Hat channel holes

Bretto · Post by **Bretto** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 1:24 pm

Question is, what are the holes circled in red for? Those points dont bolt down to the frame. The ones in yellow do.

RICKG · Post by **RICKG** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 1:41 pm

Drains??

oilleaker1 · Post by **oilleaker1** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 5:46 pm

My guess was allignment holes at the factory. I've noticed them, but when full of wood, how would they drain? John

restorationman · Post by **restorationman** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 8:59 pm

Alignment holes for the cowl supports underneath the toe-board-firewall area. bolt a 5/16 bolt through the "hat channel" and bottom of the firewall support, and it'll help you with getting all of it to line up, just did that last year on my 1950 CJ3A. The other "hat channel" sticking out goes under the cowl step.The new floor supports should have steel spacers welded in them by all mount holes so they won';t Crush down when you torque on the mounting bolts.

restorationman · Post by **restorationman** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:03 pm

And wash the inside channel area with lacquer thinner, and prime and paint so as not to leave bare metal in there for moisture to start attacking the floor supports again!

Bretto · Post by **Bretto** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:52 pm

restorationman wrote:Alignment holes for the cowl supports underneath the toe-board-firewall area. bolt a 5/16 bolt through the "hat channel" and bottom of the firewall support, and it'll help you with getting all of it to line up, just did that last year on my 1950 CJ3A. The other "hat channel" sticking out goes under the cowl step.The new floor supports should have steel spacers welded in them by all mount holes so they won';t Crush down when you torque on the mounting bolts.

There are no holes in the firewall support where those forward most holes are. My old ones (original) were welded at the ends and sides where it jets out under the supports. The step supports had holes with bolts all the way thru that came up thru the bottoms of the side cowl supports.

I thought but could be wrong about this, but with a 3A tub and frame where the frame isn't boxed in up front, did they mount those front end supports to the top of the frame perhaps? On the M38 tubs they have those tabs that bolt to the side of the frame. And maybe the channels were universal so they used the same on both?

Bretto · Post by **Bretto** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 5:55 am

Im wrong with that last post, the box portion ends before those front most mounting points.

restorationman · Post by **restorationman** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 7:06 am

I have both 2A and 3A bodies/cowl supports that are original. Both have a factory hole punched in them. The after market "hat channels" have holes punched in them in the same area that line up perfect. The 5/16 bolt I refered to is for alignment only! the 2 pieces "hat channel and cowl support" are still welded together, just like factory did. Then the bolt can be removed. I'm sure the factory used the holes for the same purpose, but it doesn't matter, because it works for alignment purpose anyway. Unfortunately there probally isn't any original factory workers left to ask.

Bretto · Post by **Bretto** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 4:34 pm

I was also wrong about there not being holes in the inner firewall supports