Posted by Gordon McMillan on February 03, 1998 at 10:56:05:
In Reply to: Re: 42 WC53 Carryall posted by John K. Seidts on February 03, 1998 at 09:30:28:
The positioning of the back of the window boxes gives you the window location, via the front plates. You will already have seen all the bits of wood, etc that go together here, and I put quite a value on keeping the original dimensions. Same reason I recommend leading the joint - it was heavily leadded originally, which would make it hell to weld unless it was all melted out - far easier to put extra new lead in from the outside. As to the body it has zero structural strength, even before it aged fifty years. I'd hate to put one on it's side and have it fall apart (It has happened) not only that if you work on the body off the chassis it can move about and not fit the chassis when you offer it back up, the door aperture bottom corner joints are favourites here. The shell also derives some strength from the floor, pull the floor, and the roof, take the body off the chassis and stand it on it's side, and it will probably didtort and / or collapse under it's own weight. While it is upright clampoed to the chassis it can't do too much moving about, and you can repair the door apertures etc without worrying about whether it will fit when you re-assemble it (and while we are at it do not reskin the tailgate off the vehicle 8-) fit the frame to the aperture then re-try it when skinned before final welding. P.S. if you dont want wet floor in the back do what I did and replace the putty / ceramic 'sink' in the bottom of the window boxes with two or three handfulls of putty kneaded to shape and with a hole for the water to run out - bare metal boxes mean wet floors. Next question ? Gordon 8-))