Body Installation

We got tired of driving a frame with wheels

Putting the body on the car was a big step in the building process.  The body fits on as one piece and then is attached to the frame in several critical areas (bumpers, under the doors and along the inside of the hood).  We plan to finish building the car without painting it and then taking it back apart to paint.  This way we are sure that everything fits before we paint the body.

Here is the body just after it was delivered in June 2001.  On the right, is when we test fit the body on the frame before the engine was installed. 

Body on Buck_.jpg (11954 bytes)

Whole Car with Body01_.jpg (66997 bytes)

Under the hood it looks a lot better now that the engine is installed.  We still have to install the hood hinge and hood.

   Whole Car with Body04_.jpg (66192 bytes)

Whole Car with Body09_.jpg (70664 bytes)

Here is the body without a windshield, lights or front bumpers.

Whole Car with Body16_.jpg (73459 bytes)

Whole Car with Body19_.jpg (74946 bytes)

The side pipes were tough to get to fit well.  The passenger side fit fairly well after some adjustments.  The driver side hits at the top and back.  It touched the body in a couple spots and melted the fiberglass.  We are going to rotate the engine slightly and try get better alignment in the side pipes Sidepipe01_.jpg (52066 bytes) Sidepipe02_.jpg (52365 bytes)
One of the cool fixtures on this car is the chrome gas cap.  It is so shiny, you can see my reflection.

GasCap01_.jpg (45190 bytes)

Whole Car with Body20_.jpg (73779 bytes)
The trunk doesn't have a lot of room, but we don't plan on taking it on log trips with luggage.  The battery is under the trunk so we attached some remote terminals in case we had to jump start the car.  The remote terminals are the red and black caps seen in the picture on the right.  Whole Car with Body02_.jpg (60628 bytes) Trunk01_.jpg (39045 bytes)
What do you do after you work on the car all day??  You go for a test drive of course. TestDrive01_.jpg (63513 bytes)
After Damian and I got tired of driving the car, he took Amal for a ride.  She even drove it a little.   TestDrive03_.jpg (114303 bytes) TestDrive04_.jpg (63415 bytes)
After the body is installed, three pieces of aluminum are installed to support the radiator and force air through it. NoseAluminum01a.jpg (53285 bytes) NoseAluminum02a.jpg (49449 bytes)
Here is the body with the windshield and lights installed.  The hood is just set in place since we have not installed the hood hinge at this point Whole Car with Body30a.jpg (51403 bytes)
The splash panels behind the front wheels have been installed and it moved the body out quite a bit which gave us more clearance around the side pipes.  

We have also installed chrome trim rings around the roll bar to keep the trunk dry when we wash the car.

 SplashPane02_.jpg (42011 bytes) RollbarTrim01_.jpg (40456 bytes)

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