can anyone shoot me a link to some body dolly plans....my search shows mostly C-2 stuff (does the rear deck need support at mount #4 or not??)

 

I used the C2 dolly plan for my C# and it worked fine. You do not need to support #4 mount but may have to extend the front cross brace to pick up the rad support.

I word of advise, raise the bottom cross members up enough so you can crawl under the car.

Good Luck

 

Amen.. this didnt occur to me until i was finished and the car was on.. theres no way under there :P

 

on my website's tech articles page I have plans for both a Ca/C2 body dolloy from Noland Adams that will also work for a C3 plus a plan for a specific C3 body dolloy from another forum member.

addy to the site's tech articles page is:
http://lbfun.com/Corvette/Tech/vettetech.html
go down to the first section called: ****Body & Frame*** and you will see the files for the body dollies.

 

I didn't make a support for the #4 mounts on my body dolly.

Here is an email I sent out the other night with the rough plans for my dolly.

The basic ceiling height of my garage is a little over 8', say around 8'4" The uprights on the body gantry were stock 8" 4" * 4" douglas fir. It was still rather green too, the sap was sticking to everything! HAHA! Twisting became a problem after a while.

The triangles on the corners were cedar but thinking about it just about anything would do because the weight was bearing right on the upgrights and the triangles were only there to keep the cross piece on the uprights. Steel strapping would have worked fine too or even a 2 * 4.

The eye was a stainless steel one 1" in diameter with a 1/2" diameter shank and a 6" length over all.

The body dolly was a real home made effort, hahaha.

I used 4 * 4 for the 4 uprights, they are 21.5" tall.
I used 2 * 4's for everything else. Front to back it's 43.5" where the large x's are. Its 55" wide. The front extension is 74.25" long. Over all length of the 2* 4's for the front extension is 77". The upright that holds the nose in place is 27" but I originally cut it 34" long and adjusted it for height as I installed it.

Here is a wonderful ASCII art drawing of the measurements.
Rear post Front Post Nose brace
I I I
I I I
I I I
I I I
I<---43.5"---> I <-----74.25"----->I

I had to notch the top of the 4 * 4's to clear the inside of the channel. I cut the 4 * 4 in half and cut off one side about 1.5" deep

_______ I <2">I
I I
I I
I I
I I______
I I
I<-------4"--->I
I I
I I

I used six 4" casters with a rating of 350 pounds each and that has proved to be sufficient to support the body. The bare body with everything removed weighs in the neighborhood of 700 pounds I would estimate. I can easily life one side all by myself.

For the body gandry, the part you can't see are the feet that I made to stabilize the thing. They were simply 2*4's 8' long screwed and then stiffened with a couple of 2*4's that I cut on angle to make triangles to secure the feet and make sure that the uprights didn’t fall over.


Materials list:

Quantity Item
Six casters 4"
Four 4" * 4" * 8' douglas fir
Eight 2" * 4" * 16' douglas fir
50 1/2" * 2" lag screws
50 1/4" * 4" deck screws
One 1" stainless steel eye, 6" long
50 1" fender washers
1 Hoist, or comealong. 12' reach


That is about all, everything together cost me less then $100 if I recall correctly. The lifting sling I bought from Mid America for $90 I think.

I would have rather used a real hoist rather than a comealong to do the lifting because lowering the body was a real pain.