Hi chaps

The side frames for the pick up are coming on nicely. I have leveled up the car/chassis for the previous castor angle checking by running a piece of 4 by 2 along the tops of the wheels and jacking up the axles with screw jacks until it is level. I have added some weight at the back and the engine is still in, so this should be a fairly good approximation of the "on road conditions".
The question now is...... Should the chassis be level or slightly down hill? the chassis is facing slightly down hill , which I realise will be affected by the front/rear springs I have fitted, but I am interested in anyones comments because things like the rad shell and the door frames need to look right! If I square/plumb everything up as is then the chassis will be slightly downhill, although not so much it looks "hot rod"!!

Steve

I think you will find a bare or nearly"empty" chassis will face downhill. Obviously you want everything square at this stage and I expect most folks will have done something similar to the method I used when I did a body off rebuild of my 4 seat tourer last year.
The bare chassis was checked to see if straight and then packed up so that it was dead level -weight taken directly by the frame, wheels barely touching the floor. Body placed on chassis, set dead level with packing applied to ensure weight picked up at bolt on points. Empty c/case fitted with nose piece placed in position plus bare rad shell secured properly to match starting handle position. Bonnet used to determine exact distance from scuttle. All verticals and horizontals made square and body bolted to chassis.
On my car the scuttle was not square to the floor pan/chassis. Welds were cut and remade to correct this with the doors in situ to ensure correct gap as well as check on squarness.
Hope this helps
Ron