1953 Rover P4 75

September 2018 - Body back on frame

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September 17, 2018 - the day the P4 body meets the frame once again after 65 years since leaving the Solihull factory. Before dropping the body back on the frame, I installed the remaining new copper nickel lines on the frame for fuel and the brake master cylinder reservior while it was easy to do. The fuel line was 5/16" and brake master cylinder line was 1/4" diameter. I also installed a replacement exhaust system kit from JR Wadhams in the UK beforehand.

Notice I removed the rear wheels and lowered the rear end of the frame to the ground so the battery box and hoist straps clear the highest point of the frame above the rear axle.

The rear 1000 lb hoist strap was slowly loosened to lower the rear until it meets the rearmost two body mount points. I loosely reinstalled the 3/8" BSW bolts to hold the rear end in place. After completing this step, the rear strap is removed and then the front end is lowered carefully by loosening the front hoist strap.

In this view you can see the 2x4 lumber I had installed along the inner sides of the door sills for distributing the body weight to the straps. These have to be removed before the body can be fully lowered onto the frame. I lowered the front straps as much as possible just before the 2x4s hit the chassis and then used two floor jacks on each front corner to take the body down from there. Once the floor jacks were put in place, the 2x4s were removed and the entire hoist assembly was no longer needed.

She has landed! This process went a lot smoother than I had anticipated and only took under a hour!

Now the P4 is back in one large piece and all in the garage. I finally reclaimed a significant chunk of my driveway space!