The body book: what can be built on this chassis

A chassis is half a vehicle. The body book says what can legally and practically be built on a given one: the height a body may reach from the road, how far it may overhang behind the wheelbase, and what is usually built on that chassis in the trade.

Three different things are stacked in that sheet and it keeps them apart. The rules are the law's, cited to the rule and the notification. The chassis figures are the maker's. The room left over is arithmetic we did on the two. A body builder or the maker can ratify a sheet; until one does, it is our reading and it says so on the page.

It is there because body work is where a purchase quietly goes wrong. A chassis bought for a body that cannot legally sit on it is an expensive lesson, and the rule that bites first is usually the overhang rather than the height.