08-03-2018, 09:21 AM (This post was last modified: 08-03-2018, 09:22 AM by Ruairidh Dunford.)
I read this with interest as the door line on our Pearl has never been quite correct. Last week, before the snow, I packed up the the front body mount on the drivers side and was delighted with the result, door now clicks shut and although the moulding line is not perfect it is noticeably better. Thanks for sharing this Matt!
p.s. Matt - if you would like the correct rubber moulding under your windscreen pillar PM me.
I think a lot of patience, and going away," having a think" and coming back for another go is required.
My only experience of this, so far, is fitting a replica Cambridge body - so just one small construction, without doors.
The body was dimensionally to within 3mm of the original, and was being mated with an existing front end.
I still haven't got it right, gave up in the end and packed up the bonnet top with a 25mm to nothing wooden wedge where bonnet meets the body sides. Horrible, I know, but I had to get the car to a wedding.
Though I didn't have doors to worry about, I had other points to line up: the angle of the front body panels, the height of the body top above the chassis at the front and the rear, the fore and aft position which in turn affected the position of the seats.
The nearest thing to a "fixed" point was the steering column clamp, and the next was the clearance of the body over the rear springs. This last is a particularly Cambridge problem, the timbers have to be shaved away a bit - but not too much.
Although it got a result, packing the cow horns doesn't "feel" right. In an ideal world I would have the body loosely attached at the cow horns - the known "fixed" point, and have movable up/down things (4 or 6 off bottle jacks???)
at the other mounting points. Then play with combinations of positions and see what is the best compromise you can get.
13-03-2018, 11:06 PM (This post was last modified: 13-03-2018, 11:09 PM by Matt_Harnden.)
Hi everyone. I thought I’d update you with my final progress on this issue. Success! After a lot of lifting, packing, unpacking, lowering....repeat.....repeat etc. the body level is much improved (photo). Also, the doors now shut securely as expected. I don’t believe that I can improve on the shut line between the door edge and rear body panel as, at some point in its history, the car has had new rear inner wings and the body is slightly out of line.
Thank you to everyone who has provided tips, tricks and ideas.
I have used shims of mahogany to pack the body off the chassis where required.
