I have a gut feeling I already know my answer, but will put the question to the masses, and see what other opinions come up.

After storing the C3 that I bought when I was twenty one (1985), and stored temporarily (!) when I was twenty five (1989) I am finally ready with the time and money to body off restore the car. I have the skills to do it myself, and am actually looking forward to it.

Problem is space. I am moving from TN next month to a new job in NC. I have plenty of storage space here in a building on a relatives farm, but in Carolina I will be working in a suburban garage with neighbors etc.

My plan is to pull the body and store it here, and take the rolling chassis and drivetrain with me. I can spend the summer and next winter restoring all that without the body in the way. The plan is then to reverse the process - store the completed chassis here, and bring the body over to restore and paint.

Now the problem - how to move the body. I really don't want to put it back on the restored chassis, and get it all crappy during the bodywork phase. But I don't think the body would fare too well on the dolly being trailered nine hours down the road. I guess I could take the normal body dolly design, and add a lot of structure supporting the front and rear of the body, but I still wonder if that is wishful thinking . . .

Anyone done it, have any ideas, etc??

 

I would and have built a dolly. as long as you support everything it will be fine.

 

Dolly with the supports but are you towing it around or hoping to freight it?

 

Hi,
Here's a dolly I built/used to store, move, and work on the body.
It supports the body at all 8 body mounts.
Might it work for your purposes?
Regards,
Alan

 

Pulled mine from Ky to Philly (12 hours) with the body on a dolly and the dolly on a trailer. My dolly was the classic design you see in every dolly post. Give more bracing for the front clip but other than that it's fine

 

 

I moved mine 100 miles (each way) to be painted. The dolly I made was reinforced with 4"x4" blocks that I then lag bolted thru the factory mounting holes including a support for the radiator shroud. Worked beautifully. Didn't move a muscle the entire trip.




There is only 1 strap across the door opening as a safety measure. I strapped down the body in each corner and the center for stability.

ALWAYS do you bodywork on the frame! How it sits on the dolly is different then on the frame.

 

I have read on more than one post that you should never do body work with the body off the frame. I don't do body work so I'm not 100% sure.

 

And I would add to that, have the suspension loaded, too. You wouldn't think so, but the frames do flex quite a bit. One of my buddies bought a damaged '79, with the intention of fixing and flipping it, to make a few bucks. To make the work easier, he had the car on jack stands, while doing the work. Got all the panels and gaps aligned beautifully. Then he put the wheels/tires on it, and lowered it to the ground, to take it to the paint shop.


Holy cow, what a train wreck it turned into! He couldn't open the doors and suddenly the T-tops didn't fit..........