Doesn't look too bad, Maybe tomorrow it will look better.

GPster · April 01, 2008, 03:08:32 PM

Well the Jeepster frame is a pile of pieces behind the garage. Three 4 1/2" cut off wheels made short work of it. The rear floor bracing that I had made years ago out of 2" x 2" x 1/8" angle years ago is keeping the back of the body from going down onto the frame. The problem is the pickup gas tank crossmember, Right now it's too much to figure if it's a re-vamp the floor or remove the crossmember and use the "Jimmy" gas tank that I have. Because I've shortened the S15 frame to Jeepster specs (104") I want the body level so I can position the body to center the rear wheels in the rear fender openings. The Jeepster body is short enoungh that the front body mounts at the firewall lay on the flat of the frame behind the front frame clip. The floor under the front seat is also on the flat horizontal section of frame and the passenger section of the back of the body (that I eliminated long ago) is now a raised flat floor that is surprisingly close to the same height as the pick-up bed had been. Maybe body mount rubber insulators will bring up the front of the body so that the crossmember problem in the back will only be half bad. Now, to those that want pictures, my garage is only 16' wide and has shelves, equipment and tool boxes along both sides. When it will roll back outside I'll post some. GPster

kb426 · April 01, 2008, 06:57:55 PM

I understand about the garage space. Mine is 18' wide. I have a nice collection of equipment but almost have to move everything outside to work on it. I grew up under the shade tree so I still pretty happy.

Dave · April 02, 2008, 06:06:21 AM

Quote from: "kb426"I understand about the garage space. Mine is 18' wide. I have a nice collection of equipment but almost have to move everything outside to work on it. I grew up under the shade tree so I still pretty happy.

Mine is 20 wide and i can work with my truck in there along with the harley but its tough.. Im still thinking addition..
Dave

GPster · April 03, 2008, 09:41:44 PM

Either the body,without a floor is crooked or the frame is bent on a diagonal. I was going to figure out a quick/easy way to fasten the firwall to the frame so that the body wouldn't slide back out of alignment with the rear wheel wells while I worked on getting the body down around the rear frame crossmember. I've got one side of the frewall sitting 1 5/8" further back than the other. I think I'll visit a body shop with a lazer chassis alignment machine and talk to the guy that runs it. I hope there's a way he can diagonal measure my frame where it's sitting now and tell me if it's off. If the frame's straight then I'll bend the body. The body appeared straight on the stock frame but it may have wandered in the moving it to it's new home. My floor/crossmember problem may get fixed by sectioning the crossmember. It's higher than it need to be because in the truck it helped support the floor of the bed. It's actually higher than the top of the frame rails. Maybe it'll look better in the morning. GPster

kb426 · April 03, 2008, 09:57:42 PM

Is it not possible to do corner to corner measurements of the frame and body? How about a stringline down the center if that is in question?

GPster · April 04, 2008, 08:50:30 AM

I would say that it would be impossible to do a measurement on the body. I would make it conform to the frame if I was sure it was straight. The truck had been in a minor (?) accident shortly before it was junked (for other reasons) but all of the original sheetmetal was still on it. The only frame damage that I saw was on the right front corner where the bumper bolted on. That part of the frame was schedualled to be removed for this body change anyway. The doors worked and the hood worked and the original bumper was still on it. With the front 6" of the frame gone and the wheelbase changed any end-to-end measurements would be impossible but a diagonal measurement between the wheels can be done. The body/frame shop has computor access to those measurements and I could probably get him to run me a copy but maybe he has ? (forget what they're called) to drop those points to the floor so I can measure between them. I tried quickly to have Google find me the points and measurements last night but no success. Maybe I'll try an S10 site this morning. Wayne probably has them in the back of his VW van storage building but I hate to be a pest. My firewall mounting holes are a short distance form measurement holes on the frame rails. If I find a drawing that tells me that these holes are symetrical from the center and straight accross from one another I might just nail the body there and see what the rest of it looks like. GPster

Crosley.In.AZ · April 04, 2008, 02:45:00 PM

is it done yet?

