How to square my body

Hi Everyone!! [dr

I have a '32 Chev 2dr Coach that I found out of a farmers field. There is no floor, detached from the frame and the interior wood structure is 90% gone.

I have it sitting in my garage right now and I want to get the rolling chassis done before I put the body on but in the mean time... how do you square the body up? What do I need to do before I place it on the body? Where whould I be placing all of my square tubing for the supports?

It has a bit of rot at the bottom but I've decided to chop it 4" before channel and that would elimate all rot. How do you make your cut even all the way around? Do I have to have it suspended?

Take a look & tell me what you think.

I also found a blue print of the orginal wood structure... would that be a good guide to follow for the steel tubing?

I've been wanting to respond to your questions and try to help you out, but I haven't done it because frankly I am not sure how I would go about it with your body. Here is how we normally do it, we make a platform out of a sheet of plywood with a framework around the base, and we scribe a straight line down the very center and then lines going the other way every 6 inches. This are pictures of the one we made to put my Sons rpu body together:














Doing it this way gives you totally square reference points to secure the body down with sheet rock screws so you can start building the subframe that will hold the body in straight alignment. But, the problem with your body is that the entire bottom of the car is gone, rusted away. There is no subframe left, so I honestly don't know where you would begin.

I hope someone else has some ideas for you, but I just don't.

Don

Well... Thanks for the reply!! Hahaha I like your idea but right now mine is sitting on a platform I made & it isn't level either. Has pieces of posts sticking down, little bit of rot making it uneven, a door not on its hinges but held with wire & me standing in the front scratching my head as a newbie would. Haha.

Tell me what you think of my idea so far. I'm going to cut off about 1" at the bottom & that should clean up the rot & bring it back level. Then I'm going to use the blue prints from the wood kit available & square up the back end & tac it in place. Move forward to my doors & square then tac closed. Finally the cowel to be taced on last.

I'm hoping that by following the wood kit blueprints will make it sqare for me... Don't see why not.

Squaring this body up shouldn't be to bad, forget the info on the wood. Don's suggestion is a very good one; flat AND level. Don't trim the bottom yet since you don't really know where it is. Make some uprights with threaded adjustments, at least 4 for the rear part of the body, 2 for each door and 3 for the cowl section. These will allow you to "micro" adjust the panels. Put some tabs on these as well, this will allow you to clamp supports to them. And get LOTS of clamps. Get a long (at least 3'), flexible aluminum scale and use this to line up the belt line. Once you have it "visually" pleasing start measuring. Keep in mind that that this thing was never close to being square so use all the visual cues available to you. The top is going to do wonders for you so don't chop the top until you have the body squared up. This is one of those tasks where patience is a good substitute for skill. Take your time and don't modify any parts until you have it lined up. The hard part begins after this, so when your building the support system try to keep that square and symmetrical too. Once you have it you can weld the structure together and secure it to the body panels because you may need to move it on the platform.

Do you have any pictures to give me examples of these threaded uprights?

All of these are good ideas, I also recommend using diagonal measurements, they will be the same if you have the body squared up from side to side, and front to back.