how are you guys that are building cars Mcgyvering your car in your front yard ? i have my 54 chevy off the frame and i want to handle the undercarriage one way or another i dont have a expensive fancy ass body hoist to use , the way i took the body off was with a engine hoist a few jacks time a brute force. i want to somehow flip my car on its side so i can quickly strip seal primer and paint the underside of my car in my front yard . sounds kinda ridiculous but this shits gonna go down ill post some pics when it does. any good ideas on flipping the body safely with proper support?
without a "fancy ass body hoist" i'd rather try to get it off the ground far enough to get under it than try to roll it on it's side.
I once layed a 41 chevy coupe on its side to clean and paint it. I just used a bunch if inner tubes layed out and gently rested the body on top, with no ill effects. Both doors and trunk lid were off, by the way.
you could do like the pic above, and also use some heavy straps and strap the other sid to a tree just in case. Still dangerous, but just a body doesnt weigh that much right?
In the early 90s Rod and Custom did an article on this subject. Someone was offering a kit made of long curved pipes that had brackets welded to the end. The brackets fit the wheel bolt circle and when attached to the axles one man could tilt the car up on its side at about a 45 degree angle. The article had photos of the setup and how it worked. The demo car was an early 60s Thunderbird as I recall.
BIG disks cut out of 3/4 plywood bolted to the firewall and rear bumper. Brace them real well. OMG!!!!!!! THAT IS BRILLIANT THATS THE BEST IDEA YET THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! I am going to head down to home depot right now and buy some plywood and make some huge ass discs
forget that picture that is way to sketchy id rather roll the body over on its side than to do that or even to use jack stands and creep under it.
well the big plywood discs was a good idea but it wont work on my body not enough mounting locations, need to keep pondering maybe old tires wood, engine hoist,
I restored an Austin Mini when I was a kid, used the matress trick and rolled it on its side. Worked perfect not a scratch on it. Didnt do any welding though!
try big-ass inner tubes, just don't inflate them super full then have a few friends slowly roll the body on it's side and use 2x6's with 1" holes drilled in one end to wrap a short piece of chain through and bolt the chain down to a body mount with a short 2x4 screwed between them like a "A" to help hold the body steady....It might work..looks good on paper Brian.
I vote to lift it high enough to get under it and do it on your back/side. 4x4 and cinder blocks and you could probably raise it high enough to walk under it, but I probably wouldn't...
The best thing you can do aside from the obvious rotisserie is to just lift it as high as you can. A little time with a welder and some square tubing and you can build a big "sawhorse" and rest one end of the body on it, then change sides. Or, if you have a friend with a lift in their shop, maybe you can convince them to let you lift it up so you can paint it on a weekend or something.
When I got my dads 49 Olds back from the media blaster it was just the gutted shell and,no doors or trunk lid,no front clip Me and a couple buddies stood it straight up and let it stand on the firewall to spray the bottom Did this in front of the garage,standing up it was taller than the door so it couldnt go all the way over and really it stood there nicer than I thought it would. Tony
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