Pulling body from frame. Need gussets?

I'm pulling the body off of my 57 Belair 2 door hard top no post tonight using my lift from above. Do I need to gusset the opening for the doors to keep body from sagging? Also, anyone who's done this what is the best point to lift from?

Thank You,

Jason

 

You shouldn't have to brace unless you have serious rust issues. I put mine on the rotissery, and the doors fit even with the body upside down. I lifted the one I'm working on from the bottom using the body mount locations.

 

Thanks for your reply, rusted pretty good but I think it will hold. Cross the fingers and go slow I guess.

 

you say it's rusty, and it's a hardtop....i'd at least brace it at across the door openings

 

if you pull the doors definetly put a brace

 

Jason, are you pulling it from the frame and planning on panel replacement while on the rotisserie? If so, you definitely need to brace things, I'd say across the doors and x-braced side to side. I saw a finished hardtop put on a two post lift last month. As soon as the weight was off the tires, the upper door gap opened up about 1/8-3/16", and this is something still bolted to the frame! For a lifting point, I made some lifting eyes that use the hood hinge bolt holes:




This was on a wagon, here's the rear lifting eyes made to attach to rear door hinge bolting plates. You should be able to go to one of the body mount bolts in the rear, providing its not rotted out there.




We used two engine hoists to lift the body:

 

Thank you for your info. It is better to be safe than sorry. The floor is really rusted and probably 50% needs replaced. I will X-Brace the doors to be safe. I'm not putting it on a rotisary just yet, I have a lot of frame work to do 1st. Just going to set the body on some blocks in the corner for a while. Hopefully get to it by this Fall. The car you saw that opened up gaps on the two post, was it in good shape?

 

It was in very good shape, had gone thru a recent resto. The h/t's have just a bit more flex in the body than you may think without that B pillar going up to the roof. I agree, better safe than sorry. While you have the body off, they do make a one piece floor now with crossmembers already welded on. Brace the body a little better, find a safe way to support it, and install the floor while it's off the frame.