Plus two body won't sit flush on chassis.

[G4ILN]

The body of my plus two won't sit flush on the chassis. There is a gap between the horizontal side members of the chassis and the body extending in front of and behind the gearbox cross member.

I believe I've traced the problem to the captive nuts attached to the chassis, which take the set screws holding the gearbox rear cross member to the chassis. These are fouling the body. The four captive nuts which hold my FOUR SPEED cross member sit nicely in a recess in the body which is obviously designed for the purpose. However the two rear captive nuts for the FIVE SPEED cross member sit outside the recess and are in contact with the body. It certainly wouldn't be possible to screw a set screw into these holes without it boring a hole into the body. The only way these captive nuts could sit in the recess is if the body were moved about 3/16" rearward. This is impossible though as the body is in close contact with the rear suspension towers.

Now here's the strange thing. This is a replacement Lotus chassis fitted by myself about 35 years ago and I don't remember seeing this problem before. The original chassis dating from 1969 would have had four captive nuts for the cross member, but the replacement chassis had eight to accommodate four or five speed boxes. It's possible that in my, then, youthful enthusiasm I just tightened up the body fixing bolts bending the chassis until it touched the body.

All 16 holes for the body to chassis fixing bolts line up correctly so the chassis cannot be bent or the body distorted. The body was removed from the chassis so that the chassis could be blasted and repainted, but this problem isn't down to the thickness of a coat of paint.

I'm minded just to remove the two problem captive nuts, but I thought I'd ask here first to see if anyone has had a similar problem or has an alternative explanation for it. Did five speed cars have a longer recess in the body for example?

Thanks, Graham.

[elanman999]

Graham,
I had the same problem in 1979 when rebuilding my '68 +2. I just ground off the offending nuts from the chassis.
I can only assume that bodies made after the first fitting of the five speed box had both sets of recesses moulded in.
Cheers
John

[G4ILN]

Thanks for that John.

At least I now know that I'm not the only one to have found this problem.

I have removed the offending captive nuts and the body now sits snuggly on the chassis. When I originally fitted the chassis around 1979, I obviously just tightened up the centre body fixing bolts bending the chassis side members up towards the body to close the gap. This is evidenced by some dishing under the bolt heads which squashed flat again once the chassis fitted correctly. Back then the car was a daily runner and I needed to get it back on the road ASAP following the collapse of a front suspension tower. I was working under far from ideal conditions and probably didn't notice the gap.

I note that the official instructions for fitting a five speed box call for drilling additional holes in the chassis and fitting tab held captive nuts to them. This would have been quite impossible enlarging the recess in the body.