Caddy's all situated, now what to do first?

I finally have my 50 Cadillac situated in the garage. It has no motor or tranny, so that's on my to do list. Passenger side door won't open, seems to be frozen locked. I'll need to fix that. There's a couple other things, take a look:

















What do you think?

 

Get that body off of there and set it on saw horses (unless you happen to have a rotisery) and set it next to the frame. It will be much easier that way.

 

That's second on my list, after stripping it down/out. What's the easiest safe way to get the body off the frame with limited space (and no rotisserie)?

 

I don't think there is an easy way. You could block it up on a couple of 4x4 or bigger beams and roll the chassis out from under it,
I've used my A frame setup that I used to pull engines before I got my cherry picker on one end and the cherry picker on the other to lift one body off a frame. That is pretty well the way we swapped the chassis under my 51 Merc when we did it too.
This shot is of that setup lifting the roof off of a conversion van to swap it to another one but it will give you the general idea. http://s173.photobucket.com/albums/...20Dodge Van/?action=view&current=house005.jpg
On that one we just rolled the van back out of the way and rolled the other one under it and sat the roof back down on it. I don't think you have room in the garage for something like that though. I used two small chain hoists that I have when I lifted the car body, one on each side of the firewall with a chain connected to the firewall on each side. used the original body mount holes at the back (inside the trunk) and used a chain between the bolts that I ran through them. You could do it with two cherry pickers if you had a few friends to help steady the body and roll the frame out.

As for starting on the car I think I'd get the front seat out and then take the door panel off the passenger door and spray a bunch of pb blaster on the lock from the inside and see if I could get it freed up enough to open the door.

I'm going to pm you a link to a batch of parts. I don't know if the guy will ship stuff but he looks to have some things you need.

 

Checkout my "1955 Caddy build" thread elsewhere on this forum...I pulled the body from the frame and did exactly what you are doing...

Nice old Caddy you got...it's not all that bad...

R-

 

Thanks for the help!

 

im working on my 53 right now. Im cutting out a bunch of rust and replacing it. I dont know how bad your rust is, but if the floors or rocker panels need to be replaced, you might want to leave it on the frame until you can get those fixed... It might help to keep the car straight.

after i took the interior and trim off, i braced the back by welding a bar from the rear of one door frame to the other and added two braces to the floors.... better safe than sorry.

after i get the body straight, i will take it off the frame and get to work on rust i couldnt reach on the bottom. and then onto the frame and suspension.

here is a link to my photobucket with pictures of my progress. i hope it helps.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v42/hardluck235/cadillac/

goodluck

 

Wow - nice photo-bucket set, Shark. My 53 Buick looks almost identical, only a little worse. Your pics give me hope

It looks like the only problem with getting the body off the frame in the garage is the overhead door - to get room to work in the front, the door will have to be open, but then you won't have the height.

After pulling the front clip separately, I would use a couple of 4X4s and some jackstands. Get it high enough off the frame to get 4X4s between the body and frame using jackstands, then lift by the 4X4s with jacks / jackstands far enough out that the wheels will fit between them. 3 4X4's and 6 jack stands should work well. Once you have it high enough for the rear frame kick-up to clear the floor pan, you can roll the chassis out from underneath.
Or just get about 8 buddies to help, and lift it by hand

I do agree with the comments on doing the majority of the rust repair before pulling it off the frame - I've seen scary results from lifting a badly rusted body off and then fixing the rust with the body supported insufficiently. However, even on the frame, you will want to be sure the body is square to the frame first. If some body mounts are worse than others (highly likely) you could still end up with distortion. I've been looking pretty hard at mine, and the body is not square as it sits because of the body mount bushings sagging more in some places than others. My car actually looks like the RR suspension is sagging, but the frame is square to the ground - it is all body sag. I'm sure if I don't address that before welding, I'll end up with a car that looks 'off'. A body-shop tram bar should prove invaluable for making sure the body is square before welding, and you can get them pretty cheap. Just my $.02

 

The pictures are helpful. How did you shape the metal patches?

 

i shaped those pieces using my knee, a fire-extinguisher, a piece of I-beam, and a little fancy language.

i dont have a shrinker/stretcher or a break but i need to get one... it would have saved me a lot of time.