Not so Amish body raising

Hot day today in St Louis, what better time to work outside?  With the frame done, engine mounted, and steering sorted, it's time to find out how the body fits.  With help from a half dozen friends (Kurt, Amanda, Matt, Rob, and Scott) it felt a bit like an Amish barn raising with no tools, although I guess they wouldn't touch cars, so it's really nothing like that.  Thankfully a simple job with six people it probably took less than a minute. 

Here is the frame sideways in the garage, with the body directly behind.  Close fit, but it does fit sideways in the garage. Many hands makes light work lifting the body up and onto the frame.  Likely we will have to do this a couple more times, so it's good to know it doesn't weigh much even with the windshield and backlight still in.

 Here are a few pictures of the fit around the engine and transmission.  The body needs to slide forward about an inch (see the second picture below), which will tighten up the big gap between the motor and firewall.  It should sit just about right with the body in the correct position.  The top of the transmission is hitting just a little, so once that is clearanced the body will easily move in to position. It's exciting for me just to see the body back on the frame, even if just for a few days. Progress!

Next time, remember to put the computer forward on top of the motor.

 Lots of clearance for the floor and firewall to the header.  I wish the clearance to the frame was this good.  Probably still need some good heat shielding around the catalytic convertors, but that is a long way off to worry about.

 Here you can see where the firewall hits the transmission.  We left plenty of metal so it should be an easy job to cut more out, and use the new floorpans.  We may need to add about 4" to the middle to get the necessary clearance.  It won't hurt to have a little extra either.

 Here is where the shifter sits.  I was guessing where the seat goes, and I think it will be in a very comfortable position, not too far back in the chassis.  Plenty of room around the driveshaft as well.  More than anything it is a bit unnerving to know what is spinning just the other side of a thin piece of sheet metal.

 It's a little easier to see in this picture where the shifter needs to move to.  Look where the two ridges are at the front of the floor, and where they are in the old floor plan on top, 4-5" back from the original position.  I think we will use the original floor pan around the shifter to fill the gap, which just leaves a small strip in front to fill.  I don't think it will be a bad job, but we have to mark everything, then take the body off again to cut and weld the panel in.  Hopefully I can find enough people around to test fit the panels before we weld them in solid and mount the body to send everything back to the body shop. Seems like a lot of extra work, but the more test fitting, the better the final product will be.