I have found a glass bodied roadster for sale. The overall work on the frame and such is cobbled but fixable (or at least replacable) My question is what is the normal procedure for mounting body to frame ? This is all new to me and before i dive into buying this thing i would like to know how much work is ahead (not that i am afraid of work). The frame has some bmw rear end that has been grafted on and looks like shit so I know there is some fabbing the to do. Just wanting some imput on the body mounting thing. Thanks guys!
WELLLLL....... You want more than a washer on the fiberglass side ,man.... Its about as firmly connected to the frame as a mud dobbers nest that way. You need some structure built in the body,whether steel or wood to allow where you bolt the body to actually have the support to withstand the twist and pull of everyday driving. Muchless ,God forbid you had an accident..... I have seen some with just a 2x4 glued across the dash and a couple small screws holding in the steering column...Damn -I mean,that is ALL THERE IS HOLDING YOU IN THE CAR! OVERKILL IS GOOD.
This dude just drilled hole through body into the frame and put bolts and fender washers through! Right down the frame on each side. Also if this body had set outside partialy covered would that affect the integrity of the glass? Man as bad as I want a roadster and as much other decent stuff as it has ( chrome front axle and spring, sonderson headers and such ) just wondering if its more troble than its worth. hey thanks for the info!
The first order of business is that the frame is stiff. The weaker the frame the more flexing there is. I make sure that the frame has as many gussets as you can without making a cage out of it. the next thing I'd do is make a set of metal frame rails that follows the shape of the body and frame, think of it this way like webbing material but in metal. Then you can bolt the body through it and add shims as needed. I have a glass 'vert and still it flexes but I can live with it, since even steel ones flex to a point also if you use bolts and nuts use nylocks so the nuts wont back off with roaduse.
About 10 years ago I built a glass 27 roadster. I cut out both doors and hinged them to make them functional, and glassed in a 3/4" marine plywood floor, while the body was not mounted to the frame(it was on a low table that I built especially for that purpose). I was very concerned that when I bolted the body to the frame that it might "tweak" the body and change the door gaps, etcetera. I sat the body on top of the frame, then took 2 peices of 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 3/16" angle and clamped them lightly to the outside of the frame rails, with one leg laying along the outer vertical face of the frame rail, and the other leg laying against the underside of the floor on each side of the car. I had pre-drilled 3/8" holes in the face of the angle which lay against the underside of the floor, about every 10". I then lay under the car and drilled up through the floor, using the holes in the angles as my guide template. I bolted the body to the angles using 5/16" bolts through the plywood floor and the angles and tightened the bolts up. I then took my electric welder and tacked the angles to the frame rails in a mumber of spots and removed the clamps. I then unbolted the body and removed it and welded the angles solidly to the frame and painted them. When I set the body back on the frame it fit perfectly, and when I tightened the bolts up the body never tweaked at all, and the doors still opened and shut perfectly.
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