i am looking for ideas on what to do to remove the body from frame? what does everyone use or how do they do it? pics would be great also
What sort of car? Here's how I strapped up my 32 by myself. I jacked the car up, tied off the body and let the jack down.
it is a 47 chevy car it is all stripped and ready just trying to figure out a way how to you use 2x4s and lift? any pics
Tugmaster just had pics up a week or two ago. Some planks and whatnot. heavy big body like yours, just a couple years newer. I am trying to think how to find that thread he replied to... maybe PM him??
put them across, side to side and have 6 guys on hand to lift and guide over the wheels, then feed. Or use a cherry picker and strap's.
We used Long 4x4's, 2 jack stands on each side and brought them down/up with a floor jack a little at a time. You have to jack/lift the body to get the lumber in and out, but fairly smooth other wise, here's a shot of my 57 Pontiac going back on the frame, you get the idea. I had a wheeled apparatus to move my body around on, very good thing to have, bodies are heavy and difficult to move without wheels. FYI, me and my brother put this body back on un-assisted. Work smarter, not harder! My wheeled apparatus/body cart.
Undo the bra and pull off the panties.....the body should come right out,HAHAHAHA!!!! Just kidding....Get some buddies and grab onto it!!!!!
I remember doing a 36 Ford for my first body off about 15 years ago. I did it in the driveway all by myself with an engine hoist, a floor jack, and a bunch of 2x8's. It was a little freaky since I had no idea what I was doing but in the end I was quite proud of myself when I pulled the rusty frame out and stuck a good one back in it's place. It was surprisingly easy. I'm getting ready to do my second one right now with a 51 Ford.
The first time I did it [long time ago] I was dumb as a fence post. Ok, maybe I still am. Anyway, I watched a friend use camper jacks to remove his camper from his pickup. I borrowed the jacks and put one each side of a 40 coupe body and started jacking, working from side to side. Once high enough I used some drums and 4x4's to set it there. I just rolled the chassis out from under it. Got enough friends now that I don't have to resort to such midevil methods.
I use an electric hoist supported by my garage rafters to lift my model A body on and off the frame. I don't have any pics, but it works really well.
I pulled The body off a 47 Pontiac with 4 2x4's, a 2x12, 2 towels & 3 1" ratchet straps. I cut 1' off the 2x4's and screwed them onto the remains, so they fit under my rafters. The 2x12 went through the windows, with the towels, to protect the window channels. 2 of the straps went from 1 rafter, under the 2x12, to the next rafter(by doing that, it doubles the force of the little ratchets). The 3rd strap is hooked to the radiator support, to balance the body. FYI, use the GOOD 1" straps, not the cheapo, thin, shiny ones. The ones I had were alomost twice as thick as cheap ones, and had double-wire hooks, with a grab ring, so hooking the rafter was easy.
first i took out the body bolts....then i got some of the guys who work for me and they pulled it off while i supervised with a Coke and a smoke
My son and his friend just helped me pull the body of my '37 Buick Special four door off the frame. It was a lot lighter than I thought it would be. I had is completely gutted though, no doors, no interior, nothing just the body but it's still a big car. We lifted it off the frame onto the forks of my forklift and then onto the rotisserie.
Just put the body back on ours to do some more fab/plumbing routing this weekend. Many ways to do it. I have changed out many a frame at work(collision repair) using a 2 post for lifting the body, just have to mark the floor when wheeling new chassis under to get it to drop on. This way was actually easier; I had more control of the body as it touched down to move it into place. As if I had a choice-no room for a 2 post. Probably could've even been a one man job, but gotta use the buddy system with something like this. Not worth an accident or damaging the car. That's my old man. Not hard to find with that shirt.
To lift my F100 cab off the frame I slid the boom of my cherry picker through the open door, ran chains from the hook to each of the 4 cab-mount holes in the floor, and lifted it straight up. Works perfectly in a small garage with a low ceiling (and budget), and one person can move things around with ease. No worries about damaging the body.
I did my 51 Merc pretty much as J&Jhotrods showed in his post . some type of gantry at the front and a cherry picker at the rear and lift it up and roll the frame out from under it. Where there is a will there is a way. I watched the neighbor pull the diesel engine out of his semi using pallets stacked up on each side of the truck with a big beam across them and another rig to move the truck when he had the engine raised up. All out in his dirt driveway.
mine is very simple !! 2 inch tubing 3/16 wall slid into engine hoist piece of 2inch tubing running through the windows with a chain over the roof and pick up one man job
I just pulled the body off of a '51 coupe all by myself a couple weeks ago. Should work the same on your car. Step 1: put a piece of heavy-gauge 2x2 inch square tubing under the window frames for the rear windows, just behind the door posts. Drill a hole in the bottom center of the tube, then spot-weld the tubing to the body so it won't shift once you lift the body. Step 2: drill a hole in the TOP of a cherry-picker arm and put a long bolt sticking straight up from the end of the arm. Step 3: take the wheels off of the car to sit the chassis as low to the ground as possible but still allowing the cherry picker to roll under the frame Step 4: roll the picker in there, make sure the bolt registers nicely in the hole you drilled in the square tubing. Then lift it as high as you need to to clear the chassis. Once I had mine up, it was all balanced and I could (and did) roll the body all over the shop on the cherry picker before I had it situated the way I wanted it. Then I sat it down on a couple 2x4 boards. It works just like goford51's setup above, except that the cherry picker doesn't have to jack up nearly as high to get the body off the frame, which I think makes it less likely to tip over in any direction.
Not if the floor pan, firewall, and rocker panels are in good shape. How do you think these cars were assembled? I've go a production line photo at home of a fully-assembled '50 Chevy body being dropped onto the chassis. They used straps through the roof and an overhead hoist. If your floor and/or rockers are rotted (like mine), weld in some square tubing between the door posts and a few other areas to keep anything from moving when you lift. That's it.
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