Now that I've ran out of ways to procrastinate further, it's time to get serious about body fitment. For me, this is yet another intimidating task. So, I've been researching the forum and trying to digest the steps one at a time. And, trying to get them in the right sequence, as there are important dependencies. As the info. piled higher and higher, it became clear I needed to document them into steps to help with brain overload.
The following is a collection of steps for MK4 body fitment I found on the forum. I plan to drive in gelcoat for at least one season, so it's up to yours truly to get the body fitment done, or at least close. As you would expect, so much great help from Mr. Kleiner, and other seasoned builders--plenty of copy-and-pasting from their advice below. For a guy who knows nothing about body work (this knuckle-dragger), I stand half a chance of getting through it thanks to their contributions.
See anything missing, out of sequence, etc.? Your feedback is very much welcomed. Here goes:
1. Before fitting the body (with bulb seal in place), sand a radius along bottom edges that will pass over the bulb seal. This will minimize damage to bulb seal.
A. Use towels, heavy mil plastic, or other material to protect bulb seal when putting body on. Once the body is on it can be lifted slightly with ease to remove.
2. Trim the underside return of the cowl roll ~¼”- ⅜” for clearance to the dash, and do the same for the rolled lip against the rear cockpit wall.
A. If not trimmed, the front lip could restrict forward body movement, preventing it from getting to the desired position
3. Drop the body over the chassis and send it forward so that the body's door flange is just ahead of the chassis' striker tab, about ¼”.
4. Check the rearmost lip of the trunk floor aluminum to see if it comes in hard contact with the body below the trunk opening.
A. I've been finding that a bit of trimming (1/4"-3/8") on that piece as well and the corresponding vertical edges of the trunk side panels is helpful with body positioning and lower valance panel adjustment.
5. Run all-thread through the body and into the rear couplers [mine are 7/16”-14 couplers].
A. Do not tighten yet. They are only there at this point to hold the tail up.
B. I’m using Kleiner’s coupler mod at the rear with threaded rod and nuts on the inside.
6. Center the front of the body
A. Measure from the front top shock mount (or chassis point) to the edge of the fender flare and get these as close L and R as possible.
* Don’t measure from the ¾” tubing
7. Nose spacing above ¾” tubes
A. Use ½” - ⅝” rubber spacers on top of the ¾” tube just next to the hood hinge bracket.
B. This takes the weight off the QJ tubes and holds the nose at a good height
8. Locate the nose
A. Install the front QJ bolts and spacers and button them down to locate the nose.
* Neither Kleiner or Miller use the horseshoe (AKA C bracket) between the chassis and turn signal lights.
9. Install windshield
A. Tap ½”-13 holes in the windshield brackets to ease windshield install. If tapped, no nuts are required. **Note: this recommendation is not universally accepted on the forum, but is the way I'm going to do it.**
B. Alternate method from CraigS: If you don't want to buy a ½”-13 thread tap, use 8 standard nuts. This way, while you do your trial fitting, you can thread 4 of them on by hand and use a wrench for just the last turn or two. Once you have the w/s installed for the last time thread the other 4 nuts on as jam nuts.
10. Doors
A. Don’t yet lock down the body on the underside along the rocker panels.
i. This is where lots of give & take comes into play because you are trying to strike a balance at 4 different places
* The upper front of the door where it meets the cowl
* The upper rear where it meets the rear cockpit opening
ii. To further complicate things we're dealing with both horizontal as well as vertical interfaces along the upper part of the doors. Adjusting for one invariably affects at least one other.
iii. I've had the best luck adjusting for the door tops first
* While dealing with the top area of the doors, do not completely ignore the lower door edge's intersection with the main body but keep in mind that the lower body can be moved in/out independently with little to no effect to the upper cockpit openings.
* I've found that the passenger door has been easier than the driver's side; once the adjustments were made to get the tops in order it just took a bit of outward movement to the lower body to have it meet the bottom edge of the door.
* On the other hand, with the drivers side once the tops were fitting, the bodies had to go in at the lower front corner of the doors and move out a great deal at the rear. I've found that these cars and bodies are quite consistent and one of those constants is that you'll need to push the rocker panel in as far as possible in front of the driver's door and pull it out at the rear.
* I can assure you that you aren't going to get all 4 corners to meet perfectly but your goal is to get them as close as possible so that they operate without interference, and to minimize the bodywork necessary to match contours between the main body and moveable panels. Once you've accomplished that you lock down the body along the rocker panels.
B. Kleiner: You can greatly improve the driver’s door fit by placing a thick washer on the lower forward stud between the door and hinge. When you crank down on the 4 hinge bolts that will force a nice spring into the door which will help with the contours.
11. Hood
A. For the hood, I leave the hinges just loose enough to allow them to move somewhat freely. Then close and position it in the hole and get underneath and tighten the nuts.
B. Hood scoop:
12. Trunk lid
A. The Mk4 trunk hinges allow movement in all axis, so it's pretty straightforward to get it adjusted on the top. By using the coupler method for the bumper/QJ attachments along with nuts rather than spacers on the backside of the body, you can move the valance in or out as necessary to match the bottom edge of the lid by adjusting the nuts on the inside in conjunction with spacer tubes outside.
13. Tip from CraigS for final locking down of the body
A. To add strength, slot the holes in the underside of the rocker panels (slot oriented left to right) where FFR has two screws per side. Then ditch the screws and use bolts w/ nice wide fender washers. As you get into aligning the doors you will find that pulling the rocker area in/out (especially driver side) will be a huge help. And once that adjustment is done and the bolts tightened, these 4 bolts really help lock the body into position.
* Additional advice from Kleiner: slot the rockers so that you can move the lower body in or out as needed in conjunction with the door hinge adjustment. Generally you push both sides in all the way below the front edge of the doors. Passenger side will push in at the rear, maybe bring it out just a bit to meet the bottom rear of the door. Driver’s side you’ll have to pull the rear lower body out around 3/4”.
B. Kleiner does not recommend to install screws around the perimeter of the engine compartment opening. The body is reportedly very secure without them.
14. Install front splash panels
A. Install after the body is locked down with the doors fitted
Here is a sequence thread I found from Kleiner that was especially helpful, and a key source for the above: Kleiner sequence
Time for me to pick up some plastic sheeting to tack to my ceiling for a DIY dust containment room, and finally get started on body fitment!