Sitting around having a chat with a car friend, convinced me to take the step I knew i should. Really, the intent with this car was fix up the brakes, replace any worn suspension parts, get it running and fix the rusty sills. The car had other ideas I guess!
The rust in the sills became the rust in the box sections where the chassis mounts, and further probing showed bad rust in the rear wheel arches. But by far the biggest indicator of being smart to take the body off was the fact that E.V.E.R.Y. S.I.N.G.L.E. B.U.S.H. in the suspension was rooted. Add to that the fact every single nut and bolt was rusted up, and that the chassis rails are literally full of dirt, and that ... well everything was going to be a whole lot easier with the body off.
Saturday was taken up with undoing everything that attached the body and chassis. Fuel lines, brake lines, cables and mountings, and rear bumper bar. Yup, all day. About 14 body mounts. I undid the first one, undid easy and that gave me false hope for the rest. ALL the rest either snapped, spun the encapsulated nuts, just wouldn't budge or spun the whole mount. Say hello angle grinder! Same went for the rear bumper bar. A recipicating saw ended up being the cure for those bolts.
Sunday mornings job, lift it off. After jacking up front and rear about 4 inches to make sure all was clear, I chocked the body and attached the gantry to the front and lifted it up, then placed a pre made frame under the front mount points.
Then for the rear I put a sling under the back quarters and used a fence post to hook the chain too. Then lifted the back up.
At all times, should the block and tackle or any other part of the process have failed, the body would have dropped no more than 6''. There was no way i was having it fall 3 feet if it all went wrong! That gantry by the way, was the best $200 I ever spent. A friend closed down his workshop due to illness and I bought it, It has lifted many many cars since.
Then, job done it was sweep up time...I make a mess and find it worth putting the tools away and sweeping up the crap at the end of each stage.
At the moment the tail end rests on a strong table and axle stands. Before work gets going on the body I will make a frame up for the rear and link it to the front one. I may even make the frame such that i can tilt the body on its side for rust repairs...we shall see. I have used rotisseries on other cars. I noticed the rear door gaps looked 'wrong' and concluded the body had sagged in the middle, possibly due to there not being any steel of substance in the sills anymore. Cured for the time being by jacking up the centre of the body which aligned the doors and made the top of the fins flow into the doors nice and straight as well.
This is going to be much easier job now and well worth the weekend.
