Rear body fitting

[MartinClan]

OK guys - so how do you line up the back of the rear body tub? Do you just fit it so the spare wheel well rests on the rear crossmemeber or is there something more sophisticated I should do.

If I fit it so that the spare wheel well rests on the rear crossmemeber then there is a bigger gap at the top of the doors to the bottom - so I guess the back of the tub needs to come up a bit. But as far as I can see there is no specifc position it should be so what have you other guys done?

BTW - my doors don't fit - about 6mm to long with the Marlin standard hinge - looks like another mod coming up....

At the moment its looking like bad news for the intertia real belts - the spools foul on the spare wheel well - doh...

Cheers

Robin

[Patrick]

It's a long drawn out process with lots of shouting and tub refitting!

The rear bumpers are the key to lining it up, this page pretty much covers what we did with bumper fitting: http://www.msportster.co.uk/detail.asp?cat=10&offset=60 - the spare wheel well does not sit on the chassis, its up a bit

As for the length of the doors, have you got the striker plates from Marlin? The one welded to the chassis need to be cut back - a lot. Then the new striker plates bolt on further back than the originals. The front of the tub needs the bottom trimming down to fit. I had trouble with the angle on the passenger good so I ended up putting a rivnut on the striker plate combined with a counter sunk bolt and cup washer which helps pull it in line.

The doors, which I though were wrong originally were not as wrong as I though. I though they had to be flat, which they didn't. They need to be bent in towards the car a bit at the top rear. My ones didn't match, one was not in as far as the other. So I had them straightened out. After switching the striker plates and moving the tub further back the doors needing bending again.

You can see the striker plate rivnuts here: http://www.msportster.co.uk/detail.asp?cat=10&offset=72

The drivers door was scraping on the tub ever so slightly (you can see the mark in the pictures on the page above) I fixed this with a bodywork hammer. Just tapped the edge until it went right past

[MartinClan]

Thanks Patrick

So what you are saying is the CENTRES of the bumper holes are about 25mm up from the indent where the fog light goes and 930mm apart. Am I correct? (It's so mech easier when someone else has done it first - be even easier if Marlin provided some decient instructions...)

I have the original, welded to the chassis, striker plates. Rather than mess with these I think I am going to modify the door hinges by slicing them down the middle and reducing thier depth by about 6mm. My hinges look completely different from yours BTW - being a one peice design (crudely) made out of folded U section with some tubes welded on.

Looking at your web site the ride height of your car looks pretty spot on to me. At the moment mine is still a little high at the back. If you measure from the chassis member that runs parallel to the door it is about 7.5" at the front but 8.5 at the back - so the back needs to drop another inch or so.

Cheers

Robin

[peterux]

Robin,

when I was down in Marlin a couple of weeks back, I got some tuition from Simon on fitting the bodywork.
Apparantly the key is to cut the bumper holes first, slot the bumpers in and this sets the rear tub height correctly and then you adjust it to fit at the front by filing down the fibre glass. If you have the time I strongly recommend you speak to Simon.
It does actually say that in the build manual but it's very subtle and hidden away.
The bumper holes should be 30mm up from the top of the fog/reverse light indents.
They gave me new striker plates to bolt on in place of the welded on sections on my chassis. (But I have only just bought my bodywork)

My doors are like a couple of bannas and also have the new type of hinges.
Like I say, i'd give Marlin a ring and explain what you've got and see what they say.

cheers

Peter

[Patrick]

EDIT: ^^ guess who beat me to posting by a few seconds

I suppose I'll know as soon as I finish bolting everything in I think two up it might be a bit low, but if the dampers are set hard enough it shouldn't sit up on pot holes!

What I did with the body (fitting the rear bumpers) was based on an email conversation I had with Peter who had spoken to Simon at Marlin about it.

I did make a few adjustments - such as actually measuring up everything rather working based on their measurements. The masking tape + pen trick works really well Normally I used two 18mm bits of ply as spacers between the chassis and the wheel well tub to lift the back a bit. It doesn't need that much an 18 + 8 or 9 should be about right - that should line the body work up with the doors.

Peter - as I said above the doors should have a bit of a banana shape to them to flow along the tub. I ended up taking the one that was straighten and bent it over the edge of a table until it fit correctly. I then used a metal work hammer and one of the metal block to straighten the inside out.

[peterux]

I guess we were typing at the same time

[MartinClan]

Cut the holes for the bumpers - it was actually pretty easy. I first made them slightly undersize and then opened them up using some abrasive paper wrapped arround a piece of 35mm copper tube. This gave me the opportunity to correct any errors.

The only difficult bit is getting the hole saw parallel to the centre line of the car whilst making the holes. Its tricky to do this accurately which means you can't place the hole mm accurate. But making it slightly undersize and then opening it up does the trick.

The bad news is that, now the tub is in position its obvious that my intertia reel harnesses wont fit - the spools foul on the indent for the spare wheel - bugger.

Marlin are sending me a set of modified sriker plates for the doors - but I haven't decided if I will go this route yet or modify the hinges instead.

Cheers

Robin