I fully understand. If you do this as a hobby a lot of things get in the way of working on the car and projects that should last a short time take way longer.

 

Well dug a little and both trailing arm wells have the same amount of rust on both sides. Just some hole I can fir my pinky into. I will clean them up and weld them up. Checked the rest of the frame with a screwdriver and it seems solid. I can understand why those spots would rust thru. The drain holes probably were clogged.

The things you find out about your car when you start to take it apart. The battery box must have been destroyed at one time. They took another one and slid it down into it and riveted it together. I glassed it all together today. U joint must have went and axle hit it.

 

I have house projects plus work plus everything else in general. If I was 10 years younger the body would be off now.

 

I cannot commit to do this for a few weeks but if you want to bring your car here to Easton, PA we can prepare it and lift the body off for you. You can take your chassis home and restore it, then bring it back here and we can put the body back down onto your chassis. I let the body hang while I work on the chassis. Having done body on, and body off work several times now I can tell you the body off chassis cleaning and repair is the only way to go for thoroughness and ease.

It takes me one day to disconnect everything and I typically lift the body on day two. I use six points of support including the four body straps which I designed and had built just for this application on the gantry; and two nose supports which hold the nose in the correct location and position while the body is hanging and awaiting the return of the chassis.

This is my 72 race replica I did this past summer.




Sitting on a chassis built to serve as a body dolly while I work on my chassis. Best body dolly around in my opinion.


Chassis is easy to work on with the body up and off.


This is the 77 coupe I am working on now. I put it back on the rolling chassis donor while I restore the cars existing chassis. That work starts soon for the winter.



This body is now sitting on my body dolly chassis and my original chassis has been taken apart; media blasted; reinforced; modified; and is now powder coated and ready for reassembly. It will move into the center bay in about two weeks. I am now gathering and preparing all the parts to put it back together which I am detailing in another CF thread.

Several have seen this and been a part of it with me here at my home.

I just put the 77 body I have back on a donor rolling chassis so I can move it off the lift when I want to.

I am 64 and I do these by myself. If you have a lift and a gantry you can do lots of jobs fairly easily.

Just another option for you to consider.

Let me know if I can assist in some way.

Best regards,

David

 

I am 61 and know the feeling. I kept trying to sand and wire wheel the frame with the body on. I kept telling my wife that 8 bolts separated me from disaster, knowing that if I took the body off I would be plunged into a long restoration. I keep testing the 8 body mount bolts and to my surprise they all came loose. Uh Oh

Well you know what happened next



which led to



which then led to



But there isn't any rust on it anymore

LOL

But I am glad I took off the body

Glenn in San Diego

 

Happy New Year to everyone on the forum!

David,
I am very impressed!
I have a Bendpak 4 post lift but am very afraid to do the body off route even though I know it would come out much nicer and once off the frame easier. I am afraid I might somehow warp the body by not properly supporting it. Plus needing more room to store the body. Like others have said, I too am in the middle of whatnwill be and already is a years long resto with other cars in the garage in the way.....

And I'm not getting any younger.

I have one Vette on the lift that I removed all the front end bracing out of alomg with many other parts and powder coated, cleaned and bagged for reassembly after paint. Trying to do it in some kind of order. However, I noticed the nose started to droop about a half inch within a few months so I supported it by carefully strapping it up to the ceiling. My point is, doing it with the body on didnt prevent what I was concerned about anyway.

I like the gantry. The idea of supporting it off the ground makes so much sense as its out of the way. You gave me some needed inspiration. Right now I'm stuck with too many cars to do anything along with the crappy weather. Once I sell off one of the cars (68 Camaro, keeping the Vettes) I will have the room and will want to reach out to you to see exactly how you set up the gantry and how you supported the body. It looks like a great way to go.

Ed

 

If I take the body off i will never drive the car again. I have a lot of projects ahead of me. I have work in my house that needs to be done, I have my 67 GTO that I would like to get done.
You also took a little more than 8 bolts out.

