Technical Anyone assembled a brookville 3-window body

I’ll get some thoughts looking at mine tomorrow . I think windshield looks a bit strange , needs to come back a bit .

 

I have a 5 degree pitch difference.

 

I would not do anything until you get some doors. It will be much harder to undo something than to just work on other things till the doors are available. I don't think the major side panels are going to be wrong, so its just a matter of getting the other parts positioned correctly and maybe some creative massage to get everything in place.

 

Here are pics of what my factory assembled body looks like.

 

Here are pics of the width of the door opening at the beltline.

 

Thanks for the great photos and measurements. Much appreciated.

 

I'm educated beyond my intelligence............
but it seems to me that if there is a hinge anywhere on the A-pillar, it has to be in a straight line with the bottom half and no dogleg.

 

This 3 window body has suicide doors, the hinges are in the B pillar.

 

on 3w, hinges on b pillar

 

Here are photos of my Brookville factory assembled coupe. It has been chopped 2 1/2" with the roof stretched and the A pillars not leaned back.

The majority of the door opening is straight and at the same angle except at the lower part as you can see.

 

Well I set mine up at the same pitch at the floor as Ekimneitbo at 1.5 degrees and here is my windshield post pitch.

 

From the body crease line.

 

Just for information, when I took my picture I was slightly lower than what your picture shows. Down to the raised belt line ridge........or whatever its called. What would really help you would be a cardboard tracing of the shape of an actual door. Do you plan to chop the top ?

 

Even at the belt line I’m at 38-3/8”. A full inch smaller than yours.
There’s no way I can manipulate the opening that much.

I am going to do a hard chop like Bens car and will lay the windshield back. But I need fitted doors working before a start the chop.

 

The inner A pillar structure is pretty much impossible to bend due to it's shape so in my mind that is what is correct. The body panel would have had a much easier time hinging at the bottom of the window pillars or being pulled in that area due to welds to adjacent panels.

The metal around the base of both of your A pillars does not look right compared to the other pictures offered up. It looks like there are waves in that area compared to a relatively smooth transitions others are showing. That would be consistent with the pillar trying to fold in towards the door opening.

You need to make sure the body panel hasn't folded in towards the middle of the car as well. How does the opening line up with the inner door jam panel on the other plane of the A pillar?

You probably need to cut out the cowl panel and get your A pillars back into the correct orientation before proceeding.

 

Nice to see that my measurement of 39" for the door aperture has been corroborated! Here's another for you, accross the body at the A pillar, to the outside of the profile, is 48 1/2" painted. Wonder how pulled in yours is?

My guess is that you've tacked those cowl sides to cowl top flanged joints too close together. There's a huge fitting /alignment tolerance there which, in the case of mine left a canyon to be addressed. I spent a good while cutting, flattening the flange, welding and metal finishing that area.

Same essentially applies to the roof top front corners. I didn't want to go backwards to go forwards by creating access to the back side so risked it and just welded them up. Thankfully worked out good.

Arguably the same fitment issue applies to the roof rear quarters too.

Chris

 

It's hard to tell for sure with the picture due to lighting and the grinding that has taken place but this area looks misshapen to me. Like it has tried to fold in.

 

Looking at this picture, I wonder if this might be pulled back too far on yours and if cutting it might not let the body return to the proper shape? Just a guess...........

 

I would think pulling area that back would cause the body to want to bend at the top not at the cowl like the OP's body has done. At the very least, if the a pillar didn't give at the top, it would hinge the cowl section forward not back.

 

If my body sides are caved in at that crease line, that will cause some issues. I have 47” across the dash like.

 

If a cut it loose at the cowl and widen it there, the windshield frame won’t fit. That seam is set by the firewall and windshield opening.

 

Here’s the detail a-pillar area

 

Like others have said, I would wait for doors. Even if you get measurements of someone else's car, the doors may not be the same. I feel cutting and moving anything now is just pissing in the wind.

 

I assembled several Brookville 32 roadster bodies which were not difficult but took time. When the opportunity came along to purchase Brookville assembled bodies ($9000) for what I had in the parts plus $50 an hour times 40 hours I never built another body. I'm not trying to poo poo your efforts but there's something to be said for a factory assembled body. I've sold several 3 window bodies and even the factory body needed some tune up. Your not that far away from Brookville, bite the bullet and after the holidays are over load everything up and take a ride over to the factory and have them help you. They don't want any bad press about their bodies.

 

These pieces flex.
You can move things around and to fit a door and still fit a WS frame.

Measurements are fun to know but the door still has to fit.
No need to move anything till ya get a door.

a friend of mine installed a QTR panel without fitting the door. Measurements matched the other side, chassis was square and alignment holes lined up. Door didn’t fit.
Factories use jigs to hold things. Parts are fit to a jig. Hanging body parts to measurements and flanges isn’t the same.
Often stress or tension is needed to align panels.
We had an OE jig from Benz that added designed tension to QTR panels. Without stress the QTR would never fit the deck and rear body.

 

Again super hard to tell for sure with pictures on the internet but to my eye there is a crease where I put the line and an indent where the circle is, showing that the metal folded inwards in that area which would be in keeping with what is going on with the issues with the vertical line of your A pillar.

You clearly have A pillars that have been bent in that area as every other car that has been show is a relatively straight line up the inner post and yours is not even close.

You definitely need all the parts to get things to fit properly but it certainly appears that the A pillar will need to be straightened.

 

Perhaps I didn't explain what I meant very well. There is a major difference between the measurements of the door width front to back in the OPs picture and my picture of a factory assembled body. It appears to me that the front of the door opening needs to moved forward . Rather than try to force it forward a whole inch, I'm suggesting cutting the cowl free at the bottom attachment points and moving the bottom forward (not back) which should increase the windshields (A pillar) angle and widen the door opening. I may be wrong, but it looks like moving that forward would solve the issue.

 

From the other thread, I'm going to assume this body is bolted down to the frame. Its got to be worth slackening all the fixings and see what some gentle prying and shimming achieves. Might not achieve anything but no cost, no cutting! Can't do much else till doors are sourced?

The dimension across the body at 47" taken on the inner return roughly accords with mine at 48 1/2" to the outers of the molding. So that's something encouraging!

Chris

 

I'd be concerned if it had been three years and I couldn't get doors.

 

Wish I could find even one straight panel on my avatar to measure or put a straight edge on.....