand back and look? Not really.
Yes, doors are my next issue. I've stripped and repaired the nearside door but I believe that this is the one that has fitment issues with the new bodies. Drivers door is still as it came off the car. Once I fit the D plates in properly I'll do a trial fitment before I do any body fixing.
Glad to hear that the odd quarter inch isn't significant. I'm happy with the way it's all looking at this stage.
I'm happy to report that chassis #86 is now a pop-rivet free zone.
A 3 month work contract has severely curtailed Peerless time but after what seems like an age, I can report that the body is now securely attached to the chassis. It turned out to involve a fair bit more work than anticipated particularly in having to mould new sill sections and front undertray. Combined with the work involved in repairing/reshaping the internal grp panels it all added up to a labour intensive time.
A combination of Sikaflex, tech screws and grp tape have resulted in a very stiff structure and, hopefully, one that will stay in place a little longer than the original.
Much to my surprise, I've managed to get the distance from ground to the top of the headlights exactly the same. At the rear, the r/h fin sits 9mm higher than the l/h one. I think I can live with that.
The only panels still to be fitted are the forward rear wheel arch liners. Iirc, these were supposed to be removable but I'm not sure for what purpose.
Am I correct in thinking these were attached at the lower point of the wheel arch and, at the top, to the grp section that forms the rear seat arm rest? The old wheel arch liners have 3 holes at the bottom where the curve matches the wheel arch and 2 in the flat top section. Were these the the only fixing points?
Next task will be finishing running the fuel lines and fitting the filter king I've decided to go with although I'm not sure exactly where it's going atm. Then it's on to finalising the fresh air and heating ducting. Although I bought one of the heated screens, I'd still want the windscreen vents to work and, because of my new heater, this means I have to duct from inside the car, back into the engine bay and to the hole that feeds the windscreen vents.
excellent news, well done Mike. I demand more photos for my next report?
Headlamps, level...is this really a Peerless...hope the bonnet shuts
not sure how the rear arch panels were fixed as not owned a car that still had them!
I glassed up a patch of mat/resin onto a piece of white melamine, popped it off then cut it out from a card template and made a complete "half moon" shape that did the whole wheel arch. My thinking was it made the side of the car stronger and stop all the ****e going up into voids etc.
Works well but fuel filler down pipes were a bit of a fighter but at least its water proof.
I then made a GRP right angle about 30mm X 30mm, cut slots in one face so it would curve around said new inner wheel arch and glassed that on. Now I have a right angle return which I have made spats (from black Foamex,) self tapered on, to stop said ****e going all over the de dion/diff/drive shafts/rear chassis/fuel pumps etc.
Cut a strange U shape into them so there's suspension/hand brake linkage/ travel clearance.
this works equally well
Filter king I've fitted on a bracket near the peddle box, tucked up slightly under the top of the wing.Air intake, if your're interested I can post some pics too.
Thanks Nigel. Wouldn't mind a quick pic of the Filter King position. Scratching my head on that one atm. Air intake? I've got the ducting going through the original hole in the flitch panel. It's a slightly smaller dia. but I'll fit a length of U section rubber around the hole that should tidy things up nicely. The ducting (at present) continues along the underside of the wing and through the big hole in the front wheel arch liner. Once it enters the nose section, I've still got about 1M of ducting left so can really do just about anything with it. I don't have the grp ducting that originally forced air into the rad and was intending to make a new one (think you posted pics on this). I'm thinking of moulding into this a suitably angled flange for the flexible ducting to the heater.
ducting sounds ok to me Mike, I've used drainpipe down pipe spouts for air intakes for the air box I made for the carbs. I think I used a suitable dia plastic "spout" I found in a scrapyard.
As for filter king fitting, see pic attached. I've never liked the idea of the fuel line going over the engine ala TR3 styley. ST did it because the mechanical pump was over that side driven off the cam.
We've got pumps (size 9) so I ran my line down the RHS straight to the carbs.
To prove that I'm not above stealing other peoples bright ideas, I've located my Filter King in roughly the same area. My carb set up has the fuel feeding into the front carb first and then to the rear so I've fed the hose along the top of the flitch panel just under the bonnet lip. Looks reasonably tidy, so I'm happy.
Just another of the many jobs I wish I'd done before I put the body on rather than after.
