CharlesEH Posted November 27, 2002 Posted November 27, 2002 I've got a spare pair of hands available this week-end, so I'm going to attempt to fit the body-work to my SE 'wide'. The instruction manual seems completely incomprehensible on this(although I'm sure it'll make perfect sense once I've finished). If anyone has any hints, tips or gotchers they'd be welcome. And is there anything I should have completed before I embark on this? Cheers, Charles Quote
Blatman Posted November 27, 2002 Posted November 27, 2002 Search for member name Steppenwolf, and follow the links to his site (there's also a link on the links page of the main site). There are detailed instructions on how to go about getting this part of the build (and many other parts of the build) right. Quote
Clive Posted November 28, 2002 Posted November 28, 2002 You should have watched " A Race Car is Born" Clive Quote
Mark Stanton Posted November 28, 2002 Posted November 28, 2002 You should have watched " A Race Car is Born" Entertaining ............ but your bodywork does not come pre-drilled with holes in the right places to fit lights and bits as did the one supplied to Mr Evans - didn't see him with a drill, file or dremel doing much to the bodywork Quote
stu999 Posted November 28, 2002 Posted November 28, 2002 - didn't see him with a drill, file or dremel doing much to the bodywork That was done in the 2 minute commercial (go on, have a loan to pay off your other debts) break. Honestly. Quote
Liam Posted November 29, 2002 Posted November 29, 2002 It's not as complicated as it looks. The 'boot box' measurement is important and a good number (min. 6) of small /medium G clamps is invaluable but don't spend a fortune you may only use them once - you can get sets in most DIYs quite cheap that do the job. Some lengths of wood taped across the bottom of the rear wings (assuming yours are fixed) are handy in order to provide something to measure the lateral postion of the body. Measure from those to the brake discs. There are a lot of comments about the difficulty/bravery needed in fixing the rear bottom edge of the body to the lugs on the chassis. I didnt have any particular difficulty despite the fact the my body was 3 year old when I fitted it and may have become more rigid as a result. Remember that the body is hand laid and is not a precision item. That caught me out at first and I couldn't fathom out why things were not symmetrical. For example it is very difficult to get thee nosecone to headlamp distance equal. Spent a lot of time repositioning then finished up where I'd started! The worst bit was the screen/screen fillet. It's an absolute dog and I think it will take all winter to sort. It just won't sit right on the scuttle. I think I may have to reshape the bottom edge of the screen frame as I have an enormous gap to the scuttle. Steppenwolf is invaluable. Get a Dremel. Good luck! Liam Quote
CharlesEH Posted December 2, 2002 Author Posted December 2, 2002 Thanks for the tips folks, the 'Steppenwolf' site was particularly interesting. We had to dremel about 7mm out of the dashboard support's notch to get the boot-box to rear bulkhead dimension at 400mm both sides. We managed to get the side to side measurements square too. The only problems were hack-sawing the sparewheel rack mounts off AFTER the body was on (whoops), and that Westfield supplied two lefthand handbrake mounts (so we had to re-drill the mounting holes on one). Lights next; what are the options for rear light clusters? Cheers, Charles Quote
zvezdochka Posted December 2, 2002 Posted December 2, 2002 Do you mean hacksawing the body to clear the spare wheel mounts? Also which handbrake mounts are handed? Or is it a bike engine? Well done for getting the body on, I pick mine up after Christmas. Quote
steppenwolf Posted December 2, 2002 Posted December 2, 2002 As the body fitting is a subject that comes up frequently in the Newbie section and it was certainly a concern to me when I built mine, I thought it might be helpful if I expanded my web article on this subject a little bit. For what it is worth, this is the URL of the new page:- General Body Fitting Tips. Quote
CharlesEH Posted December 4, 2002 Author Posted December 4, 2002 By handbrake mounts I mean the 90degree angle iron bits that bolt to the lower rear bracket on the axle, along with the lower trailing arms (mine's an SE). These are handed, but as long as you have a 8mm and 9mm HSS drill you can 'adjust' them. A lovely bit of Westfield 'engineering'. And I hack-sawed off the spare wheel mount brackets, not the body; who needs to drag around a bl**** great spare wheel all the time anyway - I don't even have one in my SWB all-alloy competition bodied parts-getter*? (a bit of emergency foam-in-an-aerosol is cheaper and lighter!. Charles *F-car reference for saddo's like me Quote
CharlesEH Posted December 4, 2002 Author Posted December 4, 2002 I've just checked out Steve's additional body fitting tips; brilliant - thanks! Charles Quote
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