Body Preparation - Part 3 - Holey Moley Batman!

Another task required before the body could be installed was to cut holes in the floor pan for the gear lever and for the fuel tank filler neck and access to the fuel gauge sender unit.

To locate the hole for the gear lever, I made up a jig from a couple of pieces of strip wood.  This was located in the body mounting holes in the chassis and then I fixed a laser level onto the jig and aligned it with the centre of the gear lever.

Wood and Laser Level Jig

I measured the distance from the laser level's edge to the gear lever's centre. I then aligned the jig into the body using the mounting holes in the body to locate it and measured the distance from the edge of the laser level to the top of the gearbox tunnel to find the centre of where the hole for the gear lever needed to be.  I then cut the hole for the gear level using a 120mm diameter hole saw.

Locating the centreline of the gear lever on the body

One gear lever hole added

 

For the hole in the boot floor, I made a template out of a piece of cardboard, which used the two body mounting holes in the rear chassis cross-member as a location reference.  I transferred the template to the body and marked out the hole location.  Again I cut out the hole using a 120mm diameter hole saw for the ends of the opening and a multi-tool to cut the edges of the opening.

Cardboard template for hole in boot floor...

...transferred to the body...

...hole position marked...

...and cut out.

The last thing I did before getting the body on for its first trial fit was to put some foam tape along the top of the chassis rails.  The AK build manual suggests running a large bead of sealant on top of the chassis to seal the body to the chassis.  Obviously, as I intend on removing the body again at some point, I did not want to carry out this step.  However, using sealant, even in the permanent case would make any future body removal very difficult so I have elected to substitute the sealant for some 5mm thick closed-cell foam tape.

Self-adhesive foam tape around the chassis rails

Now I just need a nice day and a few friends around to get the body on for the first time!