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Well I've done it now! I've got the body off and on the dolly. I am posting some pictures here to show the process and how I did it. It may be useful to someone or just provide Covid times entertainment. As I get further I'll post more pictures. I pull the hood with my engine hoist. The hood will go vertical with the support unbolted and lift straight up. I tape all the edges but with two people it never hit an edge. I removed the pins and stuck bolts in, wheel studs to be exact. I bagged and removed the steering column after removing the driver side exhaust manifold. It came out quite easily with my monster son doing the work. I have an old roll around tool box that I am using for all the fasteners and small bits. I have a ton of old plastic divided trays that work very well for me. Three drawers is more than enough space. This is my Auto Twirler body dolly that I set up as per the frame spec drawings. This is a test fit on the lift for getting the body way up later for underneath work. Rocker panel metals etc. Earlier picture on four post lift with suspension on two rolling jacks. Doors, trunk lid, deck lid, hood, seats, radiator, bumpers all removed. I built an 8 foot long four level cart to store a lot of the parts in one place. it is custom built to house the doors. The hood, trunk, and deck lid are all in another dry building safe from damage. Doors are safe. It is working well, I am happy! I rolled it into the other section of the shop for storage when ready to lift the body. You can see the new frame hanging in the background. Every thing structural about the body mounts is rusted away and I am not sure how the integrity of the glass is yet, so I lifted by the outer seat belt brackets and the lower door hinge. I made the set up to tie all four together with 0 side to side movement. The ply wood is so my 265 pound son can climb in there and not break fiberglass. The night before, It is is ready to go. Lifting hooks bolted to the seat belt bracket, witch is solid underneath I don't know why. Left lower hinge. Up and back with the dolly rolled under it. I had to have two people carry the front end. It was way too heavy on the nose with my rig even with a strap to the radiator core support. I plan on putting it on with two engine hoists. Perfectly level with much more control. This picture shows all of the rusted body mount reinforcements falling on the floor. On the dolly! That is my bruiser son Robert. He comes in very handy when it comes to heavy work. All of the hand prints cleaned of and the cover on. It will be awhile before I start the body part of this project, a lot of which will be done out front on the slab. Cleaned the mess up and it is ready to jack up, put wheels on and roll to the other lift for tear down. The final resting place. I will tear it down here and finish filling the cart up. This frees up my other lift to service and repair our fleet of family vehicles. Now I can slow down a little and enjoy the process.
It is now just over 2 years since I started this project. I just finished the alignment and it is ready to drive. Now I have to wait for our 1/4 mile muddy lane to dry out a bit and that could be awhile. New captive nuts for hinges are in. New Ididit column in. Cluster is out for new speedo and tach. Speedo rebuilt by Corvette Specialty of Maryland (Palm Springs). The electric tach is from them also. I kind of rebuilt the tracks and now they work pretty well. I hung both doors and that came out as well as it could have I think. Built a 4 bolt main 327 with a 72 truck block. I used a forged Scat crank and rods, and Icon forged pistons. Too much else to list now. I made this and have the water pump mounted on studs. If it fails on the road, I can change it and hopefully the lower four bolts will hold the engine in place. Starting to feel like progress here, unless I think ahead to the body drop etc... I used the frame as a test stand and broke the cam in. it worked great. Gauges, toggle for fan. After I took this picture, I ran a wire for the alternator since I ran the fan the whole break-in. I made these to lift the body. This was a test fit against the frame. Lots of accurate measuring, and it worked great. Down she goes...I forgot to take a picture when it was all the way up and the chassis rolling under. I just got too excited. It went very well with just one helper. Lots of planning with the shims and the body was just about perfect. My door gaps stayed right where they were on the dolly. I just had to lift both ends a little bit. We just pushed it up on the lift. My favorite view now, it's so clean! I have never worked on a clean car on this lift before. A wonderful experience. Rear bumpers on, that was fun. Start of the carpet install. Never noticed this before now, Feb 18th 1960. Car's build month was march. Trunk lid on! Carpet done. Also not easy. Deck lid and seats, I am stoked! Front bumpers and grill. A lot of time on eBay piecing this together. It turned out one of my bumpers was 61/62 and the grill had been cobbled in. Thanks Bubba. The teeth were 3 fives, 3 fours some ones and no center. What a mess. it ain't perfect now, but it is a whole lot better. I can live with it. I am pleased with the bumper fit. Home made alignment. a little hokey. Got the fronts straight to the backs. Rack center exactly. Caster and camber set, then toe, you can see the toe gauge on the lift.
