Wow,

What a PITA it is to straighten up all the body panels on the truck cab to get everything to fit right. We started out squaring the bulkhead to the frame, but it all went downhill from there. I have spent alot of time just tinkering with a washer here and a shove or prybar there to get everything straight. The cab portion is fairly straight now and the doors line up and fit well. However the hood is off by about 1/2" to the passenger side and I had to move the pin receptical all the way to the stop on the pass. side in order to get the hood to close all the way. Since the bulkhead is presumably straight with the frame, where do I go from here? Looks like I can shim the Pass. side wing away from the frame at the bottom, but the top is held with the radiator top piece and any shim there will leave a gap between the grill surround and the pass. wing. Any thoughts?

Blister (with blisters from loosening and tightening all the nuts/bolts).

ps. rivnuts absolutely suck - they are good for only about 1 or 2 tightenings, then when you try to tighten them that last time they let loose and you have to completely disassemble things to get them out (esp. on the bulkhead).

ps2. My 5" lift springs from RoverTym should be here any day now (thanks John). Now just have to have the rear spring retainers cut out and it should be good to go.

Man, haven't commented on your ride yet, maybe because I am speechless. Awesome work! After painting this, it is probably not much use, but have you thought about hood pins all the way around. Seems that it would be easier and would remove some extra weight (a whole 3 lbs I would guess!) from the vehicle.

Way

Alignment of body panels is a art-form rather than science...I've had similar experiences after my wife stacked the Suburban...Got the fenders all lined up with the doors, and the hood alignment was off...Get the hood/fenders in alignment and the doors were off. Ended up with a 1/8" compromise between the door and hood...Barely noticeable, but it's not perfect...And that sucks for a anal retentive guy like me!

Patience my friend...And when it gets' down to it, you might have to compromise....Remember it's British!

--D

Man,

I'll just count myself lucky.

I spent probably a good half-day aligning my bulkhead plumb to the frame when I installed it. I needed two of the BIG beefy ratchet straps and had to over-tweak the bulkhead to get it straight. This was a bulkhead that had been galvanized, so it was almost like bending a spring. Very pesky.

But, after the HUGE PITA that plumbing out the bulkhead was, everything else went on perfectly! Again, I'll count myself lucky.

I think the main thing to remember is that the bulkhead needs to be as absolutely square to the FRAME as it can be. Less than 1/16th of an inch deviation from plumb is where I ended up with mine. My wings, radiator support and hood have all lined up perfectly. In addition (now here's where I've been REALLY lucky) the t-frames were perfectly plumb and perpendicular.
When we custom fabbed up the rear bulkhead mounts from doing the frame stretch, the rear bulkhead also lined up perfectly perpendicular.

So, even though I don't want to tell you you might have done something wrong, you might have done something wrong.

You need to (possibly) go back and re-plumb your bulkhead off of the datum points of the frame, then start from scratch.

I know that's a HUGE undertaking to remove all the body panels, and personally I don't think I'd do it.

You might be able to re-plumb the bulkhead with the rest of the body attatched if you knew which way it needed to go.

Remember you told me on the phone how your floorboards were not lining up? Maybe that's part of the explanation??? Just guessing out loud...

Or....you could do what Marbourg says and just live with a little slop here and there.

Ironically, I had a lot of uneven body gaps when we rebuilt the SWB RR, and it looks like the crew-cab is going to come out with a more even body assembly than the Range Rover! Weird.

Good luck! I know it sucks when you get to that point and realize that something's not quite right. :(

Originally posted by Way
After painting this, it is probably not much use, but have you thought about hood pins all the way around. Seems that it would be easier and would remove some extra weight (a whole 3 lbs I would guess!) from the vehicle.

Way

I have been considering looking into this for my Rangie. Not really for the weight loss, but to remove one more thing that is bound to break eventually. I will play with this idea a little more this winter.