Turret fixings

[Mick6186]

So I've removed the old original chassis, sourced a replacement and jacked it up into the body. It's a real tight fit with absolutely no movement possible so I've marked the fixing points, removed the chassis & drilled & tapped as required.
The chassis is once again positioned into the body, which is no easy task on your own with two trolley jacks!!
I now find all of the mountings fit except for the front turrets which are very slightly out of line. Looks like my marking was a bit out.
No amount of shoving & pushing will get the bolts in & I really don't want to go through the trauma of taking the chassis off again, welding the existing holes & going through the process again.
I don' t want to cut the bobbins out & re glass them because the chassis makes that difficult.
My question is if I enlarge the holes in the bobbins by about 4mm the bolts will go in but will not be a snug fit through the bobbins. Will it be OK if I just tighten the bolts hard with spring washers, or would it be best to sleeve the bobbins?
Mick.

[nigelrbfurness]

I've occasionally had this problem with chassis replacements. There will be little, if any movement of the body at this point once its all bolted up so I suggest you leave these until least then open out the holes slightly. I can't see any good reason to sleeve the holes. Don't forget the bonnet support brackets bolt here too.

Nigel F.

[KevJ+2]

Mick, you've probably checked this already, but at this point it's a good time to check your engine height to bonnet. I have just put my body back on but had to drop the engine on the mounts as I had nothing to play with at the front turrets or front mounts.
Good luck.
Kev.

[Elan45]

When I replaced the chassis in my S3-SS in 1984, I had much the same issue, that the body was very snug at the front where it mated w/ the turrets. I still had the old chassis to compare w/ new.

On the original chassis, there was a block of steel about 1 inch square, maybe 1-1/4 square, but on the new, there was a block of steel welded to the inside of the turret that was the entire length of the turret long, or about 3 inches long. It was this extra length that was interfering w/ the mating body surface. I used my 4-1/2 inch angle grinder to trim back the ends of this larger block on the new chassis, then replaced the body until it fit right, then drilled and tapped the mounting holes. We are still together today.

Roger