Back when I originally pulled the body off my 71 Coupe to start my frame off restoration I decided to use an engine hoist. Well, I quickly realized what a pain it was and vowed I would do something different when it came time to reinstall the body.



Well, a few weekends ago I needed to get to the underside of the body to do some work and, since that wasn't possible with the body on the body dolly, I decided now was as good a time as any to construct a lifting rack. After some consideration I developed a set of plans for a lifting frame and went to work building it. Here's what I came up with, my total investment less than $100 including the 2 cheap chain hoists I bought off E-bay and about 2 hours to build the frame.









I really wanted to build a rack that allowed good maneuverability of the body so I ended up using a two chain-hoist system. I figure this will also provide better support for the front clip compared to a single hoist system.



Here's the body suspended from the lifting frame (without the front clip obviously). The position of the chain hoists is adjustable to allow you to balance the load as required. Here I've got the body lifted at an angle to allow access to the underside of the body.



I'm still a ways from actually putting the body back on the chassis, but I think this lifting frame will work pretty well. The clearance form one side of the rack to the next is 10 feet so there will be plenty of room to manuever the chassis into place beneath the body.

I figure some others might find the plans useful so I've made a copy of the plans available for download on my website at http://www.corvette-restoration.com/...y_painting.htm.

Happy lifting!
Tim

 

Nice job ............ your hoisting beam could support a lot more weight if you turned it on its end like a floor/ceiling joist. Are you getting a lot of deflection hanging the whole body with the 2x? laying on its side like that?

Hammadown

 

I wanted a peek, but all I have are red Xs for the pictures.
Regards,
Alan

 

and I think you let your domain name expire (or your link is wrong).

 

 

OK I give up......no rack.

 

Pics were here yesterday now I can only see the first one and a bunch of red X's


Steve

 

Are the pics showing now? Everything looks fine to me. If they aren't showing I'll post them from photobucket.

 

Yeah, the lifting beam could support much more weight stood on it's end, but it would make hanging the chain hoist from it a bit more difficult. The plan calls for a 2x8 laid flat for a lifting beam which, considering how close the chain falls are located to the llifting beam support, should be plenty strong. I figure at most each hoist will be lifting around 300-400#.

 

I still cannot see the pictures. I saw them last night though.

 

Switched the photos over to photobucket so it should be fine now. Sorry about that, I don't usually have a problem hotlinking from my webpage. The webpage seems to be runnning fine now too.

Should be good to go. Happy lifting!

 

Yep, works fine today, thanks

 

Nice rig looks good and you can roll the frame out,thats a real plus. I use an engine hoist with a rack above the body that can be adjusted to level the body.
The body is held up on the sides by steel hooks that contact the underside of the birdcage only.
The small straps on the nose and tail are adjusted to "just" take the stress off and keep the seams from spreading.

 

That's quite a rig! Did this work with the engine in the chassis? The biggest hassle I had doing mine with an engine lift was trying to get enough clearance to get the body over the engine and gas tank.

 

Thanks.........Yes here is a pic showing almost maximum height.

 

Interesting. That lifting rig you made really helped you get the extra height required. It's true what they say - there's more than one way to skin a cat.

 

It did allow me to gain height but we didnt build it originally for that.We built it so the body would be picked up using the birdcage AND the rack would be above so you could put straps down for different bodies to support them.I used to pull bodys at other peoples houses and businesses so I needed to be prepared for just about anything and the rack would fit on top of my Suburban and the engine hoist towed behind.Its sort of a package.Its not perfect but being a portable setup it is very adaptable.The first car I used it on was a 65 and we put a big bag of birdseed on the back of the car for ballast to keep the body level.If I can find the pic I'll post it.

EDIT-Here it is and you can see the birdseed.Also you can see the steel hooks on the side are much longer because height was not an issue.Only 3 straps....2 in the rear and 1 in the front.The guy walking behind the car was the owner and my best friend.Shortly after this body was put back on the frame he died.He was 46.

 

Tim,
Great job on the lifting rack design. I enjoy seeing the progress on your 71.

Norm

 

Tim,
I thought I recognised the car and the garage when reading this post. When I saw the snowmobile cowl on the wall I knew you were the Corvette-restoration dude. Just wanted to say great website. I've learned allot over the years watching your restoration project. Removed the front clip from my 69 least weekend using your process with the heat gun and 5 in 1 tool. Worked perfect. Take care.

Terry

 

Thanks for the info, it was much needed and solved my problem figuring out how to lift the body off the frame when I'm ready.