[Andy69]

Anyone done this? I'm talking lifting the body off the frame enough to get the chassis out without taking out the interior or disassembling it. I'm considering doing this with the Buick after the convertible is finished if its feasible. I don't really want to take it completely apart.

 

[Rich-L79]

I've done it on the coupe. Not real difficult but you have more things to make sure are disconnected before you lift than if you take everything apart first. You also need to keep in mind, it will be a LOT heavier than a bare shell and you need to treat it with great respect when doing the lifting and in deciding how to support the body while the frame is out from under it. Make sure that lifting and support are distributing the weight and able to support the weight. Lifting or supporting unevenly may lead to cracks in the paint, especially in the c-pillar area. The rockers are the most rigid portion of the frameless body shell.

I'd suggest removing the shifting linkage and the steering column entirely just to make the separation go smoothly with nothing left to catch on anything else. From there, there are just a few fluid connections and wiring connections that need to be accounted for. Depending on how the gas tank on your particular car is attached and how the filler neck interferes or not with the rear frame rail, it should just lift right off. If the tank filler neck is going to be an issue, just drop the tank first.

If you plan to remove the suspension for any reason, you can simply lift the car, support it by the rockers, remove all the susupension and then just drop the frame to the floor and pull it out. This allows you not to have to raise the body all that high. Reassembly, depending on how you go about it, may required more work and/or raising the body higher.

 

[Andy69]

Ah, good thought on the suspension disassembly. That would make it tons easier. IIRC I had to lift the convertible body pretty high to clear.

 

[Andy69]

btw this won;t be happening anytime soon, I'm just asking now while I'm thinking about it

 

[Rich-L79]

Just occurred to me: sliding the frame out won't work too well if the engine is still in there! If you are leaving the engine in, you'll need to raise it high so you can just roll the chassis out. A 55 gallon steel drum is tall enough to hold the body up while allowing the complete chassis to roll out without interference.

If you can corral 10 or 12 of your best friends, the best way is to simply have 10 guys lift the body while two more position the supports. HOWEVER, I've only ever used this method on bare body shells and while six guys can do that lifting and eight is better, a fully loaded body shell might be quite a lot for 10 guys to lift. More guys, more lifting power, but I'm not sure you could squeeze more than 10 guys around the body. If you can obtain two engine hoists they can do the trick too, but you need to be really careful about your chain pickup locations both for stability and for lifting without busting or bending anything.

 

[hmardown]

I think it's going to be harder to get back on then off.
hmardown

 

[joeyv69ragtop]

We lifted the convertible body off the frame with the interior still in place. front clip was off, engine/trans still bolted in. We used a pair of chainfalls. One on the front connected to a chain spanning two of the body mount locations on the firewall and the other hooked to the package tray. The second might not work in your situation but I had no problems going through the shredded convertible top.

We had a section of steel rack you might find in a warehouse. you can sort of see it in the link in my signature.

EDIT: come to think of it we did the same for the hardtop, but we stripped out most of the interior and the back glass was busted out.

 

[Chicken Coupe]

I did that a few years back. Other than the effort to disconnect all of the body to frame attachments, my experience was that I did not have the lift height to get the body past the rear wheels.

Knowing what I know now, the job would have been much easier if I would have used a set of wheel dollies and a pair of engine hoists vs. the one hoist and no dollies.
Basic concept is to go L to R vs. forwards/backwards. That would have reduced the lift height dramatically and allowed the job to be done with a pair of engine hoists by 1 or 2 people.

What I would do if I were doing it again:

• Borrow a second engine hoist
• Drop the gas tank and disconnect all of the body to chassis items
• Unbolt the body
• Remove the rear bumper. Then use the bumper bolt holes as the anchor point for the rear strap.
• Place the wheels on dolly rollers
• Position the 2 engine hoists-rear hoist facing inwards towards the trunk, front on the side of the firewall with the hoist legs behind the front wheel
• Connect the body to the hoists using 3" fabric tie-down straps using bolts at the rear bumper mount and either the "weep" holes above the firewall body mounts or the body mount bolt holes. This arrangement allow you to ratchet the straps and raise the hoist in a wide variety of ways
• Lift the body
• Slide the chassis out to one side

I don't know if that helps, but if there's anything I can do to help, just ask.

Sorry, no pics. I was so stressed out I never even thought of it, but I will never forget it. :clonk:

 

[Andy69]

good stuff Fred, thanks for taking the time to post that.

One could probably remove the seats and that would drop a not insubstantial amount of weight.

I'd be most worried about cracking the front or rear glass.

 

[1badss396]

Why even think of it Andy it wont be for another 5-10 years any waysl

 

[Andy69]

I should have this convertible drivable by the end of the summer

 

[1badss396]

I should have this convertible drivable by the end of the summer

Yea right unless you and Rubber Toe is helping you, LOL

 

[Chicken Coupe]

One could probably remove the seats and that would drop a not insubstantial amount of weight. I'd be most worried about cracking the front or rear glass.

I think I did remove the front bench before I started, but can't remember if I did or not. I did not remove anything else from the body. I wasn't really worried about cracking the glass because it was so bad I need to replace no matter what. Fortunately it did not crack, nor can I recall any time when there was any sound of groaning, flexing, etc.

My thoughts about lifting at the rear bumper location were that as there was far more weight being left on the ground than I was lifting, and that to jack the car up, frame intact, the bumper jack went on the rear bumper, I should be pretty safe. At the firewall end, that area is very strong and so close to the windshield I never worried about it.

I also never finished how I got the chassis out. I supported the firewall area on a 4X4 resting on a pair of HD jack stands as high as they would go, same just in front of the rear wheels, lifted the chassis at the cradle, removed the front tires, lowered the jack, then rolled the chassis out the back.

That wouldn't have been an option if I had not already pulled the engine. The "side-slide" idea would have allowed me to keep the entire engine/chassis assembly intact.

 

[6t7gto]

I did it. Complete front end and interior intact.

 

[1badss396]

I think Andy should have renamed this thread to: Removal of brain without losing memory
Now get back to work on that heap 69 of yours and don't worry about that dented beater on the Buick.l

 

[Rich-L79]

I did that a few years back. Other than the effort to disconnect all of the body to frame attachments, my experience was that I did not have the lift height to get the body past the rear wheels.

If you are limited in how high you can raise the body, you can always pull the rear springs to drop the frame quite a lot and to provide more room to roll the chassis out from under the raised body.

 

[Chicken Coupe]

If you are limited in how high you can raise the body, you can always pull the rear springs to drop the frame quite a lot and to provide more room to roll the chassis out from under the raised body.

Actually, that's a darn good idea...except it wasn't the chassis height. It was the height of the tires. Seemed plausible when I started, just didn't have the height

 

[jeffs68]

andy, i would start spraying all your body mounts now and spray often.. if any of your bolts break, you will be pulling a lot of more parts to get the body off... jeff

 

[frankg70ss]

I used space saver spare tires from a junk yard on the wheels which lower the frame closer to the ground so the body does not have to be lifted as high.Good luck

 

[Andy69]

ahh good tip with the spare tires