After months of delay caused by plater lost and damaged parts it was time to put the body on the chassis. When the timing was right I couldn't muster up 4 able bodied friends to lift my 32 3W body and put it on the chassis. So my brother and I figured out how we could do it by ourselves with come-a longs. Yesterday afternoon we finally lifted the 3W body and mounted it on the chassis. Yup that's the body levitating in my garage. It's actually hanging from three eye hooks in the ceiling. It took us 4 and a half hours. More involved than we expected, the most difficult part was getting the cowl to seat on the firewall. At the end no damage, nobody got hurt.
Coincidence, just last Saturday I was at my Dad's helping lift his 32 five-window body onto the chassis. We had five guys, two were rather young and probably did most of the lifting. We made sure to guide the top of the cowl down onto the top center of the firewall (which was bolted to the chassis like yours), then kind of rotated the tail end down.
Cherry picker has worked well for us when there was shortage of helpers. That is one good looking coupe build you have going there.
When we were taking my friend's '33 sedan body on & off several times; and since there were no overhead beams; we made a wooden gantry for the front and used a cherry picker on the back. When it was painted he rounded up a bunch of guys to place it. It seems to me these bodies were a lot lighter 50 years ago.
VW engines seem to have gained weight, too! I recall lifting my '27 T tub onto the 'A' frame... 4 of us, it was heavy; but not half as heavy as it is now. No reason for it, either. I don't get it.?
Necessity is the mother of invention. I remember as a kid the things my dad did with block and tackle, he built a dozer blade for his D4, built this big assed steel ramp bed for a ‘46 Chevy 1.5 ton truck to haul the tractor on. Then moved the bed to a ‘54 Ford 2 or 2.5 ton truck. Nothing but rope a few chains and a beefed up old swing set a-frame thing. So many other things as well. Then I take off to Arizona and come back a year later and he has this old Clark forklift he rounded up, added power ram steering. We had some “heavy work” to do, used that old Clark. Before I heading back to Az I asked him “how the hell did we get by without a forklift for all those years”?
Tom, I am glad that you were able to get the three window body back on the frame. I look forward to your continuous progress on getting your 3w back together again. I know you and your brother were able to do it but if you ever need help with something heavy again like that please let me know. As a side note I was able to put the roadster body on my frame by myself with a car lift. I put the body up in the air and rolled the complete chassis under it. Then I set some old tires on the frame and set the body on top of the tires. I re-positioned the strap to the back and used a floor jack with a 4x4 block of wood in the front so I could control the angle and set the body over the firewall. I worked slowly and everything fell into place without much fusing around. P.S.- I hope you got your grille situation worked out.
Used to lift it from a beam in the garage but wouldn't recommend this way. I bought a 4 post lift some time ago and placed a couple of 4x4 beams across the rails and lower and lift with that.
Don't mean to knock what you did, but I would suggest that anyone lifting a body like this at least put a board under that sheetmetal panel before lifting. If it kinks or bends it will be a big problem. A board underneath it and running the complete width will move the strain to the sides where its stronger. Glad to see that it worked for you though.
Charlie concedes that whatever Maverick did worked, but that it's also an example of what not to do. Maverick is visibly annoyed. Another guy leans over and says to Maverick, "Gutsiest move I ever saw man."
When you talk about safety precautions It got a bit shaky for us. Toward the end we had to shift from the 4x4 wood beam with a beefy eye bolt to two smaller eye bolts thru the forward body channel connected with a chain. The come-a-long cable was vibrating and both eye bolts bent. We had maybe 6 inches to go so took it real slow. Thanks to everyone for all the comments and compliments. Scott thanks for the offer, chasing two grill inserts, see what happens.
I one removed and replaced a VW Bug body complete with both doors and front hood on using four nylon straps on the corners then tied together on top with a come along and a chain threw over an elm tree limb. Had to stand on a step ladder to work the come along. Kinda sketchy, but it got the job done. When you work by yourself, you come up with ideas to make it happen...
Here's my solution, works better than it looks. C clamp and strap allow the cg to be adjusted as the build progresses. It knocks down for storage.
Sure looks like the leading edge of that sheet metal panel it a piece of square or rectangular tubing; probably accomplishes what you are advising.
Yes, thats true. The question though is it thk/strong enough for lifting the whole back end of the car. I would suspect that it is pretty thin wall stuff just to brace the body some. Then there is the back part of the sheetmetal where the trunk lid is open. Is there any bracing there. I found out the hard way that straps will bend sheetmetal as they tighten when lifting. Just trying to keep someone else from making that mistake. It looks like it worked just fine in this case, but myself..........I would not do it unsupported.
Well done, I like it, plenty of access to the underside of the body, easy to adjust the height by turning the cross pipes. Is that the crank handle on the far end of the pipe? And just right for a light body. Like the big wheels. Easy to move around. Wish I put bigger castors on my dolly.
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