keep the pictures coming--

Can a roadster be lifted with doors in place? I see others remove doors and strap from hinge to lock area?

 

Today my friend and I removed the side pipes, drive shaft, tranny, bell housing & clutch. After looking at everything I think I am going to pull the engine to make the front end cleanup easier. I went over the frame in detail and could not find anything but 40 years of surface rust. I also found the frame VIN stamp on the drivers side and it matches the VIN tag under the glove box. Now I have a two numbers that matching car .
Roy

 

Finding the vin on your frame is one awesome moment.... I remember wondering if the frame had been swapped on my 57, and was certainly relieved to find the original shims and vin stamp all in place!



Your progress is awesome!!! Keep up the good work!

 

I would leave the doors on....definitely helps body rigidity, and haven't seen anything negative from leaving them on. The bodies I have lifted off have been from the underneath at the 4 lifting points with out the use of straps.

 

Nice avatar speedE55

 

You guys are getting to be too much - what was the question about?

 

A roadster body can in fact be lifted without taking the doors off. I just completed a body off resto of my '66 roadster - I took the body off in late April - did no body work whatsoever, and put the body back on two weeks ago. You definately will want to tape the door openings to prevent scratches. I used a body lift strap kit to put the body back on and noticed that the straps sucked the doors in @ 1/4 inch, but no harm was done - looks good as new. Be careful - take your time.

Tom

 

Yours is pretty good too...and a little more relative to the forum w/ the hammer!

 

Pulled the engine tonight. Now I can get started on cleaning the frame.
Roy

 

Since the engine is out I removed the exhaust manifolds (they were pretty rusty), sand blasted and painted them with POR-15 Factory Manifold Gray. The instructions said it would be dry to the touch, but would be soft till it is exposed to a temp over 300* F. Sooooo I got the bright idea to put them in the oven (400* for an hour). My wife was OK with this till the smoke & paint aroma started . Good thing we have a powerfull range hood . In any case, they turned out very nice.

I also got started on degreasing and cleaning the frame. What a mess. Good thing I have several months to work on it. The most time consuming part will be the front end. The rest should be pretty easy.

Here are the exhaust manifolds after sand blast, painting & baking them.
Roy

 

Thanks for sharing! Al W.

 

I am making some progress on cleaning and painting the frame. I got tired of scraping the old dried grease out of the front end. This weekend I rolled it outside, sprayed it with full strength heavy duty degreaser, let it soak a while and then took my 3,400 PSI pressure washer to it (went through this process for 6 hours). It worked really well and I got all of the old gunk off it. To get to the bottom of the frame I used the engine hoist to lift the front end about 5'. That gave me enough exposure to get it done. I also used the high pressure spray to clean the inside of the crossmembers and side rails and could not believe the crud and crap that came out. After getting it back in the garage, I turned up the heat for the night to dry everything out.

Today I got the front end cleaned up along with the side rails and crossmember so I decided to treat what I cleaned with Metal Ready and get some POR-15 on it. My plan is to finish removing the rust on the top side, paint it and them lay on my back and do the bottom side. After that I will spray the inside of the rails and crossmembers with rust converter. Here are a few pictures.
Roy

 

I finished cleaning and painting the frame last night. It's not "correct", but the rust is gone and I think it looks pretty good. When I get the wheels back on I am going to roll it outside and spray inside the frame with a rust converter. It took me 57 hours to complete this phase of the project.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone .
Roy

 

Look at it this way - those 57 hours of work just saved you $4,275.00.

 

Just had mine sandblasted and powder coated for $1800. 0 hours spent, and looks awesome!

 

Thanks John, besides knowing I saved some $$ doing it myself, I became familar with every square inch of the frame and know what condition it is in. I am very pleased with the condition. I did not find ANY rust rot on the frame. Even the critical areas in front of the trailing arms are perfect (only had surface rust).
Roy

 

Great Job so far.. Looks like you've made some excellent progress.. One question tho, are you going to paint the body also or just dropping it back on the restored chassis?? Any cracks while lifting the body??

/joe

 

Hi Joe:
Thanks for the comment. So far everything is moving along without any hidden problems. I am not doing anything to the body this winter except to repair the rocker molding mounting area. My plan is to do all the frame work, replace ALL wiring harnesses & install my TKO-600 5-speed this winter and have the body repainted next winter. I could not see any cracks from the body lift.
Roy

 

Love the wheels- are you keeping them? That car actually looks pretty mint!!

Keep the pictures flowing!!

Matt

 

Thanks Matt; it's not correct or numbers matching, but it is in pretty good condition and is a great driver. I am keeping the wheels, just got them this summer.

Got a little more done today. Gas tank is back on, new brake calipers on the rear and new pads on all four corners and installed the rebuilt drag link with new tie rod ends and idler arm. Here are a few pic's of today's progress.
Roy