Question regarding sheetmetal around rear radius arm cover

[Gary Schulz]

I was wondering if someone could shed some light on what this corner should look like? This is obviously the area around the rear swing-arm grease nipple cover. I know the outer sill slides under the flange that is shown. Are there supposed to be nuts welded behind this flange? Is the flange supposed to be joined at the corner where this one has been cut? I am now looking at a second body that appears to be the correct one for my project but it is in need of extensive work.

Any details and or photographs of this area would be great to see.
Thanks

Rear Subframe Mount.jpg

[Gary Schulz]

Are there captive nuts welded to this piece shown in the picture or are there captive nuts welded to the outer rocker panel which I think fits behind this?

Anybody know?

Thanks

[1071bob]

I'm sure the captive nut is welded to the back of the outer sill, which as you say goes behind the vertical flange, you can see the nut in the first picture. However its not always possible to restore a shell in the same order as the factory built them, I done it this way :-
Welded the nut to the back of the vertical flange and fitted the M-Machine sill over the top, the other edge of the sill lines up with the heelboard flange.

[ManyMiniCoopers]

1071bob...I may appear to be stupid, but what is the threaded nut in the sill for? Couple of inches along?

[1071bob]

They're called 'slinger' brackets, they were used to hold the shells during assembly, I'm guessing there was a metal tongue which fitted into the gap between the lower bracket and the floor which was held in place by the captive nut inside the sill. The M- Machine sill come with these holes in. The early cars had studs welded into the floor to do they same thing, have a look at Gary's car in this post, viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11266
Here is a picture of the front one, has anybody got a picture of how these were used on assembly?

[Gary Schulz]

Bob,
You're a big help with information on some of the subtleties related to the body/sheetmetal. As you know, I discovered that my first attempt at figuring out which of my shells is "original" to my '64 S project led me to the conclusion that I have one very good condition ca 1960 body shell which is incorrect to this project. Another of my shells does not have the protruding pins sticking out of the floorpans, but it lacks those flat sheemetal plates that you show on the bottom of the floor in your most recent picture (very bottom of your picture which looks like a shot of the front underside). In case anyone is wondering why this is so painful for me, I dismantled three different cars back in 1981 and 1982 (I guess that's a long time ago now!). I wound up having to cut out the front valence/fenders etc on all three. One of these cars was my 1964 S and I have the original front valence with the correct original body number which matched my VIN number etc... It has been so long and stuff has been moved several times so I actually am having a hard time figuring out what is what.

Would my 64 S possibly be without those plates on the bottom of the floor? This particular car is in fairly poor shape and will definitely require considerably more work and $.... I have a 1965 S that does have those plates and looks just like your pictures by the way.

Such fun.
Gary

[1071bob]

The slinger system took over from the welded stud method, so around '62 onwards. The lower brackets are only spot welded to the floor and can fall off with rust and jacking the car in that area. Has the shell got the holes in the sills or signs of the spot welds on the floor pan?
If your 'S' was bought new in the USA it would have been built at Longbridge and exported, this should be on the heritage certificate, if that's the case it should be easy to date the shells you've got there by identifying the various changes made during the early 60's. Have a look at these areas:-
dry or hydrolastic suspension, gearstick hole in the tunnel, servo bracket holes, boot board bracket holes, courtesy light switch holes in A post, dash rail vinyl, sun visor brackets, top seat belt mounts and have a look at the spot welds on the external seams etc. A few picture would help, there are loads of forum members who love doing this detective stuff

[2311Jethro]

One search, exactly what I needed to know. I love this forum. The information even helps to confirm the date of my shell. I love you guys

[Gary Schulz]

1071Bob or anybody,

So the nuts are welded to the panel that tucks inside... Do you know the specs on the nuts (dia x pitch)? Are they something like 1/4-28?

Thanks

[1071bob]

The early shells had two captive nuts per side @ 1/4" UNF, this changed to only one captive nut @ 10/32" thread and the lower fixing on the shroud was a self taper screw.

[Gary Schulz]

Thanks for the information!
Gary