I am just going to clean up the rear of the frame. I have 3/4 of the frame cleaned. The last vette I did a frame off on took 4 years. I did that when I was in my 40's. Going from 40 to 50 is a little different than going from 60 to 70. I don't have the same energy I had when I was in my 40's and early 50's.

I also don't have the room anymore. I have my GTO in one side and the vette on the other.

 

Actually I think you are wise to understand your limitations. Body offs always lead to much more work than you thought.

My 70 was a very clean car to start with, the mechanicals were gone through before I bought it but I wanted to pull the rear suspension completely out to make sure things were up to snuff. After much masking, taping and wrapping things in blankets and drop cloths. I went after the rear part of the frame from the front of the doors back with the blaster seen in this picture. The car looks body off restored after that operation. Great improvements can be had with a little ingenuity.

 

no serious home shop is complete without one of these..

 

I would do it in a second, but I want to drive the car this summer. I also have some body work and paint work to do. The nose has all the bumps on it that you expect from early C3's. The front suspension is new, the whole brake and vacuum systems are new. New ZZ502 and M-22. The interior is new. I did all of this over the past year. Every nut, bolt and washer has been cleaned, blasted or replaced. The rear suspension will all be new. New trailing arms, bushings.

 

Maybe you misunderstood but my recommendation was for body on, not off.

The pic of my 59 frame was the only one I had handy showing the pressure blaster. I farm out big blasting jobs like entire frames. Not worth the time and abuse on my compressor.

 

I guess I did sorry. I have a small blaster I will try it on tight spots.

 

I remember being quite happy with how clean I was able to get the kickups in and out. I used a piece of sheet metal to deflect the blast away from the body, holding it with one hand and blasting with the other. A doofus could cause some damage no doubt. The thorough masking and isolating job went a long way to keep the sand out of places I didn't want it, it was a non issue. Had to spend some time blowing the frame out from different holes to get the sand out but that's about it.

BTW, if you have a siphon blaster, that is no where near as good as a pressure blaster, had both.

I still have the car and this was about 13 years ago. Still looks great but I don't get the car wet.

 

Very nice offer David!

 

The side benefit of working on the bottom side of your car laying on your back is the great abdominal workout. Doing quite a bit of this lately and I'm noticing better definition.

 

6 pack?

 

That was how I did mine. Every time I had to crawl out, I felt the need for a beer. A session under the car usually took a six pack.

 

I read a bunch of the replies.... man oh man (that's all I can say...and dang! you guys are glutens for punishment LOL. The C3 is a fiberglass car. I don't really know why everyone forgets that. There are two other forms of transportation that are made of fiberglass too! 1- the surfboard and 2- the friking BOAT! Let's talk about the later, since the first one is only waxed until it is bitten by a shark, then you just toss it away and buy a new one.
Boats have been around longer than the corvette... however, if we all think about this for one tiny moment, we might just get it. The name of the car "Stingray" was derived from an aquatic fish. Because of the way it moved through the water with sleekness(is that a word?) So, the designer of the stingray turned to the boating industry to get some ideas on how to create a car named a "stingray" that looks like one too.
So, now that I think we are all getting the picture here, maybe you should talk to boat people to see how they take care of their fiberglass boats?... with this say, I know myself from owning "both"(boat and corvette) that boat folks love to strip the bottoms of their boats by "sand blasting crushed walnut shells" you can adjust the air pressure so that it does NOT affect the fiberglass and yet strips everything else away.... including barnacles. Now I know none of you have taken your vettes out for a swim, and they don't have barnacles on them.... but they do indeed have things clinging to the underside that are just as nasty.
So with this said, I hope I was able to introduce a rude awakening!
And if you're as lazy as me, this would be an option
So, ARGH! maties! Chins up (if your car is on a lift) and blast away!

 

Ahoy, You are commenting on a 4year old thread sailor. Post some pics of your car/boat as an intro.

Thx

 

Dry ice blasting is all the rage now and does plastics as well as metal parts.