I've been given some great advice from forum members on my body mount project, and now have all eight mounting bolts loose, with new parts on the way. A few folks suggested lifting one side at a time to slide out and re-install the cushions. These folks had 1970's vehicles however. I have a hard time believing that the nose on a 1980 is not attached to the frame somewhere. Obviously, I don't want to start jacking the body and crack it. Is there anyone with an 80-82 who has done this replacement? What needs to be done on the front end to lift one side of the car the 3 or 4 inches needed to replace the mounts?

 

IVE THOUGHT OF THE SAME THING. i havnt had the time to get into the complexe body mounts project but i was thinking that it only had to jack about an inch. no problem right? WRONG i forgot that the new cushions would be almost twice the size due to not being compressed over time. So that project is on hold until i grow some courage to start it! you should get a lot of good responses here. listen to them! also hit the [search] button and you will find alot of threads about how to go about this safely

 

Just did my 79 this weekend.
What a PITA!

If I had to choose, I'd rather change the heater core again, maybe even twice, rather than the body mounts! Took 2 of us 10+ hours to change 8 mounts.

#4 where rusted up and siezed. Had to cut the bolt with a sawzall.
#4 frame mount on pass side was actually rotted under the rubber. Had to fix that.


We thought #3 mounts would be the worse, but they actually came out ok, except the rust was too much for the air ratchet. Had to take them out with a standard ratchet at 1 click per turn. (1 hour each) If the nuts on these or #2 where to break, you're screwed.

#2 where not bad although the old mounts where siezed to the body and a real PITA to get off the car.
#1 where by far the easiest.

Getting the bushings out and back in was a chore. Had to slide #2 and #3 in up front by #1 and slide them back along the top of the frame to where they go. If you have any shims in there, .

We did one side at a time, but could not get the body high enough to remove the old bushings. Needed about 3-4 inches. We had to remove all 8 bolts completely to lift each side of the body high enough. The alignment side to side is then an issue.

Also removed the battery ground strap from the frame, removed the master cylinder from the booster so that we did not need to open the brake lines, and found out after we broke it that there is also a ground strap from #1 body mount to firewall.

After 10 hours and a lot of cussing, it went back together pretty easy and sits 1/2 inch higher.

As for the nose, we had the same questions but it it just jacked up with the rest of the car. It's like the nose is hanging off the firewall.

 

It is doable with the front bumper attached. I did loosen the rear bumper on my 80, but left the bolts intact. I agree that this is not a job for the weak at heart. There is no telling what you will uncover sometimes. I had to do some welding on the frame on number four mount, but the others were fortunately in decent shape.

 

Thanks for the input so far. This one of several off-season projects including an auto to manual transmission swap which I've also posted on. Luckily, my car is in great shape, and none of the frame components are badly corroded. Unusual for a vehicle that originally came from Michigan. All 8 bolts are loose after following the advice to soak them for several weeks. I put the impact wrench on the #4 bolts, crossed my fingers, and pulled the trigger. A little rust flew, and they backed out. The rest were easy.

I'll look at disconnecting the nose from the frame. I just have a bad feeling that once I start jacking, I'm going to hear a noise that will cost me big bucks to fix. Please keep the advice coming, since I'm still building the required courage. Maybe a few beers would help?

 

I must be missing something here, because I can't believe that you can remove the 8 frame bolts and tilt the body 4 inches without doing anything on the front (or back) end? Is this really true, because the shop manuals show the front end attached to the frame? Does the body flex that much? I might need more than a couple beers for this job!

 

Some things are better off not wondering about.

 

I think I figured this out. After close examination of the diagrams in the shop manual, the light bulb in my head finally came on. The external bumper (called the bumper cover) is attached to the body only. The honeycomb structure behind it (cushion) is attached to the frame. The two components are not fastened together. Sorry to bother the group about this. Now it makes sense, and I'll move forward with the body lift.