GPster · April 12, 2008, 09:15:27 AM

Linda went to Columbus for two days to help out on a charity cause so I had two days to work on what I've been planning for two weeks. It seems that if I get one questionable measurement that it throws off my ability to make any correct measurements. Got a print-off of frame measurements from a frame straightening tech and some of the holes that I was measuring from were only access holes. When I found the correct holes (on the bottom) the frame measured square/straight. Surprisingly, when I knew the frame was straight the body turned out straight too. I cut off the top of the offending crossmember and welded in a new top at a lower level. Now the bed mounts and the flat top of the crossmember can act as body mounts to the re-inforced floor stiffeners. Now I know this has been covered here before but I have no idea how to find it in the archives. Suggestions on making threaded body mount places in "Boxed" frames. The firewall mounts fall dead center of the S10 frame where it's boxed (front clip). It's close enough to one of the frame measuring holes on the bottom that I might be able to fish a bolt through the bottom hole and up through the hole in the rail top but it would then be impossible to get a wrench/socket on the bolt head to tighten it. I've seen those nuts with folding edges on them that you could insert in a hole and peen the edge over and it would lock itself in the hole. We used some to fasten the fenders on the BBQ trailer. What are they called? Do they make them as big as 3/8" (coarse, fine)? Do they make some that you can install with-out owning a special tool? Ideas where to get them (I only need 2). Or any other simple ides to do this? I'd rather not have to make a big hole and weld something that's threaded in it and I haven't convinced myself to make a hole in the frame sidewall to make wrench access to a bolt head. The original jeepster frame and the frame under the '53 Chevy car/truck were both "Top Hat" frame that were rusted through from the inside and most of the S10s in the junkyard have frame that are rusted in two. I now have three hours to shower/shave and clean up the house til linda gets home. GPster

Dave · April 12, 2008, 09:33:07 AM

Can you drill a hole all the way thru the frame Joe. Make it a clearance size for the diameter of the bolt your going to use then drill up thru the bottom of the frame with a larger drill that will be big enuff to accept a socket that will hold the nut for the bolt your using. Sometimes a thin wall deep socket will allow a smaller hole on the bottom. I did this on my roadster for the headlight mounts and it worked great..
Dave

enjenjo · April 12, 2008, 09:43:07 AM

They are called nutzerts Joe. I have some, and you can install them with a nut, bolt, and a few washers Shoot me an address, and I'll send you some, along with instructions to install them.

GPster · April 12, 2008, 07:21:55 PM

Quote from: "enjenjo"They are called nutzerts Joe. I have some, and you can install them with a nut, bolt, and a few washers Shoot me an address, and I'll send you some, along with instructions to install them.

The name got me moving. I checked on McMaster Carr and found them. Decided to do all the body mounts with them. I found out that they are sized (?) by the metal thickness and I haven't decided where all the mounts will be yet. Because the boxing of S10 frames is a "C" with another "C"welded in it I'm not sure whether the mounts will be where the the metal is only one thickness or where the pieces lap over one another giving a double thickness. That and the "C" channel frame in the back end looks like an entirely different thickness. I'll just oder a pack (10) of each from them and I'll have which ever I need. Thanks, GPster

GPster · April 12, 2008, 07:33:59 PM

Quote from: "jusjunk"Can you drill a hole all the way thru the frame Joe. Make it a clearance size for the diameter of the bolt your going to use then drill up thru the bottom of the frame with a larger drill that will be big enuff to accept a socket that will hold the nut for the bolt your using. Sometimes a thin wall deep socket will allow a smaller hole on the bottom. I did this on my roadster for the headlight mounts and it worked great..Dave

I thought about this and was inquiring to see if anyone thought doing this was a bad idea. When I decided to do all the mounts I had a little misgiving. Not that I'm worried about weakening the frame BUT this is a convertible body (touring?) and it doesn't have a roof structure to keep it from going sway-back. I'm sure it will require a lot of shiming at the body mounts so that the doors will fit and stay closed. Having to line up the nut and bolt in the frame every time I want to add/subtract a shim would make a hard job even harder for me. thanks for responding. GPster