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POD

Member Since: 05 Sep 2022
Location: Australia
Posts: 3

Body alignment after chassis change, 130d/c

Hi all, I'm in what I thought would be the final stages of a chassis swap on my Puma 130 dual-cab. This is not a common job here in Aus, we don't salt the roads so corrosion is not as much of an issue but mine had cracked, been repaired and cracked again. I imported a chassis from HD chassis in Hull. I am having great difficulty aligning the body so that the doors close with even gaps; the gaps were all very nice and parallel originally (not kidding).

I've so far spent a day and a half since putting the body back on, trying to align things and am currently in no better position than when I started. There's a fair bit of info online including some helpful videos but all seem to relate to wagons or series vehicles and I've found nothing on the dual-cab.

I'm hoping someone may be able to advise a systematic approach to this, I've tried getting the B-pillar at 90 degrees to the sill frame in the front door opening, can't seem to get quite there (B-pillar still leaning back slightly) and can't seem to figure out where to adjust to get this right, not even sure it's the right place to start. Jacking up the back corner of the body gets the B-pillar closer to square but makes all the angles around the front door much worse.

Do I need to remove the roof to be able to get the body aligned? I did not anticipate that, a big job getting bigger!

I figure there has to be a step-by-step systematic approach to getting this right, if anyone can outline the steps I'll be very grateful.

22nd Jun 2023 6:34am

Oldowner

Member Since: 26 Dec 2018
Location: South west
Posts: 621

2007 Defender 90 Puma 2.4 HT Aintree Green

Fit the Hicap tub first, then align the rear bulkhead to this. This should get the rear bulkhead height roughly correct, and work forwards - although 130’s / hicaps often came out of the factory with misaligned bulkhead / rear tubs - the tub often sat slightly higher at the back so you could not achieve a parallel line through the cab to the tub.

23rd Jun 2023 8:32pm

POD

Member Since: 05 Sep 2022
Location: Australia
Posts: 3

Thanks for the reply, seems there's not a lot of experience in 130 chassis swaps out there. My vehicle was delivered as a cab / chassis and has no tub so that reference point does not exist. I spent a third day on the alignment yesterday and managed to solve the problem and achieve acceptable (by defender standards) shut lines; I had to remove the brackets that support the back of the seat box, i.e. the middle part of the cab, as they were forcing the middle of the cab to sit too high. This allowed the rear to sit down more, got a reasonable alignment at the bulkhead-front door-windscreen frame area. Presumably the horizontal alignment between the three outriggers is significantly different to the original chassis. First on today's job list is to fabricate adjustable brackets to replace those that had to be done away with.
I had expected a much easier time in aligning the body on the new chassis. Several decades ago I swapped body shells on a land cruiser and don't recall any problems getting things lined up.

24th Jun 2023 12:06am

Retroanaconda

Member Since: 04 Jan 2012
Location: Scotland
Posts: 2642

Fairly common, particularly with aftermarket chassis. Persistence and sometimes some modification will get there in the end.

24th Jun 2023 6:33am

MadTom

Member Since: 10 Sep 2013
Location: Olomouc
Posts: 617

During last two winters I have completelly striped 130 HCPU TD5, and before it, there was 2 cm side possition offset of the body to frame. After this, I take it, that Defender and accuracy cannot meet. During completatinon I let all a bit loose and started fight to have all screws fitted together. "Drobek" = The Small One - Discovery 2, "Blufínek" = The Blue Thing - Defender 130, and for me at least Ford Mondeo

24th Jun 2023 12:41pm

POD

Member Since: 05 Sep 2022
Location: Australia
Posts: 3

A bit of an update, I fabricated some adjustable brackets for the centre body support which greatly improved the situation, the door gaps on the driver side are spot on, passenger side are not as good as they were before but at a point where I can live with them. I pulled the head lining out and loosened all the bolts around the roof to aid in getting everything lined up; didn't seem to help a bit! I installed body deadener to the roof whilst it was exposed so hopefully that was worth it. Also got rid of a couple of shovelfuls of outback dust from up there.
I've been putting in almost full-time hours on this vehicle for the past 5 weeks, currently building a new tray complete with an under-tray drawer which will house 2 spare wheels. Many frustrations, such as the front tray brackets on the chassis being welded on at different angles! I did all the measurements on the right hand side, designed and fabricated the two brackets as a mirror pair and then found the left hand side bracket was 4mm lower and 5 degrees further off the horizontal! Hope there aren't too many more variations like that or the thing will be driving sideways- although perhaps a defender is more aerodynamic that way.

9th Jul 2023 8:00am

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