One of the PO's replaced some of the panels on my M38 jeep, namely:
Front floor
Rear floor
Rear wheel houses
Rear panels
Side panels from the rear axle backwards
The trouble is, the body seems to overhang the chassis on one side at the rear by about 1-1/2", and the driver's side upright (where the tailgate bolts shut) is splayed out by about 3/4".
I know the tub is correct up to the rear axle ('cos forward of this is original). Note the panels that have been replaced have been made by hand (i.e. no ribs in the floor or wheel houses), so I can't vouch that the sizes are correct. The front floor seems to be ok.If I do replace all these panels, I intend to bolt the existing front floor to the chassis, bolt the new rear floor in place and take it from there. This may look like a lot of work, but in my opinion there are two reasons to do it this way:
1) It's cheaper than a new body tub
2) I can say that a lot of the tub is still original
My question is, does anyone have any helpful dimensions for the body tub (i.e. length, width, height, diagonals etc)? If it helps, my jeep is a July '51 M38. Maybe a good starting point would be the dimensions of the rear floor and the rear wheel houses?
Thanks in advance,
Owen.
