Bodywork re-assembly order

As I have mostly completed the rolling chassis / engine / transmission re-assembly stage, I am now thinking about the bodywork. From someone who has done this before, what is the best order to re-assemble it in?

As far as I can tell, the rear tub should go on first, as the position of that is fixed. It would also get it out of the way, leaving more space in the workshop.

Next I was planning to put the seat box in. After that, mount the bulkhead and steering box but not tighten any of the bolts at this stage.

I would then line up the doors and tighten everything. After that I would get everythng else mounted with the wings going on after that. The last thing would be the door tops, windscreen, van sides and roof.

Is this the right way to go about this, or have I got it all wrong.

Thanks for any advice.

youve got the right, idea bulkhead needs to be adjustable to get roof ,doors, screen correctly aligned last things are the front wings etc

I've just put the body back on mine and that sounds about right too. For the rear tub it's best to completely assemble it before putting it in, i.e. rivet the floor crossmembers and floor sheet in first. It's a right pain if you try and do it after the tub is bolted down. Sure, it means you have to get underneath to clip the rear wiring loom in place but it's definitely the lesser of the evils.

The tub is assembled already. It came off in pretty much one piece.

I need to get the fuel tank and fuel lines sorted, then it should be ready to go back on.

Tub, then bulkhead, then interior, then doors, then front panel and wings was how I did it

I never removed the bulkhead though, using that as a datum.

I ran into this problem today. The bracket on the rear fuel tank outrigger is about 8-10mm too far forward. This means that the tub at the driver's side is pushed forward slightly.

The backets are also way too far out towards the sides of the vehicle to light up with the holes. This wouldn't be such a problem as I could just drill a couple more holes in the tub.

See photos for a better explanation. The last photo is furthest to the driver's side bracket on the rear crossmember. The gap is caused by the fuel tank outrigger being too far forward.

Has anyone seen this before with a new chassis? If I had access to a small MIG Welding set I could grind the welds off and re-position the brackets. However, I don't want to buy one just for this job. I am considering grinding the welds off, drilling some holes in the outriggers and bolting the brackets back in the right places.

samc88 said:

Tub, then bulkhead, then interior, then doors, then front panel and wings was how I did it

I never removed the bulkhead though, using that as a datum.

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generally the bulkhead is the bit that you adjust to get roof ,windscreen ,doors etc right, hence fitting front last

I'm not talking about moving the whole outrigger, just the brackets that are welded on top.

part 305232 is a shim which goes between bracket and tub .
Mine had several slotted versions.
fuel tank outrigger one is definetely welded in wrong place.
Redrill as you say.

When I recently started the re-assembly, I found that the doors seem to sag as can be seen in the photo.

The odd thing is that they did exactly the same before disassembly. That was with a completely different chassis and bulkhead.

Could it be the hinges that are the problem here?

Also, the two holes on the outriggers for the main bolts were slightly too close together. This would not allow the proper 1/2" UNF bolts to fit. In the end I welded a nut onto one end of two lengths of 10mm studding. The stack of washers was also needed to push the bulkhead forward slightly so that the footwells touch the steering box bracket. This means that the bulkhead sits lower than it should.

So far, nothing in this rebuild seems to line up exactly.

hinges need adjusting or replacing or bulkhead angle forwards a little more, id fit proper bolts and force holes to align

Thanks for the reply.

The holes on the bulkhead outriggers are about 6mm too close together.

I know that the bulkhead ones are in the correct place as the door pillars on this bulkhead are original.

How would I go about forcing them to fit without bending or damaging anything?

a bottle jack with care, ensuring all other securing bolt for bulkhead are loose

Do you mean a bottle jack between the chassis rail and part of the bulkhead where the main bolt goes through?

Does the bulkhead have that much flexibility in it?

Have you replaced the bulkhead out riggers?

If so it sounds like you ha vejt got them quite right.

With your doors as well as everything else mentioned have you checked for wear on the hinge pins?

Peter

This was a newly made galvanised chassis.

The hinges are quite loose, but I thought I would try and get away with re-fitting them.

Who was the chassis from, out of interest?

I managed to get the proper bolts in using a ratchet strap around the chassis rail to pull the bulkhead into place.

However, it seems that the doors are still hanging slightly lower than they should. Is there anything else I can alter here? This is with the bulkhead standing as upright as I can get it.

Does anyone have any opinion on what the next stage should be?

I was thinking tub-to-bulkhead braces, seat box and floor back in?