[gtomike72]

I think the best way for me to restore the car I have is to remove the body from the frame or just find another shell. The 1/4s are shot, inner/outer wheel wells need replaced, trunk is gone...this car is a mess once I started looking at it. I still want to save it so just weighing my options on what to do. The frame itself looks solid and just light surface rust which is suprising based on the rest of the car. Should I pull the body from the frame (and if so, whats the best way with a small 1 car garage) or should I just do a body up restoration. I need your guys thoughts/ideas as alot of people are telling me to scrap it and get a new one but Id like to save this car. I know worse has been restored...

[2002Z4CSS]

Years ago I took the body off the frame by myself on my 1970 SS 454 Monte Carlo. I did not have a hoist to lift the body off but ended up using a cherry picker and a nylon strap through the roof to pick it off the frame then dragged the frame out from under it. Once the frame was removed, I sat the body down on a metal cart I made that was about 3' tall with casters so that I could get under the body to sand blast and paint it and move it out of the garage to work on it. A bunch of strong guys also works to lift a body off.

[Keith Seymore]

I did something similar, except used 6x6 landscape timbers and two floor jacks to lift the body from the bottom. One timber cross-car at the front, and one timber crosscar at the rear. Once it was high enough I drug the frame out from underneath (in order to minimize the height, I mounted steel wheels with no tires on them to roll the frame out).

One problem with this technique is that, when going back together, you don't have a lot of latitude in scooting the body or frame side-to-side to line it back up. If the body was swinging via a hoist it would make that part easier.

K

[russosborne]

Keith,

How did you position the jacks/lumber so you could lift the car and roll the chassis out without having to move them? Or did you? Going to be doing this myself shortly. Hopefully on my days off next week. Also have an engine hoist, might try combining the two.
Sort of worried at this point about pulling the roof off the car with as much rust as I am finding.

Thanks,
Russ

[RedDirtRoad]

I fabricated a gantry and used an electric hoist.
Its not that expensive to build and it will save you time in the long run of removing the body, then reinstalling it.
Its literally a 15 minute job with it.

[68GTOSCA]

I have lifted several bodies from frames and usually it just
myself and I. I place a 4 x6 timber beneath the auto below the access holes behind the backseats. I then hook a tag line to both the front of the boby and rear of the body attached to two points in the garage ceiling. I just lift the boy througth the window with the cherry picker hoist. I raise the body about 4 to 4 inches and then adjust the tag line. The purpose of the tag line is to just balence the load. Once, the body is approximately 2 foot above the frame - pull the frame out from under the body. I then low the body on to some saw horses.

[Birdguy]

After removing the frame from under the body of my Firebird I needed to be able to get it onto a trailer so it could be taken to the sandblaster. My ACME anti-gravity ray was out of order, so I reinforced the ceiling rafters with additional 2x10's and then added 4x4 posts to the midsections so they could support the additional weight.

Using cable, chains, and a ratchet hoist I got the whole thing suspended in mid-air so the trailer could easily be guided underneath. Being a convertible I was very careful about locating the lift points. You can see the front lift points, and the rear points were where the rear seat belts bolt to the floor pan. The balance was excellent and the risk to flexing the body was nil.