Bicycle hooks screwed into the rafters and some ratchet straps. If you use four you can do it all by yourself, it just takes a little while.
I'm 220 pounds and can hang off a bicycle hook. I used this method for a big ass IH truck box and it worked great. Probably the Shoebox he mentions in his profile. Use 6 bicycle hooks just to be safe...
An engine lift can be rigged to a 4 x 4 through the side window openings via some chain, and that will get it high enough sometimes to get the frame rolled out. A few friends to help steady it and pump the jack will make it even easier. Don
Good point, if anybody knows how to build bicycle hooks it is the Chinese, they may have melted down an old IH to make them. Bob
Ok, don't use hooks. Just wrap the straps around the rafters... The Chinese probably made your computer too. Edit, I checked my manufacture. They were made in Taiwan. The only thing being produced in the US now days is worthless people.
50 shoebox? A lot of how you lift the body off depends on what you have to lift or hold it up with where you are working on it. If you have a cherry picker, a couple of 4x4's about 8 ft long and some blocks you can lift the front of the body up high enough to slip a 4x4 between it and the frame and then jack the whole thing up high enough so that you can block the 4x4 up high enough that the rear tires will roll under it. catch the back of the body at the bolt holes where the two back body to frame bolts went with a pair of bolts that run through a length of chain strong enough to hold the body up. lift or hold the back of the body up level with the cherry picker, let the frame down with the floor jack (s) and roll the frame out from under the body. The main thing is lift it safely and support it safely no matter how you do it. This wasn't the body off the frame but it was the body and frame off the trailer.
used to use floor jacks with 2x10s slid under the body, or engine hoists, or straps and come alongs from the rafters. I use a two post lift now, so simple and the lifts are easy to find for low bucks anymore.
We have a couple heavy steel pipes laid across 4 or 5 rafters and hook chainfalls to them - distributes the load and never had an issue. I've also used an engine hoist to lift one end at a time and then 2x6's and blocks to support the body while the chassis is pulled out.
Ratchet straps are not made for vertical lifts. Like a lot of things, you might get by that way but it's generally a sign that you're in the running for a Darwin Award. Here's the way to do it....
I use ratchet straps with very large scew eyes in the shop rafters/beams to lift my coupe body. The ratchet straps work good for lifting but for lowering, not so good as the body can not be lowerd slowly or smoothly at one time. So I am looking for alternatives for the ratchet straps. I have one cable type come along so I need 3 more I guess or more sugestions.
Have you got a tree nearby? 2 guys can lift off a truck cab but best if a 3rd body is balancing the cab front or rear. The bodys are not that heavy, enlisting the help of a few friends to give you a hand is much easier
Have some friends over for a bbq and drinks. A friend made some what of a rotisserie with 2 engine stands connected with square tubing on the bottom between the stands and a bar clamped to the frame up where the engine would go so it spins
It can be done on the ground. You need 4 good stands and a dolly to support the rear of the chassis so you can roll it out.
I removed all the front suspension from the frame to rebuild and since I didn't have any extra hands around the day I decided to separate the frame from the body..I used my engine hoist on the front to get 4 x 4's under the car on jack stands and then moved to the rear and did the same thing. The car sat like this for almost a year.HRP
Livting anything is easy if you lift a little at a time. To lift a body, simply place a leaver under a body mount and lift it 1", then place a wood block in the space. Repet with next body mount. In time you will have it up 6" or more and you then can place a 4X4 under each end and continue until you can place jack stands umder the 4X4's. Cement blocks also work fine. You can do it all by yourself with out friends that will drink all your prpresious beer, it just takes a little time. Of cource you can allways jack up the entire car and place jack stands or blocks under the body and then lower the chassis. Or you can cheat and do it the way I did...
I do my lifting during the day when all my friends are at work. My roof isn't high enough for a 2 post lift, wouldn't work on my dirt floor anyway. I use my frontend loader on my tractor to lift my 64 f100 cab, bed, engine etc. I got a 3 in wide ( seatbelt type) strap that I use. Never had a problem.
Most of the cars/trucks I am hearing about are with bodies/paint that can be scratched up. The straps and hoists don't work very well on finished vehicles.
I had my 50 Pontiac in one side of a 2 car garage and needed to take the body off - jacked it up high enough to clear the wheels and unbolted the body. Made the "A" frame deal from some 8x8s and commercial ties and gently let it down a little at a time until the chassis was sitting on the floor and rolled it out from under. It was plenty sturdy, in the picture I just added the back sawhorses to keep it from rocking fore and aft (it balanced almost perfectly where the cross bar fit). Obviously a 2 post hoist is better, but I didn't have one,
2 sets of camper jacks and two good straps---excellent stability and control--we use them to put bodies on our home made rotisarie very safe and cheap and easy
Actually the full weight of the car was never on the board and stands. I couldn't balance it on the cherry picker and chain hoist by myself and lift it and move the trailer out from under it. The cherry picker was holding most of the weight. You can barely see it sticking out behind that blasted weed that drew four feet while I was on vacation for a week.
The cherry picker setup that TagMan showed in post 21 is the way a lot of guys are doing it now if you have enough flat floor and the cherry picker. It shouldn't be hard for most guys to make a set of brackets to fasten a crossbeam to the top of a cherry picker solidly. A shoebox size body may be a bit much to move around that way though.
the first time i pulled a body off the frame i used a cherry picker on one end, slid a heavy pole under the body and into the end of an engine stand at each end. then lifted the opposite end with the cherry picker and did the pole and engine stand trick. so- 4 engine stands, two heavy poles, and a cherry picker. now days i use my 2 post lift. smarter not harder.
The Jalopy Journal
