Hey all - I'm replacing the body mounts in our '77. I found some great information on the forums, but I'm curious about one thing. Since I'm replacing these one side at a time, should I loosen the opposite side mounts prior to jacking the body up on one side? (I've already done all the other prep such as the steering column, shift linkage etc.)

Thanks in advance for any help,
Adam

 

I loosened all the bolts, then very carefully lifted one side at a time, and lifted just enough to slide the mounts out then back in.

 

Hey Leadfoot - thanks for the reply. That's what I'm thinking as well. Currently working on the #4 mount - fun stuff.

Adam

 

Hmmm... body to frame mounts look like they are due for replacement. Nothing like the desert heat to destroy rubber parts.

 

FWIW, I installed polyurethane replacement cushions.

 

 

Looks like they all screwed out OK , your lucky , there are some horror stories out there with rusted parts.

 

It's been a battle, but not nearly as bad as cars from snow country. Soaking the last bolt now - hopefully I can break that loose today and start replacing mounts. The rust on these from the bolts (and mostly the washers in the mounts) is the most I've found on this car anywhere. Gotta love desert Southwest cars.

 

Expressing my ignorance here - if the body mounts are degraded, but still relatively functional, why replace them? My 71 mounts look like hell, but still seem to provide the spacing required.

 

Hey AJ - I have pretty limited knowledge of this project other than what I've researched for our '77. I do know that the early C3 cars had steel body mounts instead of rubber, but I don't know the details on that as far as if both parts of each mount were steel, what years they used steel etc. Maybe someone can chime in and give you a more knowledgeable answer.

I'm replacing ours because they were literally falling apart and I'm trying to bring back the ride quality to what it would have been new (or better hopefully).

Adam

 

My '69 had aluminum mount spacer pucks, which, when sandwiched between steel washers with steel bolts, created a nice galvanic corrosion effect, turning the aluminum into nice chalky chunks when removed. Not to mention 5 of the 8 bolts seized in their weld nuts. This was an Ohio car, mind you, so the environmental effects are much different than Az.
I did one side at a time as well, and replaced with a new Poly set, made for these early C3s. Also had to replace both #4 Mount Reinforcement Brackets.
Be careful with the front and rear bumper mounts when doing the body lifting.
I ended up removing all the rear bumper brackets to free up the back end, and did some blasting and refinishing of them while they were out, as well as replacing all the fasteners back there.
Good Luck!

 

Hey Bergerboy - Thanks for the reply. I have all the front bumper bracing loose as of yesterday and will work on the rear tomorrow I'm hoping. I'm planing to do the same and clean / detail / paint and replace the nuts and bolts with stainless items to avoid corrosion for future body work.

Adam

 

I'd like to see what you come up with the do the actual lifting of the body.
I ended up using 12" lengths of 4x4's with a notch cut on the end, and these fit onto the body lip under the door openings.
I didn't have access to an overhead lift to use straps so I thought I'd do similar by coming from underneath the same lift points.
I had the car already lifted with my Quick-Jack, but then used the 4x4 on my floor jack to do the body lifting locally.

Problem for me, was that the body lip flanges tended to be somewhat "bendy" under all that load.
Ended up working out ok, but I used spacer shims (1" sections cut from 4x4's) to sit on top of the frame to allow the rocker area of the body to sit down on them while I worked on the mounts. This took the stress off the lips, but I still needed a lot of re-shaping of those rocker lips when I was done. In some areas, the actual rocker horizontal surface also got jacked up and need some persuading to sit back down flat.

For the strap lift method, do the straps cross under the body for full support? Or are there hooks at each strap end to engage with the rocker lips?
It's hard to imagine that those vertical flanges are intended to hold the weight of the fully-trimmed-out bod when it's being lifted off the frame (or during factory install, back in the day).

 

I saw some videos using the method you mentioned, but I'm going to be jacking up one side at a time with a board under the floor pan of the car. Our '77 has a metal floor pan in it (not sure what year they started doing that). Once it's raised up, I'll use some pieces of 2x4 to hold it in place while I work on the mounts. No fingers in between the body and frame ever!

 

FYI, the metal floor pans were introduced in '75, along with the catalytic converter. I, too, used a couple of lengths of 4x4 wood, to lift the body.

 

Hey AdamMeh, hurry up and finish yours and then you can come over to my house and you can show me the fine points of the removal and installation process that you are doing...I'm in Gilbert.

 

What happens, is as the rubber disintegrates, and you're left with just the bolts and sleeves, which don't provide any cushioning.

 

I have another question about this project. Being a "rubber bumper car" ('77), I'm wondering what I need to do with the rear bumper support. Do I loosen the bumper bracing from the mounting points on the frame? With the exhaust right below the rear bumper cover, I'm not sure how much room I would actually gain by doing this since there is really no room to move the bumper bracing once it's loose, and I don't want the weight of the bumper bracing hanging inside the bumper cover.

Thoughts / advice?

Thanks!
Adam

 

Another project done...