WOOHOO Mounted on Frame!!

[Bob_C]

An awesome day today! Got my body tub mounted on my frame with hardly any problems!!







Fixed the rear panel too. A week or so ago I had some issues drilling the holes for the spare wheel / jerry can. After deciding making a bracket would look ugly, I decided to reweld the holes desipte the fact that I would burn some paint inside the hat channels.

Just a couple of questions before I bolt down. The back of my jeep doesn't quite line up with the rear cross member. Someone in the past backed it into something and the old back panel was dented pretty badly. The two "curves" (rear wheel wells) were dinged up, and bent inward too. So Ive decided that i'm going to use a clamp to get it to realign a little bit and redrill the hole in the taillight brackets. BUT before I do this, I wanna make sure of some stuff.

1 - Was the M38A1's body offset a little bit in respect to the rear cross member? If so, how much in relation to the rear panel seems and to what direction?
2 - Do any ruber pads go under the machine gun mounting plate on the frame?
3 - Do any rubber pads go under the two bracket looking things that are above the rear shocks? It looks like the body rests on them...and even there are holes drilled in them, I dont see corrosponding holes in the body.

Thanks!

Oh, and yes -- I did use some bondo. I was aggravated about it first, but I just don't have the skills that an artisan does in respect to getting out dents. I got what I could with my trusty anvil and hammer, but anything else had to be bondo-ed over. There's probably about 1lb - 1.5lbs of filler. Probably the thickest spot is 1/8th - 3/16thish. But hey, its all solid metal...and thats what counts. No swiss cheese corrosioin anywhere.
_________________
Bob Collins
1954 M38A1 MD79056

[davem201m38]

Its looking good Bob, congratulations. Its a great feeling when the body goes back on for the first time and you start to get a feeling of what its going to look like.
Doubt it effects you and I know its not factory, but before I mounted my tub I used WAXOIL and rust proofed as much of the underside as I could, where the timber reinforcing had disapeared from the hats I ran a tube down and gave them a good dose to try and help keep the rot out before it started, but then we have lots of salt on our roads,
All the best,
Dave.