Dry fitting shell..shims needed?

[Becky B.]

We'll be dry fitting the shell to the new floor/chassis on our 1964 Bambi II. Since the banana wrap won't be in place when we dry fit it, do we need to put some kind of shims between the channel & the skin of the shell to act as the space the banana wrap would take up? We're not permanently attaching the channel to the floor so we can adjust it when dry fitting. Thanks for any advise!

[Colin H]

Becky,
Since we started doing Rotiserrie chassis restorations, we always fasten the "C" channel to the floor & complete the bellypan, before attempting installation of the body. Inserting the bellypan corners will be a nightmare if you try to slide them between the skin & the "C" channel after the fact.
Colin

[Becky B.]

We were going to try a dry run before I make the banana wrap to see if we're close enough with the c channel and shape of the floor. I'm pretty sure I saw this done on other shell-off's before they're committed to the permanent installation of the c-channel. We're going to lift the shell off again after the dry fit and then I'll make the banana wrap. It will be installed before putting the shell on again. My main question is whether to put some kind of shim in to make up for the banana wrap that won't be there yet.