i know this might not be the right place to post but i need to lift a corvette body off the chassis.im going to use an engine hoist and am working by myself and need to buy the four strap sling setup.if anyone has one i could buy please let me know,also if anyone has ever done this by themselves any tips would be a great help.i have helped lift one off by hand with 8 other guys helping but being by myself and using an engine hoist is a bit nerve racking.
Can't help on the sling, but if you have enough room to try this: - put wheel dollys under the tires and then just lift the body without moving the crane. Just slide the chassis out from under it. I used to do that with pickup truck cabs. Less nerve wracking than trying to move the crane.
That's probably going to be right at the limit of most cherry pickers and pretty wobbly and spooky if you go to move the body with it raised up on the engine lift. Are there any places on the firewall where you can safely attach straps or a chain? Then are there any spots at the rear where you can do the same? A few years ago I lifted my 51 Merc body off the frame with a chain hoist at the firewall and a cherry picker engine hoist at the back with a chain hooked to two bolts that were going through body mount bolt holes at the rear of the trunk. It was fairly stable and only took one person to help balance it. We lifted it up, rolled the frame out from under it and then set it down on four stands. I wouldn't even think of putting straps around a car body to lift it especially a Corvette body. The other option and probably the safest for a one guy setup is to jack the car up fairly high, block the body up with a couple of 4x4 beams across something solid and then let the frame down and roll it out from under the body.
there is a strap setup but it costs 100 bucks and its basically four nylon straps with a ring on one end and you hook the other end under the steel rocker under the door sill.the straps have to go over the doors and hook to the engine hoist.the corvette only has steel under the rockers and the winshield frame everything else is fiberglass.i was just checking to see if anyone had a strap setup and if they had done this.the body has to come up about 18 inches above the tires to clear the gas tank,its mounted on top of the frame as opposed to under the frame.
Back when we were restoring mid-year Corvettes, I built a very simple "H"-bar affair. All three of the bars are 1.5" x 1/4" wall square tubing. It consisted of a center bar which was about six feet long that centered lengthwise above the body. That bar had a sliding (to adjust for C/G) hook that attached to the cherry picker. Toward the front and rear ends of the center bar were two cross bars, each also about six feet long, that sat on top of the center bar in the "H" pattern, and were also designed to slide fore and aft via 1/8" x 1.5" formed steel straps which would loosen to slide, but cinch-down tight to lock in position. Made four more sliders...one for each of the four corners, with a dedicated length of chain and a simple body mount plate attached at the bottom. The two forward chains/plates bolted to the hood latch bolt holes in the rear of the hood area at the firewall. These bolts thread into the steel birdcage inside the glass body. The rear two chains/plates bolted onto the door latch location in the rear door jamb areas on each side, also threading into the birdcage structure. Simple matter of suspending the "H" above the body, slide, adjust and cinch, bolt four plates to birdcage holes, lift. One guy can easily pull cherry picker straight back to one side of chassis. You need a good, wide-stance picker. Weight is not a problem. A gutted Vette body isn't that heavy. DD
Where did you get the idea that there's STEEL only under the rockers and the windshield frame? Do you know what the "BIRDCAGE" is? What year Corvette are you doing? DD
I made mine out of 2x4's, However on the early corvettes you will need to brace the body, keep the doors on and closed. I lifted my truck cab and box off by myself using the 2x4 frame. I also bult a cart to roll the body around using 2x6's. When we did a 60 corvette we built two wooden A frames and ran straps under the center area of the body and lifted just enough to roll out the chassis. I love that image of the shoebox hanging from a tree....LOL
its a 75 coupe and i know about the birdcage but where would you hook the straps to.im just doing what i know has been done with the straps.just dont want to spend a hundred bucks for something im only going to use once.im just asking for other alternatives to picking the body off frame safely and by myself.i dont know anyone in the town i moved to so im doing it solo.ive gotten some ideas that might work from the guys here.thanks.
You're obviously set on using these "strap" things you keep referring to. GOOGLE and YAHOO are your friend...type-in "Corvette lift straps". Since you ask where to hook straps on birdcage, I don't know 'cause I wouldn't use any of the weenie strap-affairs that I pulled-up on YAHOO. Understand, I DO NOT advocate the use of these straps. With that being said, I've posted a couple of pictures of a C3 body being lifted with some wimpy straps so that you can see how THEY attached the straps to body lip. Again, not MY cup of tea. Good luck! DD
WOW< I remember that photo from when i was a kid, that was some Missiissippi floods back when tha car was new,,,,,note the bikes on the roof
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