Club Cobra - Mounting the body

Main Menu

Portal
Forums

Nevada Classics

Advertise at CC

December 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

CC Advertisers

· Kirkham Motorsports
Superformance
· Finish Line
· Hurricane Motorsports
· Serpent Express
·
· Planet Cobra

· Shell Valley Classic Wheels
· Eight Stack Injection

Mounting the body

Discussion Tools

11-06-2016 10:57 AM - permalink

ziggy75

I did a quick search in the social group and read the posts regarding mounting the body. I didn't find anything in regards to actually getting the body onto the frame. I felt adventurous today and tried lowering the body onto my frame but was unsuccessful. Since it is just me, I have two lifts that my dad constructed. I lowered the front and rear but found that the tub area where firewall is was too wide. My thoughts were to tilt the body but thought I would wait until I heard from some of you guys.

Also, I like the idea of mounting the tub to the body as was mentioned in one of the posts. I know that there will be a time when this body may need to come off and lifting the whole piece would be far easier. For those of you that have done this, how has that worked for you?

11-06-2016 01:51 PM - permalink

Harry Truppner

Hello ziggy75,
My CMC manual page 3-2 Body Mount says to have three or four other people to help you lower the body onto the frame. There is no mention as to how or any technique to use in doing so. Pulling the body wider may cause spider cracking of the gelcoat. Turning the body sideways while lowering to clear the obstruction and then coming back inline sounds like the better idea. When the firewall and floor liners get bonded to the body, they all should come off in one unit if the need ever arises. Try to get the floor liners to lay flat on the frame before bonding to the body. If unable, use shims to take up any space when bolting down the seats and seat belts. Harry

11-06-2016 03:29 PM - permalink

ziggy75

Success!

Not sure how I did it but I lowered the crane thingy down on ends and it worked. I got it to sit on the frame. Only one problem... I was unable to get the body to sit down over the back side of the tub.

Pay not attention to the finger paint. My 14 year old did this when he was 3. Yes it has been sitting around for that long.

11-07-2016 05:26 AM - permalink

mdross1

From what I see in the pictures it looks like the body is sitting on 2" wood and it has to slide forward because of the angled frame uprights. As Harry says you will probably need shims in places, have them custom made if needed.

11-07-2016 07:43 AM - permalink

Harry Truppner

Hello ziggy75,
Looking good. Are the front floor liner side lips catching on the body? It looks like it is on the left/drivers side. Don't cut them, they are the bonding points to the body. Center the wheel wells. Body needs to lay straight down at that point. The front of the body will level out and help with hood clearance. Harry

11-07-2016 01:34 PM - permalink

ziggy75

I got everything to fit this afternoon. No pictures to show at this time. What I ended up doing was removing the steering column support, unbolting the tub from the frame, and opening up some fiberglass that wraps around the tunnel area on the body itself. This allowed the tub to move forward somewhat.

I found that on the body where the fiberglass wraps around that tunnel and comes down and flats across the flooring was tight. So I got it all to fit, only problem is that the body does sit up higher in the back which goes back to a lot of builds (and what you guys were saying) where it needs to be either shimmed or the back frame support around tank needs to be adjusted to allow the tail of body to sit lower.

In the end, I may not have needed to loosen up the tub. Modifying the fiberglass may be all that I needed for it to fit.

11-08-2016 04:22 AM - permalink

mdross1

Good to hear it will keep getting better as you go along. I found that solving each of the issues made me want to finish the car even more.

11-08-2016 06:59 AM - permalink

Harry Truppner

Hello ziggy75,
Now that the body is down as far as it can go, shims may be needed at the body to frame bolt/mount locations. As long as the body is level with the frame, it should be OK. You want to be sure that items like the bumpers that bolt to the frame and extend through the body are not out of alignment with each other. Harry

11-08-2016 12:49 PM - permalink

mdross1

I'm quite sure the bumper bolts can be moved to get them in the right position and they should be fairly close once the body is down on the frame. I don't remember it being a serious thing, well yes it was because of wanting things to be right by the time I had gotten to that stage. The fun of building your own car a lot of the things you work through you will never forget. I built my car 93/94 other than setting the big block engine height correctly setting the body down over the cowl with the bonding cement in place made me some anxious. Make sure you have ratchet straps ready when that phase happens to pull the two pieces together.

11-09-2016 02:20 PM - permalink

ziggy75

I spent a little bit more time today on the car. To be honest, I am a little overwhelmed at this point because I'm afraid that I will do this wrong. Perhaps I am overthinking this step. I mentioned previously that I was able to get the tub to sit into the body properly. I found that the 4 holes (two per side) at steering support to be off. I am able to drop two bolts on driver side. This side appears to be ok. The passenger side is way off. While pushing, twisting, lifting, and pulling, I was able to get the forward-backward positioning of the tub to be pretty darn close.
Holes are off...

These two sets were already drilled when we received the kit.

Page 1 of 2

All times are GMT -7. The time now is 11:26 AM.

Contact Us - Club Cobra Home - Archive - Top

The representations expressed are the representations and opinions of the clubcobra.com forum members and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and viewpoints of the site owners, moderators, Shelby American, any other replica manufacturer, Ford Motor Company. This website has been planned and developed by clubcobra.com and its forum members and should not be construed as being endorsed by Ford Motor Company, or Shelby American or any other manufacturer unless expressly noted by that entity. "Cobra" and the Cobra logo are registered trademarks for Ford Motor Co., Inc. clubcobra.com forum members agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyrighted material is owned by you. Although we do not and cannot review the messages posted and are not responsible for the content of any of these messages, we reserve the right to delete any message for any reason whatsoever. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s). Thank you for visiting clubcobra.com. For full policy documentation refer to the following link: CC Policy

Links monetized by VigLink