TECH: taking a body off the frame by your self with all the wrong tools.

We have a Winner, you get to be "That guy". The only thing bad that happend from welding galvanized is this odd third nipple on my forehead. but turns out i have a future in the freak show buisness so its a win win.

There have been countless threads about welding glavanized. You say im going to die others say i wont. im still alive and i weld tons of glavanized cause i love conduit! i just try not to suck on the pipe as im welding. Thank you for your insite but i like the conduit and im going to keep using it.

 

Cool on the wipers. I am not going to have them working for billetproof - I still need to get the linkage back together.

I will see about putting together the channelling tech tonight. I am going to have the car at billetproof hopefully. I am trashing on it like crazy.

S10 standard cab long beds have a 117.9" wheelbase. Short beds are 108" I believe, and the extended cabs are 122".

Measure for the track on those G-bodies. They are pretty wide and might put the wheels into the fenders unless you run some funky offset wheels.

I actually wacked 3" from the S10 frame I am using to get the stock 115" wheelbase for the fleetline. The S10 and fleetline share the same 60" track. I used the S10 because it was narrow...and it was cheap.

One problem with the S10's is the front steer setup which tries to fight for space with the radiator. There is an easy solution. Use a radiator out of a Dodge dart with a V8, but no AC. Its a 19" wide two or three core radiator and a built in cooler. 1970 and earlier ones have the lower rad outlet on the passenger side, but later ones are on the drivers side and match up nice. Use the Dart's rad hoses and it all fits pretty good with a mopar style thermostat housing that points straight up. I just need to get mine recored and I should be good to go.

 

I used 1" box tubing for the bracing and after I had the body back on the frame, reused it for the floor structure. I prefer it and it was $22 a 22' stick when I bought it last year.

 

Awesome tech, love it!

I was just doing a frame off on my 27 dodge sedan
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=182741
Welded some square stock from driver to pass all over to keep it rigid. I removed all the body/frame bolts and thought. "wonder how heavy this really is?"
so i stepped inside, and stood up, positioned the bar intop of my forearms, right back in the bend of my arm, and lifted with my legs, and TWANG!!
The square stock actually tore free from the weld. The bead was still on the car with a chunk of the bar! The bar whipped right past my nose, I lost my balance and stepped on the exposed driveline, and survived without a scratch. Man it could of been ugly!!! So as long as that galv is stronger than the crap I used, who cares?!?!

 

Makes me wish I would have taken pics of when I took my 50 Stude school bus body [the short one] off the original frame and rolled the Chevy one ton chasis under it by myself. Still have to get it squared and bolted down. Thanks for sharing.

 

DirtyT...

thanks for posting this by the way..

tok

 

I pulled the Hudson body off the frame inside my garage. I made sure to brace the shit out of it, and then used a chainfall in the back, looped over a couple of rafters, and the cherry picker in the front. Almost the same deal...

Nice work. It's amazing what a single person can do sometimes....

 

Where was this post a few months ago!! Just about killed myself and my car trying to do that...great tech post...

 

I've done this a dozen times and sweat blood at least once every time, makes me wish I had a friend
Just did my 54 GMC yesterday had to get it up high enough to clear the floor shift because I have a solid floor that doesn't allow access later

 

Bryan, I believe that a B-body (77-96 Caprice) wheelbase is also 117 inches but might be a little wide for your plymouth. I've got a couple you could measure if you wanted to check.

 

Track width on a caprice is 61.8 front and 60.6 rear/ The plymouth is 57" front 59" rear.

I found out a dakota chassis is a real nice fit.

 

yeap

 

i just took the body off the frame by my self with no help 54 chvy mind you

i dont recommend it its not good for your health was a bitch and took two days almost died 2 1/4 times..... i had the body high up in the air like on the engine stands and it started slipping was gonna fall on me them all of the sudden it stopped
needless to say i dropped a log in my pants and had to change them aftewards
but thats how shit gets done