Fixing the bodywork in place

Riveting the underside of the body

From this point we anticipated that we would complete the body fitting in a day. But it was not to be.  We began by fitting the 20 rivets to hold the lower body to the underside of the chassis.  This was quite straightforward.  Next we needed to position and rivet the upper return of the body. Before doing this we needed to check the alignment of scuttle, bonnet and nose cone again. Having got these in place it appeared the nose cone was 3 - 5 mm displaced from the centre when compared to the headlamp brackets. Much checking and rechecking including going back to removing and repositioning the scuttle, fitting and refitting the bonnet and nose cone several times because we were unhappy with the line and gaps of the joints.  Eventually we realised that the headlamp brackets were different and could not be used as a datum. 

2mm (blue) plastic shims equalizing the bonnet and nose cone gaps

Finally with the aid of some plastic shims to equalise the gaps between the bonnet nose cone and body we arrived at a satisfactory position.  To equalise the nose cone we placed 8mm shims in one side and 10 mm shims in the other.  The discrepancy caused by the fact that the cut outs in the upper front body returns were not equal. Carefully we removed the nose cone and bonnet clamping the upper part of the body panel in place.  We drilled and riveted it in place. It had taken us along time but there was a definite sense of achievement and we were pleased with the result.