ready to pull the body off my chopped 51, planning on using 2 cherry pickers, but where is the best place to hook on to the body? All the body work is done and i don't want to screw anything up.
*Cough* 2 post lift.. Seriously its gonna be hard. I pulled a shoebox off a frame a few months ago. Never want to do it with cherry pickers again.
they twist and bend everywhere possible....if you ahve all the body work done, you better weld bracing to keep the thing from twisting and flexing or you might be doing the bodywork all over again....
The factory lifted the body with padded wood through the side windows, or pads on the rockers. Different plants did it different ways.
I'll be doing the same thing soon... seems like one picker for the firewall using 2 attachments to spread out the load and to help balance would work. Seems like the firewall could be fixed fairly easy if you ******ed it up. Not sure about the other picker placement. I don't think I would lift it by the roof since it's chopped. Maybe a metal brace across/under the trunk, and then attach the other picker in the trunk area? Good luck!
When we built our '51, we lifted from the firewall and from the floor of the trunk...before and after the top was cut off. I wouldn't recommend lifting through the windows...it would be a hard way to learn if the welds on the chop weren't perfect. As mentioned above, if you're going to lift it, add bracing. You may also want to pad the door jambs so if it does flex a little, you don't s****e paint.
Its in primer, what i was thinking is lifting off the front body mounts which extend off the firewall, building some angle brackets which would bolt on, then chain off of them to a side facing cherry picker. Remove the trunk lid and picking up the aft body mount bolts along the bottom of the trunk area. There are 3 body mount bolts right along the lip of the trunk opening. Hook on to these with a front facing cherry picker.Like i said i just don't want to screw this up!Pulling the body to c-notch the frame, 302 with AOD, all new plumbing, just a hell of a lot easier with the body off.
You may have more mounts/issues to deal with than you think.... Here is some info from a thread at Shoeboxford.com discussing body mounts and body removal; Mine (50 tudor) has 18 - 2 on the rear crossmember, 2 on the front top of the rear wheel hump, 2 on the rear top of the wheel hump, 4 through the floor pan to the frame rails, 2 on the cowl braces and 6 on the outriggers The column shaft and box cannot be seperated. Remove the steering wheel, remove the 2 bolts holding the column support to the dash, disconnect the shift lever rods, remove the 2 plates around the column at the floor, loosen the clamp on the bottom of the column cover tube and the tube will slide out the top. Remove the 2 bolts holding the box to the frame and the pitman arm and the box and shaft will pull out the bottom. Regards, X
do it with friends and beer/food.... it's the fastest and safest way. With hoists you'll spend an afternoon rigging it up right and will still have to worry about the body work getting hogged up. 5 friends and you and it's done in 30 seconds. It's not worth messing up all of your hard work so far. Just my 2 cents..been there done it.
I think you're right, i am going to go ahead and add some bracing inside, then just get about 10 guys over here, funny thing is there is 3 projects going on right now around here all needing bodies pulled, 41 ford 2 door, 40 ford 2 door and my 51, and they are all about ready.Sounds like a "body pulling party" Thanks guys!
Make sure all bolts, brake and steering stuff is disconnected. Jack body off the frame about 6 inches. Block the body from the frame. Jack the whole thing up. Frame and all. Support the body as you feel is needed. Lower the frame. I have done this by myself. It does help to have a friend or two around. The more eyes the better. No heavy lifting by anyone.
That is the way I lifted the Body off my 51 Merc. If the Ford is like the Merc was there are two bolts that go through the trunk floor to the back end of the frame rails. After all the body to frame bolts were out I jacked the body up just enough to put a nut and washer on the bottom side after I had run a bolt through a chain on the top side. I caught it on support bracing on each side of the firewall at the front. We used a chain hoist at the front and the cherry picker at the back with a couple of guys on the sides to maintain balance while the frame was rolled out from under it.
I've noticed that some mounting holes threads are gone on the frame or bolts are broken because of heavy rusting,i broke a lot of them when i tried to open them.So i have converted them from 3/8 to 7/16,they can be real pain in the *** when opening them.Specially if no one has not open them since 50's...
funny thing about it, when i took all the body bolts out, the three along the trunk lip were there, the two on the back side and forward on the rear wheel wheel came out easy, the ones which had the rubber plugs in the floor boards were gone! Original rubber plugs but no body bolts. The ones on the firewall supports were there but missing the four in the floorboards. I've had this car for at least 15 years, bought it with no engine or transmission. Low mileage very little rust. Could tell the rubber plugs had never been removed! Weird.............
If not mentioned...The body will have shims at various body mounts, it is not just bolted down..AND if the frame doesn't move around some when "C" notching I'd be surprised, expect to spend time shiming when re***embling.. I have never seen any shims at the front two body supports but shims can be any where else..I'd really like to know how they determined where the shims should go at the factory during ***embly..Adding/deleting shims from the three rear mounts will change quarter panel contour..FYI ..
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