I am getting ready to finalize the body mount for my 65 convertible.

I have found and followed the various articles on the shimming process found here and elsewhere, and have it pretty close and even all the way around, but there is one thing I never read. That is exactly how low on the frame the body supposed to be? I can raise and lower the body with respect to the frame quite a bit by just adding and removing shims equally around the car.

Right now the body sits such that the foot well floor pan is about 1 inch from the bottom of the outer frame rails. This seems about as low as it could go, (I assumed the lower the better) but it could certainly be raised a bit. I find at this current position, that the shifter seems a bit high in the car and the drive shaft joints are pretty close to the tunnel. Also the exhuast seems to run pretty close to the fiberglass. I am thinking of adding maybe .5 inches worth of shim around the car but is that reasonable and safe what about 1 inch? Is there some spec. that gives the nominal height of the body over the frame?

Thanks
Darren

 

Darren, I have never seen this in writing before either. I just shimmed mine with 3-4 shims to make it sit even. You can see up to 4-5 shim marks in some of the old photos. A few extra shims allows for higher intake manifold clearance lol:

 

I had 6 shims on one side and 5 on the other and the car sat relatively low! I will be raising it slightly (1/4"-3/8") for the hood clearance, and I'll use solid spacers instead of shims.

The concern is where the bumper brackets bolt through the body. You don't want to go so far that you have to rat out the holes in the body and leave gaps you can see through.

 

good point on that bumper mounts....I will have to check mine and see how they look as is.

I too considered spacers instead of shims....do you still keep the rubber or poly for isolation or do you plan to go 100% solid?

 

I will keep the rubber isolation, but will take up the additional space with a spacer.

 

It has been mentioned before that raising the body helps the driveshaft/tunnel clearance.

Should also help air cleaner/hood space on a BB!!

 

I have raised bodies a quarter of an inch so the tunnel clears a Keisler 5 speed conversion-that along with new mounts helps. Never had an issue with bumpers lining up afterwards.

 

i raised mine 3/8 inch. The bumper brackets had to be rebent a bit.

 

I hate to ask the dumb questions, but just how difficult is it to replace the mounts and reshim the body? I need just a 1/4" and I'b be good with my fastburn heads clearance issue. Phil

 

Disconnect battery
Disconnect steering column
Disconnect oil pressure line
Remove front and rear bumpers
Put car on jackstands or lift
Disconnect seat belt anchors from frame - don't forget the center anchor
Remove rocker panels
Remove wheels
Remove body bolts on one side and loosen bolts on opposite side
Place jack with 2x4 wooden block on it under steel rocker channel on one side, jack up slowly until you can slide old mounts out and new ones in with additional shims if needed. Lower that side down, put a couple of bolts in and go to the other side and do the same.
Where is Cortez FL????

 

Cortez is a fishing village on the bay side of Sarasota bay at Anna Maria island. The island is on the Gulf near Bradenton/Sarasota.

 

The steps above are pretty good, I would add don't forget the clutch and throttle linkages, you can just disconnect instead of remove and it is probably not totally needed but I do it just so no extra strain is placed on those parts or the fiberglass where they pass through the body. And it is often the next to last thing on the list above that sounds easy but can be a royal pain if the body mount bolts are rusted solid. I had to cut out one and some of the rest were eroded to 1/2 thickness. Alot of patience and penatrating oil was required to get them out, but then I don't think they had ever been out in 40 years so that is to be expected I guess.

Darren

 

Crap, I knew I missed something!

 

On another vehicle I did, the fan and fan shroud had to be checked during the slight lift to change the body mounts.