Building a hot rod from the ground up in your own garage and with your own two hands can be one of the most gratifying experiences this hobby has to offer. Shaping and modifying every part to fit your plan allows total control of every aspect of how the whole assembly goes together. Unfortunately, this route is far from easy when compared to mounting a stock body onto an existing chassis. Most of the problems discussed herein either don't exist in stock or aftermarket chassis applications or have been figured out well in advance. While an aftermarket chassis would make bolting down a stock body much easier, it's just not as fun. Figuring out everything and getting your hands dirty fabricating is half the fun for many of us, myself included.
The one thing I really wanted to concentrate on when I made my body mounts was the ability to adjust the cowl and doors without doing anything drastic. I also had to contend with the fact that my chassis terminated in front of the rearend-unlike a '32, which kicks up and over the rearend, allowing the rearmost portion of the body to be supported. The rear of my body would be literally floating in space, so it was of utmost importance to build a substantial subrail assembly that would support it. When I constructed the body mounts and subrail assembly I also took into consideration how the assembly would affect the floor and trunk space, as well as the seating area. I didn't want to build anything that would get in the way of a stock-style bench seat or protrude unnecessarily into the trunk or cockpit area. I also wanted to use the stock Model A procedure of mounting the body on wood blocks with the hopes of minimizing noise and metal-on-metal contact. The whole project came out better than I ever imagined, and I was able to retain all the adjustability designed into the cowl area, making door fitment-something we'll be going over in the coming months-a snap.This is a diagram from Wescott's that illustrates the typical dimensions for mounting a '28-29 Ford roadster body on a pinched '32 frame. Since my chassis is custom, I'm using the diagram as a loose reference point to get the location of the body mounts in relation to the rearend. Since the center of the wheelwell must be located directly over the center of the rearend, it was easier to use the stock front cross-subrail mount as a starting point.
I knew there was going to be some cutting to be done to the stock rear floor area when I built the rear crossmember. For starters, the subrails were going to need to be kicked up to clear the rearend, but it became obvious when the body was placed over the chassis that most of the existing floor would end up being removed.
From this view, it's easy to see what was removed to clear the crossmember and rearend. The subrail section that was cut away will eventually be replaced. The original '29 body was cut in the subrails behind the A-pillar to break down the body into two smaller pieces, which meant I would essentially be fitting the front, cowl section, and the rear of the body to the frame separately. Because of this, I decided to make the first body mount on the chassis where the first horizontal subrail bolts down.
According to Wescott's chassis diagram, the location of the first mount is 49 inches from the center of the rearend. A straight edge was placed across the chassis with some steel to weigh it down and prevent it from moving as I measured each side and marked where the mount should be.
Here's the floor section that was removed. Notice most of it is rather beat up and there is a large portion that has succumbed to rust cancer. Since most of this sheetmetal has to do with the original rumble seat, which will not be replaced, it's not all that important to retain the stock structure.
Since the widths of my chassis and a '32 are different, I used the existing mounting holes in the cross subrail to figure out where each mount would end up in relation to the frame. A centerline was strung the length of the chassis, and, using a ruler, I split the difference and marked each side of the frame. The existing boltholes on the subrail are 29 inches apart, or 14 1/2 inches from center. This will locate the body directly on center in relation to the chassis.
I made a mounting pad for each side out of 1/8-inch steel and transferred the measurements off the frame onto the pad to get my mounting-hole location. I then tack welded each pad to the frame and took numerous measurements to make sure the mounting holes were in the correct location in relation to each other and to the rearend. Before going any further, I placed the body onto the chassis to make sure everything lined up and fell into place. Satisfied, I continued on to the next mount.