I'm having problems lining up the front end. All the body mount bolts are in, but the steering linkage does not line up. It's off > 1/2 inch.

It's looking like the frame is not sq. I had the frame checked at Vette shop when I purchased it. They said it was fine. But I'm not to confident. The frame is from a '69' that I'm putting on a '71'.
Also the clearance on the A-arms to the fender well is closer on the rt side then the left.

Any Ideas?????

 

pic's

 

I'll post some in the morning. I'm at work right now.

 

When you put the body back on the frame, just being able to install the body to frame bolts doesn't do the job. If you remember looking at your frame, the frame to birdcage nutcatchers have about a 1/2 inch tolerance (slop). The body to frame bolts, by themselves, will not align the body to the frame. The key is the frame to body birdcage alignment holes. There's two of them. They're 5/8 inch in diameter. One is slightly aft of the drivers's #2 mounting bolt. The other is slightly forward of the passenger #3 mounting bolt. For example, for a car that's come from the factory, remove the door sill plate that's on the body. (When you open the door, look down and you'll see the sill plate - it's extruded aluminum and it's held in with several screws). Remove the sill plate. You'll see two plastic plugs. They'll be black or red/orange. Remove them. One the driver's side the forward one will look into a 5/8 inch hole in the frame. On the passenger's side, the rearward plug will reveal another 5/8 inch hole in the frame. These two bodycage to frame 5/8 inch holes are the master alignment references for body to frame attachments. If the body is aligned to the frame, you should be able to take a 5/8 inch bolt and push it through the birdcage hole into the frame. ("5/8" inch bolts might perhaps have a shank of 0.620 in diameter - 5/8 inch is really 0.625 inches inches so the 5/8 inch bolt should fit in the 0.625 inch alignment hole). Anyhow, for body to frame alignment, the body birdcage to frame 5/8 inch holes have to match up pretty exactly. (My best opinion.)

 

I did use the guide holes on the door sil. But I still can not get the front end to line up. It seems the front horns my be causing my problem.
Here is a few pics.

Steering link.

RT A-Arm

Left A-Arm

 

I'm not sure if the later cars have this, but where the steering column of my '68 attaches at the floor, there is some captured nuts in a bracket that allows at least 1" of side to side movement. You might see if you have the same. Another comment is that judging by your a-arm to inner fender clearance, it appears that the body may still be "cocked" a bit on the frame.

Did you use solid or rubber mounts? The solid mounts I used had raised centers that fit into the mount holes in my #1 and #4 frame mounts on the drivers side. These left very little room for side to side movement assuring that the body and frame were aligned.

You could try an old carpenter's trick to check how square your frame is. Measure from the corner where the cross member in front of your rear wheels and front to rear frame rails meet. From this corner, measure diagonally to the end of the bolt that attaches your lower control arm. Then measure diagonally the other way. The two measurements should be the same. If not, something's not lined up.