Body Shell Inspection
 

Tomorrow, I will be looking at a 69 for a possible purchase. The rear of the car, (quarters, wheel housings, rear panel, deck filler panel, and full trunk floor) was removed. The front of the frame rails were left attached to the body. The panels are now installed and the rear of the body is now complete.

What would be some quick and simple checks to insure the body dimensions are still within specs? I would imagine with all of those pieces removed, there would have been a possibility of twisting, out of square issues, etc. It's a roller at the moment.

I thought of using a plumb to check for squareness. I know what the datum line measurements are but I'm not sure how to use them to detect twisting.

Thanks for any tips you can offer!

Larry

Re: Body Shell Inspection
 

if it is rolling check the measurements to the (hopefully flat) ground or have them put it on the rack where they put it together before you found it.

inside window to window or dash to rear window / roof line cross measurements may detect "twist" as well

inside rear window and inside windshield window measurements may be useful checks as well

the problem with those is that the factory assemblies were not &quot;exact&quot; when the body was &quot;born&quot; at Fisher Body way back when [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/wink.gif[/img]

Re: Body Shell Inspection
 

Are the doors, decklid on the car now?
Do they close correctly and are the gaps the close to the same all the way around?
Check the windshield and rear glass with the openings and make sure there are not too great of variances on the A, B, &amp; Z AXIS.

Pull an X dimension from any like points and compare to the alternate... you can determine SQUARENESS VERY QUICKLY.