I'm working on the removal of my cab on my 57 chevy 3100. I have tried slings under the floor in an "X" pattern but as I lift with the hoist through the driver door the front of the cab wants to nosedive down on me. Whats the best way to raise these cabs?... and then of course putting them back on the frame?
i have built what amounts to a giant swing set and run a heavy strap though the cab with the doors close and chain hoist it up. i built this so i can do this by myself. sometimes when the balance is off i just add some weight to even up things.
couple of floor jacks and lots of jackstands and 4x4's - 6x6's 2x 6's and anything else you have lying around. that's how I lifted the body off my 49 chevy the first time. now I have a lift. piece of cake.
I had my kid bring some friends over. There was five of us total. Three on the other side and me and this super skinny metro ***ual emo looking kid that probably has not eaten meat in his life on the other side. We picked it up and I could feel my back collapsing. I was like holy hell this thing is heavy. I figure they must be dying. I ask how is it for you guys. all of them say we are fine including the kid on my side. We are lifting it out the back and tap a tire. The emo kid on my side panics....lets go and runs out in the alley incase it is dropping. My side did not get any heavier and it dawned on me that he was not helping at all. hehehe. We got it off and in the alley. I told my kid do not bring him to help next time. I am for sure going to make one of the hoist attachments though.
You might be able to make/fabricate something that would let you lift at say,,,,, the hood hinge bolt holes and maybe the door jam strikers? That's how they lift Corvette bodies. A couple nice slings looks a lot safer than some of the **** I've seen guys do.
I can attest to Lotus' experience. I lifted mine with my dad, brother and me years ago. Come to think of it, maybe that is why I have back trouble now. Anyway, the cab is coming off again as soon as I finish my drop pedal ***embly and I am going to build one of those "neato" engine hoist lifting thingies.
I put a padded rolling cart under the inner step plate, went to the other side and lifted it up. I stepped through the ch***is while the cab was rolling on the cart then had my daughter put the other cart under the side I was holding up. The whole process took less than 5 minutes.
If you don't need to totally remove the cab, you can use threaded rods. I only wanted to lift the cab by ~18" while I was cleaning things up underneath. With the (4) threaded rods and a few nuts, you can effectively jack the cab up, and when you are done, lower it back into place.
It worked!!! cool, all I had to do was go to my local home depot for the hardware and used a treated 4X4 I had laying around. Thank you again!!
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