So I gotta ask are you just changing the frame out or restoring the whole car? Sure seems like a lot of extra work just to change out the frame,
The frame is totally rotten on the bottom, very unsafe. I don't have the money to restore the whole car but will do what I can to keep it a driver. I am installing Steeroids rack and pinion on the new frame. I also have to replace all of the rocker panel internal steel along with the body mount reinforcements. I just want to drive it, hard and fast.
I replaced all of the steel work you are about to do yourself. I tack welded nuts to all of the holes and used stainless steel button head allen screws to reattach. I'm sure you are aware but replace the hinge pillar supports as well, or at a minimum check them. But everyone I've seen that the rocker supports were eaten away also had bad hinge pillar supports.
Thank you all for the positive comments. Being closer to 70 than not and having a torn bicep muscle, destroyed shoulder and a herniated disk from 45 years of repairing cars and bikes, I need all of the encouragement I can get.. That is why I started this post with "Now I've done it". Anyway, I will soldier on and keep posting progress as it happens.Thanks again.
I replaced all of the steel work you are about to do yourself. I tack welded nuts to all of the holes and used stainless steel button head allen screws to reattach. I'm sure you are aware but replace the hinge pillar supports as well, or at a minimum check them. But everyone I've seen that the rocker supports were eaten away also had bad hinge pillar supports.
I bought the pillar supports, mine are gone at the base. Did you pull the outer rockers or do a sneak job? I really don't want to pull outer rockers as the body and paint are acceptable for my uses now.
The frame is totally rotten on the bottom, very unsafe. I don't have the money to restore the whole car but will do what I can to keep it a driver. I am installing Steeroids rack and pinion on the new frame. I also have to replace all of the rocker panel internal steel along with the body mount reinforcements. I just want to drive it, hard and fast.
Thanks, I was just curios. I swapped the frame on my 55 Chevy and put an Art Morrison under it but I left everything I could in the car. I just left the car on the lift. As you can tell, I am nowhere near as organized as you are.
I did not remove the rocker panels. I took the end plates off in the rear tire area and pulled them out that way. As I said I tack welded nuts to all of the holes to install the screws. That was absolutely necessary for the front mount area as there would be no other access. Another good option I considered using is blind stainless rivets. I used them in other areas of the car. They don't have a hole all of the way through like regular rivets. They are very strong and very hard to pull. But they would work great for this. I did have the lower part of one front fender off including the rocker panel that came in handy. One of the 3/8" nuts for the hinge pillar support broke loose. I didn't tack it good enough, don't make that mistake. If you chose the rivet route you would only have to tack weld the 3/8" nuts and just rivet everywhere else.
My hinge pillars are good but the rocker support and all inner/outer body mount plates were trash. I did not remove rocker panels, just open access plate at the rear and sectioned the front panel. I riveted nut plates with to new inner panel, made it a little more forgiving while installing all the new screws. Its in a thread on here but I don't know how to make it re-appear.
Chip
I did not remove the rocker panels. I took the end plates off in the rear tire area and pulled them out that way. As I said I tack welded nuts to all of the holes to install the screws. That was absolutely necessary for the front mount area as there would be no other access. Another good option I considered using is blind stainless rivets. I used them in other areas of the car. They don't have a hole all of the way through like regular rivets. They are very strong and very hard to pull. But they would work great for this. I did have the lower part of one front fender off including the rocker panel that came in handy. One of the 3/8" nuts for the hinge pillar support broke loose. I didn't tack it good enough, don't make that mistake. If you chose the rivet route you would only have to tack weld the 3/8" nuts and just rivet everywhere else.
Thanks for the info. I am wondering how to find the upper rivets in the door sill? And when ready to rivet the new piece in, do the rivet holes they put in it line up with the factory ones on the car? Or do you drill through the old hole in the glass into the new metal then rivet? I plan on using aircraft blind rivets with no hole through the center.
Fiberglass is layered so I cut out a strip above rivets, all holes lined up fine on panel I got.
Here are some pics of the pics from my file. Also smeared bonding glue on it.
Chip
This is my Auto Twirler body dolly that I set up as per the frame spec drawings. This is a test fit on the lift for getting the body way up later for underneath work. Rocker panel metals etc.
Love the body dolly. Need one for my 58, when I start to restore it.
Hey chip, I tried to respond with a quote and keep getting a message that my responce is too short? Any way if you see this I don't know what those golden colored pieces are in your pictures. Rivet backers, or captive nuts?
Finally started the frame replacement.
