colorado1967

I recently completed 69 frame off but see I need to shim a few places to get a perfect frame / body fit. The original mounts and shims were dust and I could not see what was shimmed previuosly. I also went to rubber mounts.

Are there any good links for aligning / shimming body? I have done several searches of the forum and not had much luck.

Thanks for any suggestions / links!

shafrs3

I saw a blurb about this on the Dream Car Garage when they restored a maroon convertible L-88. As I recall it took a fair amount of time to get the gaps straight. My guess would be to set the body on the car and put a couple of bolts in loosely to keep it from shifting, re-hang the doors and see what needs adjusting at that point. Wish I had this info when I did the body-off on mine several years back; I just replaced the shims where the factory had them originally. The front fender to door gaps are the ones to watch, mine aren't bad but could be better.

John 65

Mine were completly dust also with no way of truly knowing the amount that was there. I remember years ago, me and my son pulling that body on and off the chassis ALL NIGHT LONG, till we finally said this is about as good as we are going to get it. What a difference a shim or minus one at the correct mount can do. Mearuring from my concrete slab floor to the bottom of the body did help getting it in the ball park. Its a good feeling putting the body back on the car, mine was off for 5 and a half years. That day is remembered a lot longer than the day it came off. Good luck.

Red 69

The number one and four body mounts are exposed and relatively easy to shim. If your door gaps look good before mounting the body, and you do not know what was there before, try this. Place a golf ball size lump of modeling clay inside a sandwich bag and tape it over the mount. Now, lower the body onto the frame keeping alignment with mounts 1 and 4. After the car has settled, check your door gaps. If they are good, raise the car and measure the clay as a model for your shims. If the door gap is too tight at the front top, add a shim at #2 to open it up, or remove to tighten it up. This method can sure save time as long as you take notes and think of them as a system.

colorado1967

Thanks for the input and ideas. I put the body on and looked pretty good until I started to consider painting and the door gaps won't due,

My friend who has done many frame-offs said these cars never go back the way they came apart and he was right! Time and patience which I starting to run short on both.

Corvettes White

I kept track of the shims that I took off and then put back in the same number. Didn’t matter.

So we spent an afternoon just moving shims about until it looked as good as it was going to get. Not that hard and it came out pretty good when we were done. As someone said above, one shim can make a big difference.

George

7t2vette

It took me a long time to re-shim my body when I was putting it back on, I think I dropped and raised the body at least ten times to get it where I wanted. My original shims and mounts were nothing but dust, so I had no starting point. This is what I did:

Put body mounts and no shims at locations 2 and 3 on both sides and drop body,look (measure) at what locations 1 and 4 need and add them in.Torque down all the bolts at every step because it changes the fit, it's a pain because there are eight spots, but it is the only way. Check fit of body, which really means check the door gaps front and back. Your goal is to use as few shims as neccessary. When contemplating how to open or close a certain gap, picture how adding or subtracting shims will "bend" the body to change the gap in the desired way. You may even find that you need to use a different amount of shims on each side because of the way the body has been bonded together. Another area that really helps with the appearance of the door gaps is the amount of shims used under the door hinges, but this is something you tweak after the body is bolted on.

72LS1Vette

Corvette Enthusiast magazine had a tech article several months ago on how to shim a body. I think you start with the 2 inner mounts on each side and adjust the outer 2 mounts to get the gaps even. If you're lucky they might have a link to the article on their website.

Rick B.

69/03vette

I'm in the same situation except I don't have my doors on. Is their any measurements to do this without reinstalling the doors?

1Z87L8