33 Coupe Before Paint 13        5/29/05

When I was building my rollcage awhile ago, I ran into a small problem (again). What happened was that one of the bolts that holds the body to the chassis ended up right where the front adapter plates for the rollcage was going to be. What I decided to do was drill a new hole about 2" forward of the the existing one and later once the body was off, fix it then. Now the new hole that I drilled was only 5/16" diameter and my bolts were 3/8" but what I had in mind was to enlarge the hole and put a threaded insert in there. The 5/16" hole was drilled with the body on and I drilled through the body and chassis at that time. Once I had the body off, I now had the hole in the right location which was critical. At the time of drilling these holes, I started a list of things that needed to be done once I had the body off. 
I opened the hole up to .550" diameter which was the size of the threaded inserts that I made (which is sitting next to the hole). I left a small shoulder on the threaded inserts so it wouldn't slide through and it's also a place where I can weld it to the chassis. 
 

 

 

One of the other things on my list of things to do once the body was off was to weld the rollcage adapters (six in all) to the chassis along with the threaded inserts (one on each side). I'll also have to enlarge the 5/16" holes in the body to clear the 3/8" bolts later on.
 

 

 

The rear of the chassis was going to get a different look, similar to how the front did. What I was going to do was remove the "L" section on the ends. Again, if I was going to be using a bumper, or if I was using a stock gas tank, I would need this area of the chassis but being that I'm not, it's time to do more cutting. I used my hacksaw again for this and all I can say is, I need a Sawzall. I guess using the hacksaw will keep me in shape a little better but the next time I plan on doing this much cutting, I'm buying a new saw.
 

 

 

This is how it looks now with the ends cut off. I'm going to leave the ends open just in case I need to pass anything through the chassis in the future.
 

 

 

It sure does give it a different look now that the ends are gone and I think it looks much cleaner. I removed about five pounds of material by cutting off the front and rear pieces. At this point, the chassis is ready for some paint and I hope I didn't forget anything.....
 

 

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14