29 Tudor body alignment

[fred93]

I have put the body back on the chassis and I am getting ready to align/shim the body.

Is there supposed to be a rubber pad between the most rear of the body and the bumper bracket that bolts to that rear section? See pix. The car did not have one there when I took the body off, but the box of pads that came with the car did have two for that position. I am thinking that when someone added the "Kari-Keen Trunk" and they installed the brackets for that trunk, a section of angle iron was installed over the bumper bracket thereby making the rubber pad unnecessary???

I have read most of the posts about body/door/hood alignment & I have some questions.

From what I have read the very front mounting bolt can be shimmed to align the hood (and door?) I am having trouble understanding that! Isn't the Tudor body pretty rigid? All metal, no wood structure? If so, wouldn't adding a shim at the #1 body bolt just raise the whole body up, thereby necessitating adding shims to all the other points (in decreasing thicknesses)??

If the body is rigid and I start adding shims to the front and nowhere else. Then when I tighten all the bolts, something is going to give somewhere!!!

My first thought when I got to this point was to set the body on the frame and add shims wherever there is a space .

I did notice one possible problem when I was in the disassembling stage. The right side rear bumper bracket had been rubbing on the underside body sheet metal. See pix. I also found that both & #9 (the most rear body mount) had broken channel sheet metal. I had repaired both of those areas, however the right rear bumper bracket is still very close to the underside sheet metal (and the body bolts have not been tightened down yet).

Do I need to add more shims/rubber pads to that area?

[fred93]

BTW some information that may be helpful:

When I removed the body I took note of the shims/rubber pads that were at the various body attachment points.

Positions #1 2 & 3 had two long rubber pads that covered all three bolt holes.

Position #4 which has the long wooden block that goes from side to side, did not have a rubber pad. It had only one layer of very thin webbing.

Position #5 had one rubber pad.

Position #9 had one rubber pad.

The most rear position (this is where the rear part of the body attaches to the bracket that is part of the rear bumper bracket) had nothing. It was metal to metal in that position.

When I started to get the pads ready to install on the wood blocks I put pads back the same way as I found them, with two exceptions. The #4 position that did not have a rubber pad, I installed one pad. I did this because I noticed that the running board apron where this wood block was located had left an impression/dent from the wooden block--so I figured that this block should be elevated by installing at least one rubber pad.

The rear most position (rear of body that attaches to the rear bumper bracket) that did not have a rubber pad, I installed one pad.

At this point I have NOT tightened any bolts.

I immediately found that making these two changes also changed other position spaces.

The #1-2 & 3 now needed additional shims (maybe not a whole other rubber pad, but maybe a thinner shim)

Position #9 needed one more rubber pad to fill in the gap.

Position #5 was now loose (needed thin shim).

Position #4 seemed to be okay.

I hope this additional information helps.

[SSsssteamer]

Yes the Tudor is flexible. The Tudor body still has a bit of wood in it. Door headers, windshield header and more have wood in them. In 1968 I did a body off on our '29 Tudor and when I put the body back onto the chassis, I had almost everything together for fitting. Hood, and the doors but I forgot to hang the windshield too. After everything was done and ready for a drive, I hung the windshield and the plain of the windshield was no longer level with its mating surface. The windshield lacked about 1/4" of closing tight against the windshield post on one lower corner. If I pulled the windshield closed any tighter, it would probably crack the windshield. Shimming the body for the proper windshield fit was a round to it that I never got around to it to fixing it right. I have never made that mistake again since. So even hang the windshield when you are shimming the body to the chassis.

[fred93]

Originally Posted by SSsssteamer

Yes the Tudor is flexible. The Tudor body still has a bit of wood in it. Door headers, windshield header and more have wood in them. In 1968 I did a body off on our '29 Tudor and when I put the body back onto the chassis, I had almost everything together for fitting. Hood, and the doors but I forgot to hang the windshield too. After everything was done and ready for a drive, I hung the windshield and the plain of the windshield was no longer level with its mating surface. The windshield lacked about 1/4" of closing tight against the windshield post on one lower corner. If I pulled the windshield closed any tighter, it would probably crack the windshield. Shimming the body for the proper windshield fit was a round to it that I never got around to it to fixing it right. I have never made that mistake again since. So even hang the windshield when you are shimming the body to the chassis.

WOW little did I know!!!! Thanks for your reply.

This alignment thing is a bigger problem/job than I realized. I guess I will be hanging doors/fenders/hood/running boards & windshield before tightening down the body.

So once everything is in alignment then I would need to check all body bolt positions and add shims to take up any space (if any) before tightening body bolts??

[SSsssteamer]

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Originally Posted by fred93

WOW little did I know!!!! Thanks for your reply......

So once everything is in alignment then I would need to check all body bolt positions and add shims to take up any space (if any) before tightening body bolts??

I would get everything lined up first. Trial and error. As you tighten the body bolts, the alignment fit will continue to change. Keep adding shims as needed and keep tightening the body bolts until everything is still in line and all of the body bolts are also tight. Sometimes there is a learning curve where the shimming of a body block gives one the opposite results than what was expected. Pay attention to what is happening and learn as you go.