Body alignment issues

[akforsyth]

When I bought my bronco the body was only secured to the frame with the rear 2 body bolts. The rest were loose and coupling that with a completely rotted floor and broken floor braces, nothing was lined up properly. I’ve gone about bracing the body, finding that the body had spread almost 2”. I’m to the point of installing new floor and am using the dynacorn 1 piece floor. I’ve got it laid in and a single sheet metal screw in the center of the floor pan lined up with the center of the bed. Problem now is the center of the floors don’t line up with the center of the windshield! You can see there is about 1” out to one side. If I shift the floors to line up on Centre the floors are no longer square to the bed. I still have the top on and bolted to the windshield frame trying to keep everything in some semblance of square, but for the life of me I cannot get the floors lined up. I checked the tailgate and also found that the tailgate center is about 1” off the center between the frame rails, but if I shift it I figure everything will shift together and I’ll still be out an inch in the floor boards.

Any words of wisdom would be great to hear!

 

[Rightpace]

My original floor pan measures 4 1/4" center of seatbelt bolts. Which is center of my hard top 27" from inside lips
Appears to center up with the middle of bed floor hump.
I have dash panel in but the center below dash pad measures 55 3/8" which is 27 11/16". I can't accurately plumb down to trans tunnel but appears to be inline with center of dash. Hope that helps.

 

[Rightpace]

Is the bronco off the suspension?
Is your windshield frame level?

 

[akforsyth]

Is the bronco off the suspension?
Is your windshield frame level?

Still sitting in the frame. Frame is measured square. Windshield is perfectly level. ?:?

 

[rydog1130]

Do you have new body bushings underneath everything? You want to make sure everything is spaced correctly underneath. I did the same floor pan and dropped the bushing bolts in and lined it up to my tunnel. Sheet Metal screwed it in place and snugged up the bolts. You have the door gaps braced but you've probably noticed your B pillars have sagged now that your bed isn't connected to the floor pan and your b pillars are not attached. check for saggage there!

here's my thread link should dump you in here i put my pan in....your rust looks similar to mine....hopefully you don't have to replace everything like i did!

https://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249119&page=3

 

[U13FL735]

I think I'd work on squaring the floor with the bed only right now. Trying to measure from the windshield frame won't be very accurate when its really just hanging from the roof. Get the correct floor pan/bed floor overlap first, then even. Worry about windshield frame after doors and a pillars are fit to quarters, then piece in cowl.
Bob

 

[71 CA Bronco]

I fought this same issue. Dynacorn also sells a complete cowl assembly. You might consider buying that section as well. It will weld on to the floor assembly you already have in place. You will still need to weld the front clip and windshield frame back on but that's much easier than trying to line up those upper floor and cowl pieces.

I built out the cowl assembly and floor assembly first, once it was complete I welded the bed section back in place. If you weld the bed section in now you might be fighting with the door opening latter on with no adjustment left. If you attach the bed now I would not weld until the door gaps are right. The cowl and door gaps are by far the hardest part of the body assembly.

 

[akforsyth]

Thanks everyone! The ideas here and a little patience paid off. At the end of the last day fighting with it I had found that the body was not centered on the frame so I loosened the body bolts and dropped a shoulder into the rear corner a couple of times which moved it just a bit and brought it back in line. Today I squared up the floor boards to the rear bed and put a couple of screws in to hold it square. I found that it was still about an inch out so I began measuring everything. I found that the body was not on the frame square either, so I jacked it up a little and gave it a nudge to bring it back square. You can see in the pics the difference in the distance between the frame and rockers how it was out before. Once I got the rocker to frame distance even the body was far better lined up. I have no doubt that the firewall is leaning a small amount and that will account for it still being slightly off at this time, but as 71 CA Bronco mentioned, I already have the full Dynacorn firewall and cowl kit to build next. I just wanted to have my floors square and true before I started going any further. Cheers.

 

[rydog1130]

cool, glad you figured it out! This will be your first of many challenges that lay ahead of you! we'll be here when you need help! Good luck and stick with it!

 

[jmangi62]

I went through this a few years back with my rusted out 70 and what a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. We replaced everything, pans,supports,braces everything. Now my door alignment sucks.:-[

 

[U13FL735]

Been doing the same thing on mine. Nothing wrong with measuring out everything, but in the end its how everything fits that makes the job.