channelling a T-Bucket

Ok, here goes! Waiting to take delivery on my new Ron Pope Motorsports 23 T-Bucket body. It's unchannelled, but I want to lower it 3 inches. I'm thinking all I have to do is position it on the frame where I want it and mark out a couple 3 inch deep cuts in the firewall, and trial fit/cut the back end to get it to sit like I want it. Is that it? Sounds way to simple. Anybody got any suggestions on what not to do? What worked, what didn't work, what would you do different, etc, etc, etc!!!
And should I resin over where I cut it to reseal it?[S

Floor / no Floor?
also you have motor yet?

yes if it doesn't have a floor yet then you cut the firewall and the back of the body to fit the frame then do your floor work. if it has a floor then you will have to cut the floor out. a little food for thought, is to channel the front the full 3" and channel the back 1 1/2" to give it some rake, but i like the full channel myself. i put angle iron on the bottom of my frame to set the body on while i glassed in my floor, mine is the same as track-t's and 26/27 roadster body. jim makes a good point by asking if you have your motor mounted yet, if not i wouldn't cut nothing yet.

Hello 26T...

Went on ron's site... No floor,so cutting is easy.
But. No engine cutout in the firewall. you'll need and mockup engine and trans
to get the right measurements. Anytime you cut through the fiberglass you should coat with resin to keep the layers from coming apart.

Thanks guys! I do have a motor and trans. SBC350/TH350 combo that I will be using. Guess I have a bit of work yet to do before I cut any on the body. I'll need to mount the front shock towers so I can position the radiator and headlight mounts. Then see where the motor mounts need to be, so I can get an idea where the back of the block and trans tunnel fill fall. I guess then I'll be ready to mount the body and mark my cut outs! [cl
WOW! If y'all weren't so helpful I'm sure I would have done a few things I'd end up regretting! Thanks again and hope to keep a thread going on the build.

Easy as pie to do. Just use a fine tooth jig saw or air saw and cut rectangular sections out of the firewall and back of the body so it slides down over the frame. Allow about an 1/8 of in inch clearance on all sides of the cutout so the body doesn't touch the frame.



Then put your floor piece of plywood in an glass it to the sides of the body.









Don

Thanks Don, your pictures are worth more than a thousand words! I read your thread on glassing in the floor, firewall and stringers! Going to be my bible for doing that work! Question though ... How did you attach the body to the frame? And what type of welting did you use between the body and frame? Thanks for taking the time to help! Everyone ... Thanks!

I used 6 outside mounts for the body on mine.
3/8" alum angle with side,3/8" bolts thru the floor with large washers.
used 1/4" teflon "washers" between the floor and the mounts.

So Track-T, what you are saying is that your body doesn't actually sit on the frame!? Just on these teflon "washers", and the rest of the body/floor, floats just off the frame rails? I can understand this if you are seeing some flex in the frame from motor torque. And I guess I'm asking, is frame flex a problem with 2x3 tubing? Did you do any extra type of bracing in the area of the bolts through the floor?

Don't expect any flex. But, with a glass body your going to have movement
which could make cracks in the paint, I could always use frame webbing
which would tighten things up.
Under side of floor where bolt holes have 3/16" alum. 4"x4" glassed in.

You could always get some of those "nutzert" kind of nuts that go into the frame..... But I never liked what could happen if hit.

I simply drilled down through the plywood floor in 3 places per side, right into the top of the frame. Then I welded small rectangular pieces of 3/16 steel on top of the already 3/16 inch thick frame, so I now had 3/8 of thickness to tap threads into. After that I simply ran bolts down through the holes and torqued to body to the frame.

I used thick rubber washers that I got from Ace Hardware to insulate the body from the frame. When you put down padding and carpet the bolt heads are hidden and undetectable.

Don

Definately don't want the body going anywhere! Seeing that picture makes me wonder about seatbelts? Any thoughts on those? Anchor them to the floor or to the frame? Frame seems like a stronger connection, but wouldn't want to get pinched in half if the body lets go and moves forward! Are you guys running with seat belts?

Don, did you use any Loc-Tite on the bolts? And did you take that extra steel plate and rubber gasket thickness into consideration when you channelled your body?

We use 4 triangle plates welded to the frame, with 3/8 holes to bolt the body down. I would recommend you cut out the fire wall in the body and also cut out the floor for the trans, before you glass the floor into the body.

Here's how I recently did mine

First the inside.

Here's how I recently did mine

Then on to the outside.

Actually the bottom was like this.

akzale said:

Don, did you use any Loc-Tite on the bolts? And did you take that extra steel plate and rubber gasket thickness into consideration when you channelled your body?

Click to expand...

Yep, I added about a half inch so the frame was hidden. No loctite, but antiseize so the bolts wouldn't freeze in there from rust. We've done 4 cars like this (my 27 was done this way over 25 years ago too) with no problems.

Don

Don, in your process of glassing in the floor, do you do anything about the gap you leave between the floorboard and the body? Wondering if the resin fills this void, or if you fill it with bondo (or equivalent) body filler material?
I get the idea of "shadowing", but am just a wee bit concerned about leaving a void between the top and bottom layers of mat. Or are my concerns really unfounded?