Gantry Crane for Pulling Body

[Corvettes White]

Hey all,

I know many people pull their bodies off with 7 friends or a cherry picker. The first solution assumes you have 7 friends that care as much about doing it right as you do.

Seven guys works very well, actually I think 5 work for a total of six. Just
give them some beer but only after the body is off. The beer costs a lot less than all those 2x4's.

We also put the body back on that way. We just took our time and with the guys it made it vey easy to shim the body.

George

 

[Whiplash]

Where are you located in Dallas? I'd like to come over and take a look.
Mike

Mike,

Sorry, I logged off before I saw your post.

Well the body lift this weekend was sort of a good news/bad news event.

Good News:

Everything is disconnected and I only had to cut off one bolt. One of the front bumper bolts would not come out because the nut inside the bumper that is usually welded inside a boxed in part of the bumper rusted out and could not be removed.

Everything else is disconnected and all the parts are bagged, marked, and put into storage out of the way.

Engine hoist extends up to 10 ft high and still clears the sides of the body.

Bad News:

After about 9.5 hours of work yesterday, with Cee's help, the car was ready to go. He came back today at lunch time to help with the lift. However, the
#@**@#$$ body lift straps from Mid America were manufactured incorrectly. The straps are supposed to have 2 straps 70 inches long and 2 straps 68 inches long so you can balance the weight difference from front to back. This kit had 2 straps at 71 inches, 1 strap at 68 inches, and 1 strap at 62 inches. Talk about serious body flex with that kind of setup.

So we called off the lift and pushed everything to side in the garage. I need to order a new strap kit so we can try again.

Even more stupid news. It never occured to me that I could have just tied the 68 inch strap with a few knots to make it the same length as the 62 inch strap, I could have then tied the two longer ones with a few knots to make the difference up. I'm not sure if the straps would have cleared the windshield properly this way but we never even tried.

So the lift is off until I can get a weekend with enough time to try again.

I'll keep everyone posted.

Whiplash

 

[Stingray6974]

Let me know when you're ready to do it again. I'll be glad to lend a hand.

Mike

 

[rgtrough]

Hey guys, I want to pull the body off of my '74 coupe without pulling the engine or trans. Is this possible? Are there any manuals or videos you guys would recommend? Thanks peace Bud

 

[Corvettes White]

Hey guys, I want to pull the body off of my '74 coupe without pulling the engine or trans. Is this possible? Are there any manuals or videos you guys would recommend? Thanks peace Bud

When we dropped he body backon the motor and tranny were in place all wrpped in plastic. Just like the factory did it. Should be no problum. George

 

[Stingray6974]

rgtrough,
Yes it can be done quite easily. I can give you a list of things to watch out for.
Mike

 

[rgtrough]

Hey George and Mike, thanks for the replies. I was hoping this was possible. I have already rebuilt the engine and trans. and now want to install new body mounts and check the frame. I'm still looking for a manual or video about this. I'm sure if I do a search I will find everything I need to know on the subject.
Thanks again. peace Bud

 

[Whiplash]

Hey George and Mike, thanks for the replies. I was hoping this was possible. I have already rebuilt the engine and trans. and now want to install new body mounts and check the frame. I'm still looking for a manual or video about this. I'm sure if I do a search I will find everything I need to know on the subject.
Thanks again. peace Bud

Bud,

I bought the Nolan Adams Video #3 and Body Lift workbook/checklist. You can buy through NCRS or even Mid America. I'm sure some of our other vendors here may have a copy.

Overall I thought the video was a rip off (IMHO). It was MidYear focussed, lacked much in the way of actual video coverage of what needs to be done and the lift options weren't well documented. If you want to watch 8 guys pick up the body then the video is great but they don't show how to do the lift with a engine hoist or any of the things I was hoping for.

What's good is the checklist of things to disconnect and the plans for the body dolly. However, all these things can be found by searching this forum or asking questions.

What I can tell you is that it's not as hard as it seems. I still have the final step to go but the process is straight forward and requires more patience and organization than anything. The riskiest parts seem to be the removal of the bumper bolts and the body mount bolts. You can overcome all of these with proper tools, colorful language, and support from the forum.

I'll post pictures of my lift in a few weeks. My goal will be to shoot the areas most people ask about.

Good luck with your plans.

Whiplash

 

[rgtrough]

Hey Whiplash, How I could ever get 5 of my buddies together at the same time is beyond me. It will have to be a mech. hoist of some type. Tools I have or can get. I know from past experience that support from you guys will always be there. It's that patience and organization I'll have to work on. Thanks for the info. Peace Bud

 

[Whiplash]

Pictures of Lift Day

Well guys here are a few pictures of the lift day. I've got bunch more but these came off my wife's camera. She took some mpegs of the actual lift that look great but are over 100 meg. I'm not sure how to post these yet.

So the final answer is the engine hoist does work for lifting the body but you push the limits.

Thanks Cee for your help this weekend.

 

[Mac]

Neat collage! Makes it look too easy, though. I remember sweating & cursing a bit. :ugh

-Mac

 

[Whiplash]

Neat collage! Makes it look too easy, though. I remember sweating & cursing a bit. :ugh

-Mac

Thanks Mac. It was 40 degrees in the garage but we were all sweating and cursing. I was particularly unhappy with Mr. Nolan Adams as the body dolly (made to spec) was a cumbersome and ill fit. We had to lift the body off the dolly several times before we finally made modifications to the dolly to make it fit.

If you have any idea how to post a 150MB mpeg file I have the actual lift on video. It's about 5.5 minutes.

Whiplash

 

[68Roadster]

Thanks Mac. It was 40 degrees in the garage but we were all sweating and cursing. I was particularly unhappy with Mr. Nolan Adams as the body dolly (made to spec) was a cumbersome and ill fit. We had to lift the body off the dolly several times before we finally made modifications to the dolly to make it fit.

If you have any idea how to post a 150MB mpeg file I have the actual lift on video. It's about 5.5 minutes.

Whiplash

As shown here, Whiplash had to break out tools not normally associated with the removal of a body from the frame.
All in all though it was loads of fun with intermittant periods of complete paranoia and fear (at least on my part).
After spending last weekend disconnecting almost everything (things we missed were found before the body and chasssis were both off the ground), the 30 minute lift party turned into a 5 hour exercise.
Thanks for letting me help Jon, it was fun!
I wanna be there when you drop the motor and tranny in, and of course when the body goes back on.

 

[rgtrough]

Hey Whiplash, thanks for the photos. That is exactly what I want to do. I'm sure I be trying to get ahold of you in about a month. That's a great color. My first new car was a '70 Camaro that was close to that color. peace Bud

 

[Mac]

If you have any idea how to post a 150MB mpeg file I have the actual lift on video. It's about 5.5 minutes.

Whiplash

We don't have the capability to host the video here but if you know of someone who has a website and can spare the bandwidth, it's easy to link to here.

-Mac