When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I have never removed all the parts from a body of a car leaving only the birdcage when completed but I am going to attempt to do that soon. Anybody have any advice on the best way to approach this and maybe any tips on things to avoid?
Arm yourself with AIM and any other information you can find here on the forum. Take a lot of pictures and measurements. I can tell you from experience, back up all your pictures! It's not good when your laptop hard drive dies. AIM will show all the rivets that need drilled. A heat gun and various blades,wood wedges etc..are your best bet for separating fiberglass sections. I had mixed results, some sections came loose clean and others didn't. Be prepared for some patch ups. Best of luck, it's a journey not for the fainthearted.
Hi David, as mentioned above I used a heat gun and infra red temp gauge to remove the 69 front clip from my donor car. Another tool I found to very successful was a slim jim as well as a strong scraper.
Take your time and do it ONLY when you are in the mood.
r
been down this road before , my suggestions......a GOOD heat gun , a camera , one of those painters scrapers and a small hammer to help the scraper along and last but probably the most important........a double load of patience....as stated before , it is not for the faint hearted. its a lot of time consuming , hot and frustrating work
Clean birdcage will be use to help another forum member put his birdcage back in good order.
Removing rear section from the birdcage is my goal and salvaging the rear quarter panels for another forum member if I can do so.
The front clip was damaged in an auto accident and I have removed that damaged section (nose clip) already. I have inspected the rear quarter panels and they are in pretty good shape, have an interested party in the quarter panels from the seams downward to replace his flairs which he does not like. I am most interested in the separation between the birdcage and the rear quarter panels if I can do that without damaging them, we will see. I first need to remove the rear window and have offered that to anyone that wants to help remove it, but no takers thus far. Rear tray is out. Rear retractable shade is still in there, need that window out first.
I will let you know how it goes but I do appreciate the helpful advice.
From: Las Vegas - Just stop perpetuating myths please.
Well i have to say up front i have never removed the "bird cage" though i have replaced my body mounts with body on. Thank god my inspection of the visible parts of the bird cage showed it was mostly good as is. But i have followed a lot of these bird cage R&R threads here and suggest u do a search to see what others posted.
From what i have read the early C3 bodies require u to cut and separate the body in halve at the door jam to remove the cage. This can produce some alignment errors when reconnecting/fusing the body parts back together. FYI the best trick i have see is to attach wood or metal beams/bars that overlap and bolt together while the body is in 1 piece. Then after cutting the body and refurbing the cage to assemble with the correct alignment the beams/bars bolt back together to return the original alignment. Does this make sense? Well thats the best i can explain as im sure u will find the original information with a thread search - try "bird cage".
Hope this helps and please post your efforts so we can follow along.
Kinda coincidence but a meet a guy from NY that does a lot of car restorations/build. Now has a '66 BB chevelle but has done like 4 cobra kit cars and a '65 or '66 stang. U guys must have a lot of time for garage projects in the winter up there.
I did a complete body seperation (even the back) and while at it I have sandblasted and zinc coated and powder coated the cage.
It's a hell of a job. I had the advantage that I had a donor parts car to experiment on.
It involves a lot of pre-assembly fitting, testing, measuring etc. But in my case everything went well.
I made one mistake during the assembly and that was that I used 3M 8115 to fill up the holes left by the screw. The material expands and shrinks differently than the body so it shows under the paint.
It was like two kids in a candy factory, actually three kids, and it was great to meet and talk. Yes, you will see it again I am certain.
David
David,
It was great meeting you and thanks again for the birdcage. It is already in play to fix the 72 coupe, which should be a a stellar car when finished. So in the end you accomplished some pretty impressive feats in purchasing and re-purposing these C3's. The 72 coupe will be repaired with the 81 birdcage, a ZZ4 engine for a new owner and the restored rolling chassis will go on to renew another C3.......plus you made a few bucks!! I'd say it was a win-win deal. Thanks again Gordon for giving me the heads up on the car. When I get the cage repaired, I expect you to come down and play in the new shop to put this thing back together with me
Thanks again Gordon for giving me the heads up on the car. When I get the cage repaired, I expect you to come down and play in the new shop to put this thing back together with me
Designer Imagines A Corvette That Looks More Like a Corvette Than the Corvette
Slideshow: A Jaguar designer's personal project imagines what a modern front-engined Corvette might look like if Chevrolet revisited the golden age of the Stingray.
Removing A Birdcage - Seeking Advice
and we are good to go.