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I had struggled with the body when first attempting it, couldn't get anything to fit properly at first. I was using my donor car at the time and couldn't do much else on the build, I spent hours and was never that happy. I am now at the stage of refitting the body and am making reasonably good progress. I don't know what problems you guys are having but my first problem i remember was the clearance for the roll bar on the rear section, I spoke to mark who said give it a generous clearance in that area as any small inaccuracies are not as noticable with say a 10mm gap as opposed to 4mm gap. I also read John Watsons build sequence where he bolted all the body sections together and then levelled and secured. I think this is the best way to get reasonable panel gaps, but you will need the clearance on the roll bar and also the dash, I was told by Mark it may be necessary to trim the dash where the inner side panels butt up to it, I didn't have to on mine though.
I am going to paint my panels and found that removing the side panels is pretty scary, you have to be extremely carefull because you catch the dash at one end and the roll bar at the other. I decided to modify the design to make these panels easier to remove. I have now secured them with three nuts on studs accessed from inside the car, this required three holes drilling in the panel for access with a socket. I can now rigidly mount the sides to the dash because the main outer panel can be mounted independently of the inner section. I don't suppose this is a problem if your not painting the car but I didn't want to take any chances with an expensive paint job.
I have at last been told my seats are ready and will be collecting at Stoneleigh, so hopefully be able to have finished before the end of summer. Brian.
Fitted both the sides temporarily this eve...found exactly the probs you described, interior side panels catch on the roll cage...PITA! So ground them further back.
More importantly I looked at the panels on the car and thought why can't the panels be fitted independantly! And voila, you've already done it!
"... I decided to modify the design to make these panels easier to remove. I have now secured them with three nuts on studs accessed from inside the car, this required three holes drilling in the panel for access with a socket. I can now rigidly mount the sides to the dash because the main outer panel can be mounted independently of the inner section..."
Brian did you mean "mount the sides to the dash"? Do you have any pics of your solution? I was thinking of three holes in the interior trim panel for access to new studs...use plastic blanking plugs to cover them...?
With regard to inner side panel mounted to dash, I have the standard fixings on the lower flange/lip of the inner panel as normal, without the outer panel fitted it is obviously quite loose. The front edge of the inner panel overlaps part of the dash allowing a hole to be drilled straight through and then nut and bolt with rubber washer between. This is only one possible method, you will have plenty of options such as brackets fixed to chassis upper rail for instance, just go with what you thinks best. It is quite easy to solidly fix the inner panel without the outer panel in the way. I haven't decided what to do with the three access holes yet but I reckon they could be a nice design feature with the right finisher. HTH, Brian.
