Aligning body panels on 28 sedan

[voided]

I searched thru all I could and couldnt find any infomation, I'm aligning the body on a table I made.

After getting it all up on the table and clamped together. I noticed the door doesn't come down as far as the cowl, and rear body. I'm paying attention to the belt line to keep the body aligned along with the lower window framing. With those aligned the top of the body is aligned.

[madmike3434]

body has to be placed onto the chassis its going to sit on.    with all the body mount rubbers placed under it, you might have to shim it with metal shims under bolts, this is way GM aligns the doors to the body.   You will need a bottle jack to reach up to the wood sill to raise the wood & body up.

The FISHER BODY BOOK various people on ebay have sold, try " the filling station " cover the aligning and shimming. Have to find my copy of it. Most likely will be a 1930 1935 book

I am not familiar with your year of chev, but the 33-35's had a turnbuckle system that has it start at top front corner and runs on a 45 down to bottom rear corner of the door.   If the bottom rear of your door is sticking out, then you tighten the  turnbuckle till the panels are flush with each other.  And if in too far then undo it.

If I remember correctly the top of the rod has a screw blade type countersunk for tightening.   The bottom has a socket the threads fit into.  Makes aligning the door very easy.

If you do not have these parts , not sure if anybody ever reproduced them .  Might have to make it yourself from length of threaded rod and countersunk bolt at top welded to the rod and a T nut sunk into wood at the bottom

mike lynch     

[sammons]

I'm like Mike, not familiar with 28. But I think your missing the rocker/sill panel (bottom door jamb, body side) if it's like the newer GMs, it should be a part of the lower body bead (cowl/rear qtr). That should acount for the 1/2 or so gap at the bottom of the door.

Question- Do you have or will be using the orig frame, or are you going to fabricate one?

[voided]

sorry fellas. I'll explain alil deeper.

The body has no wood or structure, I'll be making a steel skeleton structure inside the body.  As for frame I'm using a 32 truck frame im gonna modify.

Im trying to align panels to build the structure inside so i can channel and chop accordingly. 

[sammons]

Voided I built my first 34 body (steel structure) with out a frame at all. What a pain. I had a guy give me the dementions of correct frame at body mount points (from all directions, left to right, from ground to top of frame mount,front to back) I had to fab my own rockers (mine were missing) to connect the cowl to the rear body to get the lower attatched. On them, if the door was racked wrong and you aligned body by door gap alone, then the body once mounted could be cock eyed.

The 33-34 were what i call sway back, the bottom of the car was not a level straight line. Yours looks like a straight line?  Should make it easier. Make sure you X-measure the door jamb opening from left to right. Too much to tell typing for these stiff fingers. on alignment on my phone.

Sending pm

[ghost28]

i did the same thing on my 28 sedan, but without the table on the floor. What I did was set the upper roof panels in the original nail markings and tack in place, and then set the lower rocker panels, then allighn the cowl and tack to the lower rockers, and allighn the doors to all the belt lines and with a 1/4 inch gap and tack the doors in place step back and check on the curvature of the whole thing. roof support, beltline, doors, and lower rockers. I hope this help you.

[chopper526]

Voided, I'm with Sammons on this. I might have missed something in the thread, but it looks like your rocker panels are missing. That would account for your door being a couple inches higher.

[voided]

Yea the rockers are missing. I went searching thru the pile of metal I'm sorting out. I found One upper with door stop mounted to it. But no rockers.

time to find some lowers and possibly another upper door stop

Im also missing the piece that goes from the left to right roof panel across the front on top of the windshield support

Thanks for the pictures fella's

[sixball]

A lot of those stayed with what was left of the wood when the body was hauled away. I have one for my roadster. Lucky for me the similar piece below the trunk lid is still on the wooden parts I got. That is a nice looking sedan.

[sammons]

Voided, I found some '28 Chevy 2dr sedan rockers on  Howells Sheetmetal site. Price wasn't that bad, I didn't think.
Rockers $85 pair
Above door header? $75 pair

[voided]

sammons  Thanks for doing the leg work...

this forum has given me so many answers .... Thank you everyone.

sixball I paid 600 for it in complete pieces, and while I wasn't completely in the dark with what it had to have I over looked a couple things like you see in this thread

also got some extras I probably wont use like the hood and original visor. if anyone is interested in those we can strike up a deal.

[ghost28]

Voided when ordering any thing from Howells site, make sure they are in stock when ordered otherwise you might be waiting quite awhile for them to do a run of the item. I ordered a set of splash aprons for a 27 chevy and after 6 months I had to cancel the order, but they did send my money back no problem.  I am sure they are a good company.

What I used one time out of desperation to build the lower sill plates. I used the lower strip of metal that is on the lower edge of a old 6 foot folding tables that I had laying around the metal is the right size and guage, but not to thick so you can still  tweak it a little to get the curve you need.

[sixball]

I paid $600 for my '26 Roadster body a Long time ago. I think you did well.

Sammons, I didn't know that sheet metal place existed, thanks.
Dang, They didn't have the '29 radiator splash apron I'm looking for.

[ghost28]

The brackets on that visor if not broke can probably get you some coin, not sure what they are worth, but I never could find any for my 28

[sammons]

Sixball, this guy has had a couple of these listed at sometime on E-bay. I can't find the date or when/if it sold. They are out of St. Louis Mo. and deal in new/used 1919-31 chevy parts. Phone # 314-293-1991. Looks like between $250-340?

Is this the style you were after?     Pics are what he had listed