I am fairly new to the forum, and from the short time I have been here am humbled by the forum members' knowledge and experience.

I have a 1965 coupe and I am going to be rebuilding my rear suspension and rear axle shortly (still original). I have thought about pulling the body and cleaning up the chassis at the same time.

I am curious what experiences people have had and if this makes sense. Hoping for a little insight into the matter, and maybe some pointers.

Thank you,

Cj

 

These cars are great vehicles for "Pulling The Body". Kevin McKay lists step by step what needs to be done to remove the Body/Cab from the Chassis. I've done it and found the rewarding part to be the pictures of the work in progress. It also gives you a good working knowledge of these cars. If you do Yank it apart change the Fuel Line as it can only be changed by lifting the body. Keep us informed. Al W.

 

Sorry I can't help with your question, but welcome to the forum.

 

To get an idea what it is like to pull your body, check out my body lift project from last winter.
Roy

 

That is an amazing job you did. Very thorough. Luckily, I have done a lot of what you accomplished already.

I like the use of the lift, I was planning on running a winch I have from the rafters in my garage.

Thank you all for the welcome's and links, I have some reading to start, which is great.

Cj

 

There is a famous line from a movie.

"run, Forrest, run!"

This can be the most rewarding or the biggest albatross you have ever seen. First, it is so much easier to do everything with the body off. You have access to it all and you are probably not getting rust and dirt in your eyes every 5 minutes.

However, it is an overwhelming job for many. Remember that it took a full day on the assembly line almost and there were hundreds of people working on it. It easily goes into thousands of man-hours of work, if you know what you are doing. If you don't, you can double the hours due to mistakes, realizing you have the wrong part, things not fitting, and more.

More than one car came apart in 2 or 3 days and took 2 or 3 years to get back together, or more.

There is a serious disease you will catch. "As long as I have this off, ..." and "while I have this apart, I can ..."

I'd recommend you enjoy the car some before if you are new to the car. Have lots of room to do it. And maybe even buy a cheap driver to keep those Corvette juices flowing while you are slaving away on the '65.

Be sure you are in a local club, or have some good friends close into Corvettes who want to help. Extra hands are more useful than anyone can imagine.

And most of all, take more pictures than you think is possible. Everything, every nut, washer, strap, wire, and from lots of angles. You can't imagine how hard that stuff is to remember 3 years from now, or worse, 10 years from now.

 

I've got this 56 Olds 98 Holiday that was going to be a $10,000 total-cost driver, which I began to work on in 1993. It came out of the paint shop in October 2006 and I have more than 5 times that amount in it and I still have another 8-10k to go. The car turned into a full-on show-quality restoration project that is sucking all the fun out of turning wrenches. All that, and I have never driven the car yet because it still isn't complete enough to even start the engine.


So to the point - just go into this with eyes wide open and you'll be fine. I think Roy did it the right way - he plowed through the whole project quickly and efficiently before he lost interest, or got sidetracked by other priorities. The longer the car is apart, the higher the probability you'll end up working on some task other than the car project.

"What is the quickest way to end up owning a non-running project car with missing pieces? You start with a complete car and decide to restore it"

 

I know this all too well. A couple years ago, I had a leaky heater hose. $5,000 later and having pulled the motor. Well, needless to say, the front end of the car is in good shape now.

What I am most worried about is getting 90% into the rear end, and realizing I need to pull the body to fix something and would have been 1000x easier to pull it and tackle it from the start.

I hear your warnings, and take them seriously. My whole family loves the car and would be worse to have the car in pieces to find the cost overtaking the budget.

Cj

 

Mark Millner is absolutely correct. There is no problem in pulling the body but enjoy the car first.

My time estimate is a minimum of 10 - 12 months with the body off. Oh yeah, don't forget the "BOAT" owners creed. "Break Out Another Thousand: while you have it apart.

Good luck whatever you do with the car.

Rich

 

I am completing my second body off. You really need just three things. Lots of time, lots of space and lastly, lots and lots of money. The personal rewards are great. Nothing beats the satisification of seeing and hearing your project come to life. Keep us posted. Jerry

 

I am at the same point in planning for my 65 Coupe. I completed a body off on my 67 conv. about a year ago and now I am deciding how far to go on the 65. In my case, the money is the only concern. The 67 is completely new and it looks, feels, and drives like a new car. I doubt that you can get that without taking the body off. The downside is that the car is out of service for a year or so and it costs a lot to do all of the little stuff that you will only see with the body off. If you have never done a complete restoration, you should do at least one. It is a great experience and the results are fantastic. As soon as my checking account recovers fully, I plan to dive into the next one. I think that is the key for me, don't start the project unless you have enough money to do it all. "Enough" is another way of saying, "way more than you ever thought it might be possible to spend on one car."

Good luck,

Doc

 

I am in the middle of a frame off on my '57. I started just shy of a year ago. The chassis is done, paint is done and the painted shell is on the chassis. There is still a mountain of work to do. Every post so far has a valid point, so read and digest them. You also need to be honest with regard to your mechanicial abilities. Do you own or have access to a press or sandblast/glass beading equipment? The more work you can do on the vehicle the less it will cost. If you are planning on farming a large portion of the work out it can get very expensive. This can be very rewarding, or a source of endless heartache!

 

Imagine that, Winch from the wrafters. Yes! and it is rewarding and so much easier to work on. One spreader bar and four 5,000 lb. straps did the job with no problems. Since your going that far you might as well strip her and paint her up. Then you can detail the engine compartment

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The only way the body is coming off my 60 is if I have another C1 or C2 to drive.

 

Once you disassemble that FIRST piece, a car becomes a pile of parts. I had no choice in starting my 66's complete resto, because the frame was bad.

It sounds like you have rebuilt cars before, but not vettes. I have done about 10 F Bodies, but this is my first vette. The unique parts I farmed out to a local guy who does excellent work out of his house, and saved time and money!!! These were the rear trailing arms and tranny. The rear end and steering box I did myself by searching the archives for help (especially from GTR1999, thanks Gary!)

Like said above drive the car for a while, and make notes of any problems NOW, like steering, brakes, shifting, engine performance. This will guide your future resto plans

Enjoy the Forum - these guys are the BEST

 

That's how it starts for many - pull a few suspension parts, find some more stuff that needs work, pull some more parts, give up and pull the whole thing apart. Actually, if your body mount bolts aren't siezed, the frame is solid and the body is solid, it's not a bad job for someone who doesn't mind getting dirty and working on cars. Or maybe 15 years passing have faded my memories enough that I don't any longer know what I'm talking about.

 

After reading this post last night I literally didn't sleep. I have been kicking around the idea of a frame off as well. The bad part is my car is a VERY nice driver right now, and I enjoy driving it every weekend. The reason I am contimplating doing the frame off is I have been ordering parts left and right lately and have so many parts now that if I am going to make my car this nice why not remove the body and make it PERFECT? I have been buying lots of extra parts such as a-arms that I am going to send out and have ready to go, I have my original engine sitting here fresh from being rebuilt as well as the trans. I also have everything to convert to power steering already here. Is it wise to just pull thye body and get it done or am I still in for quite a project even with having everything ready to go?

 

As others have said, I see that not everyone removes all the glass and such.

Just what do you need to remove to lift the body? Wiring, body mounting bolts............what else

 

Because once it is perfect you may be afraid to drive it.

 

Thats one thing I am afraid of...my dads 65 was a frame off and his car is perfect...he drives it a few miles every couple months. I drive mine every weekend.