Question: 1977 Restoration, Removing the Body

[Juskie77]

I just acquired by Dad's corvette, which has been sitting for nearly 20 years, and I need to do some substantial restoration. The body will need to come off, and I was wondering the best way to do that? It seems like other than the front and rear bumpers, the entire body is one piece? Can someone confrim this? Thanks...

 

[6880 Mike]

A Corvette body is made up of several fiberglass panels bonded together into a single unit. It will come off the frame in one piece.

Pulling the body off the frame is not something to be taken lightly. It's a tremendous task. My advice is to leave the body on the frame for the time being until you have a better understanding of what it's going to take.

There are a couple of How-to restore Corvette books. Buy three or four and read how others have done it. Noland Adams has a body lift series including a video. The series is for C2 Corvettes, but the principles are the same for C3s.

 

[Evolution1980]

Juskie77, Welcome to the

You've come to the right place if you are looking for info about working on your car. Hopefully your acquisition was a mutual one and not based on the loss of a family member.

I agree with 6880 Mike as I often do.

You can also use the advanced search function of the forum to find previous threads about doing a frame off resto, particularly regarding removing and working with the one-piece body. I know there was at least one thread that showed with pictures how someone removed the body and built a frame to place it on while working on the car.

If this is your first foray into working on Corvettes, I suggest taking your time and asking lots of questions before you turn your first screw. I hate seeing people new to the hobby start a project and then months/years later end up with a frame, a couple buckets of bolts, and one unhappy spouse!

If you are going to jump into this, make sure your available bankroll is at least $5000 right off the bat. And don't expect to have it completed in one season or year. Frame-off restos are the most expensive and time consuming because it turns into one of those, "Oh, well, since I have access to it, I might as well take care of it now!" Next thing you know you're $3500 and 6 months into it. And/or there's the whole part where you find all the little things under the body that you didn't expect to find.
Corvettes aren't exactly like your standard GM vehicle where parts are plentiful, cheap, and interchangeable. There's quite a few vette-specific parts and year-specific parts.

I'm not necessarily speaking from personal experiences here, but I've seen a few threads that started off like this one is and now it's 1-2 years later and that thread is still being updated by the original author, usually sounding something like this..."Damn, I had no idea! I wish I woulda listened to y'all. I never would've gotten into this! But at least after 15 months it's almost done."

Take your time. Take pictures as documentation. And label EVERYTHING. And ASK QUESTIONS! There's no better place on the net for getting the info you need from people that know their stuff. "You got questions? We got answers!"
Oh, and I'll just post this to save Vettehead Mikey from having to post it...:L... "Get yourself both the Shop Manual and the Assembly Instruction Manual ("AIM")." It'll be the best $60 you spend on the restoration.

 

[yellow77]

I am rapidly approaching the one year anniversary of starting my 1977 frame off restoration. I have progress to date fully documented on another site. I dont know if it would be appropriate to post a link to the thread so I havent, I dont want to upset anyone. Puling the body off is not particularly difficult, but what you find once you do this can be.
If you can perform the work with the body on to make a good 'driver', then that might be the way to go.

Cheers

Richard

 

[shrekviper]

I've been following along with Tim Cote's resto. It's taken him a long time, but he's been doing almost everything himself. Read along and take a look at the picture and you'll get an idea of what's involved. It's a very informative site and has a lot of good pictures, links, etc.

The Corvette Restoration Page - Your Automotive Restoration Resource

 

[Juskie77]

Thanks for your advice. I have been planning on this for some time, and my Dad gave me the car, which he has had in storage. It has taken me almost 15 years to have the funds, time, resources, and space to complete the restoration. I do have the service and assembly manuals which are great guides. I have help of people who have restored cars, not vettes, which I know are different but they have the technical knowledge. I also am planning on working on this over the next couple years, so I think I am taking a pretty realistic approach in regards to the timeline. i have ordered the video on removing the C2 body. I looked on amazon for corvette restoration books, and I didn't' see any that were really detailed other than give a good history lesson. Do any of you own these restoration guides, adn if so which ones do you guys use? Thanks.

 

[6880 Mike]

...I...am planning on working on this over the next couple years...

Double that. Triple your anticipated cost figures.