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Phase 2 -- Getting It Straight 
I'm done beating and banging on the car now so it won't get moved around
after I level it. The car needs to be about 2 feet off the floor and it needs to be
level in all directions. I put jack stands under the front ears of the sub frame and
under the rear of the rocker panels at the height I wanted it to be. (click picture on
left to enlarge) I used a level
and leveled the sub frame side to side. When that was done I leveled the rocker panels
front to rear. After that I leveled the rocker panels side to side. This is sort of
difficult to do and requires some time to get right. A friend is real helpful but not
mandatory cause I seldom have any help. I use several bags of sand on the roof by the
rear window area to give the car enough weight to sit on the 4 stands and not rock.
It's so light that it won't flex enough to seat on the stands without the weight on it.
Use various points on the body to get this as close as possible. It may not be perfect
but it needs to be as close as possible at the majority of the points you check.
Remember the car body is not a perfect piece and has some amount of variation in it.
Recheck everything again and adjust as needed. As I said this is a pain but it has
to be right. Everything you do from this point on has to be level and straight or
the project will not go well. That's why a chassis builder uses a frame jig to get
all this right. You can clamp the car down to a chassis jig to overcome these problems.
If you have or ever had a car you couldn't drive down a track it probably was not built
level and square. I have worked on several of these poorly constructed cars and the fix
is never easy or cheap.
As I install the chassis parts I will use plumb bobs attached
to the chassis to get it square so if the body isn't level the plumb bobs will hang
unevenly and give me bad readings. With the car level and stable on the stands I need
to find the center line of the car now. I measure the sub frame and find the center
of it. I attach a string at this point and take it to the back of the car. I find the
center the the body at the tail lights and mark it. I attach the string there and pull
it tight. If everything is right I should be able to measure from the various body parts
and sub frame rails to this string and it will be equal on both sides. If it is not,
then I figure out why it isn't and adjust it to get it as close as I can. Usually the
tail light section can be moved side to side to get this right since it has nothing
supporting it in the middle anymore. If we are even in the main body area we are OK
and will fix the rear body panel when we get the frame rails installed. If we get
this right the car will look straight when I go down the race track and the tires
will fit in the wheel wells evenly as well. Now I am ready to start to install
some metal stuff.
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