Hey guys, I'm working on a 49 Ford Tudor Sedan. Right now I'm in the process of rebuilding the bottom corners of the cowl. I'm trying to get the new body mounts from EMS to line up, and I could use some help. With the rocker temporary in place I marked the bottom of the door jamb. I Measured up a half inch to mark the floor height. When I put the body mount in place sitting on the frame and lined up with my mark i find that it slopes down significantly toward the body. ( higher at the frame than the body) Also there is a large gap between the bottom of the body mount and the bracket on the frame. I used a jack to lift the body at the a pillar and can get rid of the angle, but still have a large gap from body mount to frame bracket. I'm ***uming that the body sag is normal, considering that the mount here has completely rotted away. My Plan is to make a spacer under the body mount, I'm just wondering if I'm looking at this all wrong. Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hopefully it is easier to see what I am talking about here. I know that the bracket is rusted badly, I plan to rebuild it in 10 ga. steel before I weld the body mount on. I was actually planning on fabricating it to fit the body mount. Just want make sure I'm headed in the right direction. If anyone has a car similar to mine and can give me their measurement from the bottom of the lower hinge to the floor that would be very helpful. Thanks Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Dont worry about the gap between floor brace and the frame.You need to put a body pads between the braces and frame.There are several vendors that sells them,or you can made your own.I bought a body pad kit,because i wasnt sure how thick they were originally.I used a stack of spacers as a pads when i welded the braces,so they didnt melt because of the heat.
Thanks Finnrodder. I bought a new body pad kit from Shoebox Central. The pad is much thinner than the gap though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
To fix this problem the first thing you need to do is make sure your door hinges are in good shape then align the doors to the quarters. This will tell you if the "A" piller needs to go up or down. Bolt the body brace to the frame bracket and shim if needed to get a good fit. If this doesn't do the trick the frame bracket may need repair. Good luck on your project.
A lot of us have been through this. When I had everything cut out of mine I made sure the frame was level then got the body where I wanted it, then I modified the floor braces to fit. I made my floor etc., so nothing really lines up like stock, my body is channeled over the frame by about 3/4", so I pie-cut the floor braces. It's more important that the body is positioned on the frame how you want it. If you haven't already, join the Shoebox social group and have a look around. It's a slow moving group these days, but there's lots of good reading material and usually someone will chime in if you have any questions... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/social-forums/shoe-box-hambers.112/
Thanks guys. I lucked out and my door hinges are good and solid. I did have to make new frame brackets. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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