C1 my 42 year old body is not level

[Larry P.]

It's younger than most of us, but still out of whack. Right side is about 1" higherthan left. I measured the frame when it was off and everything measured
exactly perfect. No welding was done. I replaced suspension with all new parts.
Body is solid with no damage. (It sat for a long time without support to front end before I got it.) It mounted very well with all mounting holes matching.
I used the shims and washers indicated in the manual with mounting kit from cc.
I had to use several extra shims on front to obtain radiator, shroud and fender clearance.
Front, "seat area" bolts tighened fine. Rear "seat area" bolts bottom to the shank
of the bolt before they tighted the shim to frame. Door opening seems to be very
close, but doors are not on. Car sits about the right hieght at left rear
and about 1 inch high at left front, however, doors, hood, trunk, seats, interior,
under dash, etc. is not on yet. Tires are properly inflated.
Why would right side sit 1 inch higher.
p.s. After bringing it home in boxes, I acually DROVE IT out of the garage yesterday! (BIG SMILE!!)
Larry

[Joe Pennington]

Re: C1 my 42 year old body is not level

I had a the same problem except the right was about 1 inch lower then the left side. Discovered that the left side had the correct spindle support but the right side spindle support had been replaced with one from a 53-54 passenger car. The corvette used the same spindle supports as the 49-52 passenger car. Compare the left and right spindle supports and see if the location of the boss that holds the kingpin is the same vertical distance from the bottom of the support.

[Mike E.]

Re: C1 my 42 year old body is not level

Another possibility--that the front coil spring is not indexed the same way in the lower A-arm on both sides.
Mike Ernst

[Larry P.]

good answers, but

My pictures indicate the parts were the same for both sides and I know I set the
springs correctly. One might have moved. I'll check both tomorrow.
Thanks for the ideas.
Larry

[Roy Braatz]

Re: C1 my 42 year old body is not level

Larry where are you taking your body measurement at the front area???

[Larry P.]

To headlight bucket &

from floor to bottom. Floor to other molded parts of body. I used Nolan Adams book foor referance.
Larry

[Larry P.]

Frame is level

I checked spindle housing and springs and they are correct.
Larry

[Gene M.]

Re: C1 my 42 year old body is not level

You have to tell us if the body is off to the frame or the suspension is off to the frame. These are all easy measurements to make. I am also assuming the body has no collision work. Was any major body work done while it was off the frame? You say the frame is straight....did you site it with a transit or verify on a frame surface plate? Was every thing verified prior to disassembly? Are all the body mounts seated?

[John M.]

Re: C1 my 42 year old body is not level

Larry the key to your problem probably can be found in your comment that you shimed per the kit tht you recieved. The shiming of the body is different on every car and quite often there are not enough shims in the kit to acclompish the task. My car had 5 shims under one mount and only one under another. At the factory every car was shimmed to assure that the body sat level on every car. The easiest solution would to have the counts of the original shims at each point and to replicate that condition, but simce that is probablu not possible, you can by trial and error arrive at the proper shiming.

Remove all bolts from the body and start adding or subtracting shims from each pad until you have a level body and the body contacts each mount. Keep in mind that this will asure that your body will sit level, but will not assure you of good door fit. After you have the doors mounted, you may have to add or subtract shims from your rear shim position to open or close the gap at the top rear of the door opening. It is a time-consuming process but you can get there with a little patience.

Regards, John Mcgraw

[Dennis A.]

Re: C1 my 42 year old body is not level

Larry,

Shims do make a big difference, I carefully counted and recorded all the shims at each bolt position and after removing the body, mounting on a stand and restoring the body (which took over a year) the number of shims used to reposition the body after drop was different than the original count. The new ribbed rubber pads and thickness of the cardboard shims added height and the rear must have taken a "set" on the stand, for the extra shims were need to close the door gap.

[Roy Braatz]

Re: C1 my 42 year old body is not level

All bodys and parts are not the same as your Corvette or any other Corvette, simply because each Corvette was shimed for that one unit. Most owners know that you CANT take a door from one vett and JUST install it on another. There- for each Corvette is a one on unit. That is why useing a standered body kit in most cases won't work. Add shims in the cap area first to level the body, THEN install the doors- next shim the front and rear to close the door end gap.The rear fenders will usely measure differently.A simple way of saying it with out a loooong story. Hope this helped???

[Larry P.]

Thanks everybody, I'll try shimming. *NM*