Drilling and tapping with body in place (Plus 2)......

[berni29]

Hi There

I know that this can and has been done before using angled drill attachments and also sometimes from below, but with a bare(ish) plus 2 shell and a chassis with engine and gearbox fitted it should be pretty straightforwards and not require any special equipment at all yes?

I have electric raising headlights so will need to double check their operation.
I have the refurbed heater in so will attach pipes.
I will fit the exhaust headers.
I am going to order new original spec chassis felt (having discounted the use of neoprene etc)

From what I understand I should be able to shim the body after the drilling operation fairly easily. Just a note it is a Zetec Spyder chassis and has a Zetec Blacktop engine.

Does anyone know the approximate weight of the body with the glass and heater in but without doors bonnet and boot. Its a 1968 car so the heavier variety...... I plan to use a biggish extending engine hoist going in through the doors anchored to the sill seat belt mountings. The weight limit will be 500kg for the lift fully extended. I have done it before on a different +2 body, bit it was absolutely bare and a later car.

Have I missed anything or any further advice please!

Many thanks

Berni

[gus]

I don't recall any special tools
Rack mounts drill from below straight down
Front uprights with radiator removed straight shot from engine bay
Dash out, center spine straight down
all lower center tunnel straight from bottom
rear towers, interior removed, straight from inside
Sounds at the top of the limit for your lift.
I had no lift then, so after prep jacked the body up 3 feet in the air, one corner 6 inches at a time
Set it on a stack of concrete blocks with 2x4 across wide enough to roll assembled chassis in after I had offered it up for hole drilling

[Donels]

You need to shim the body to chassis before you drill. The holes in the floor are straight vertically drilled but the holes in the rear uprights and engine bay to front uprights can be problematic. After shimming these holes did not line up and required work to move the bobbins in the engine bay, and easing the rear bobbin holes to get the bolts in.

If you drill before shimming you are just stuck with where you put the holes, shimming is then hit and miss.

[berni29]

Hi Guys

Thank you for the pointers, especially the one about shimming before drilling! Seems so obvious now.......

All the best

Berni

[stugilmour]

While shimming, first make sure the frame (with the weight of the body on it) is level. I have found an appropriately sized wood block handy to check the front cross member height side to side. Not sure if your rear ride height is adjustable.

I think this is where we got it a bit wrong. One side of the front suspension ride height was slightly low, so levelling the body to the ground and engine height put us a bit off. Checking the vertical gaps from the top of the tires to the peaks of the wheel wells helps to keep the body straight relative to the frame.

Anyway, might be a statement of the perfectly obvious. We may have got distracted a bit as we had to lower the body into position outside on the driveway as there is insufficient ceiling height in the garage, and there were quite a few folks helping.

These threads mention the use of Imperial sized machinist transfer punches to accurately mark the centre of the bobbin holes to start the drill. Really help. I put a picture of them in the second thread.

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=22810

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46179&start=15

HTH and good luck.