caskiguy

Has anyone built a raised body dolly, one that allows a person to locate the body unit over the frame assembly and move it as needed ? Ideas ? Drawings/Pictures appreciated.

Thanks.

Alan 71

Hi C,
I built a dolly (with wheels) to put the body on while I restored the chassis and running gear. It simply supported the body at the rocker channels.
I didn't work UNDER it, (ceiling too low), but worked NEXT to it.
I would push the body forward or backward depending on what I was doing with the chassis.
Regards,
Alan

caskiguy

Thank you Alan. I see what you did, I can modify that. I'll post a picture if what I create works.

OldCarBum

Yes, please post some photos of what you come up with. I have limited space in my garage and I need to build a dolly that will store the body over the chassis, that can be pushed over to the other side of the garage while working on the chassis. I had one for my 33 hot rod and I found a couple of old photos.


.

SB64

RVZIO

caskiguy

I love the fact that all one has to do is ask on this forum and people come to the aid of their fellow enthusiast ! Thank you ! The pictures are priceless.

caskiguy

Thank you, the pictures will help a ton.

joewill

i don't, but i bet somebody has some plans to such a structure?

Buccaneer

What did you use to lift the body off that high? Thanks.

SB64

Good question Buccaneer. The car was in my new detached garage. When it was built I had them run 3 16" wide cross beam headers knowing this would be good foe body lifts and engine lifts. Then I went to northern hardware and picked up 2 1ton pulley systems. Attached them to the header and away it went. I tried to strap the car close to factory so it would lift evenly.
RVZIO










So those are a few pictures taken at different time in my project that show how I lifted the body based on what was available.
Thanks for asking and good luck if you decide to do this.

77Blue

One of the "gotcha's" I ran across when I built mine was the bottom structure will not allow the engine hoist to slide under it. I had to make one side of the dolly removable. Of course I have the same issue with the frame and have to put the rolling chassis on wheel dollies to get it high enough to clear the legs of the hoist. I also didn't make it high enough - I'm currently building an extension to allow me to apply Lizard Skin to the underside.

caskiguy

Thank you the pictures are a great help along with "issues" you've solved. Car looks great by the way, and the LS swap is awesome.

Buccaneer

Gottcha and thanks for the pics. I want to change out my body mounts which is the only thing left to do really on mine. Trying to figure out which is the best way with the least amount of trouble. Read a lot of posts from others, but not too keen on some of the ways to accomplish the task. I'm in no hurry and may be a winter project since the heat here in AZ is starting to go up. Thanks again.

dreno73

I have no way to build hoists in my garage so I'm wondering how to lift the body off the frame to get it on a dolly. 6 guys to lift it from the frame and onto a dolly? I'm new at restoring my 74 and cars for that matter. At first I didn't want to go through the hassle of an off the frame restoration but now that I've looked underneath the car, I think it's the best thing to do.

ignatz

Not quite what you are asking for but with a little adaptation, you might get what you want. I lifted the body off on my two post lift with some 4x4's attached to the rocker area. It took a bit of shaping. To put it back on, I put the partially assembled frame on four dollies on casters. If for whatever reason you can't approach things in quite this way, I suppose you could put together some sort of exoskeleton attached to this structure that would ride on castors that were outside the frame envelope. Of course then the question becomes how would you propose to drop it down? In my case all I needed to do was lift the body high enough to roll the frame with motor installed back under the lift and jockey it around until things lined up and then drop it down on the frame. Managed to do this single-handedly.

SB64

Some have used an engine hoist and there are plenty of pictures of those here on the forum. Personally I was not to crazy about doing it that way but hey it works.
RVZIO

redcruz1120

I built it to have the body sit just inside the Channels so it would allow me to work and weld on all four inserts and both Channels. I used as you can see some 4x6 and 2x6 a couple of 2x4 and lag bolts and casters just in case I had to roll it. I didn't have to much. I also added a front support that the radiator support rested on.

caskiguy

Great engineering. Nice car btw. Thank you

gleninsandiego

What parts of the body are resting on the dollies with flat tops?
I have seen plans for dollies that have pieces that mimic the location of the 8 body bolts but these look simpler. I like simple but do they give proper support?

Thanks

Alan 71

Hi gw,
I built one of each type.
While I restoring the chassis I needed as much usable room in my garage as possible so built a more or less square dolly that supported the body by the rocker channels. The dolly brought the top of the car quite close to the ceiling in my garage. The body sat on it for many years while I worked on the chassis.
When I was finished with the chassis I needed a dolly that would be lower so I could work on the body, and also one that I could use to transport the body to the shop were it was to be painted. That's when I designed and built the dolly that supports the body at the 8 body mounts and core support.
Both were designed and built to be as simple as possible and were only designed to be used once or twice.
Regards,
Alan

My garage ceiling was too low to use an engine hoist to lift the body.
I jacked up the body from below, assembled the dolly under it, and then lowered the body onto the dolly.