ebruns1 Posted October 14, 2019 Report Posted October 14, 2019 Huge step for me this weekend! My buddy Tom came over with his bigger floor jack and taller jack stands. He suggested we pull the steering tube after disconnecting the shift linkage to have less clutter so we did just that. Only the steering shaft was left. I had previously removed, cut, ground, drilled all the body bolts (or so I thought...). After reading your suggestions on removing the doors I decided to leave them in place for now. So, next we slipped some 2x4's just behind the rocker panels where the 3 or 4 cross bar body channels would distribute the load and then started jacking. We got the front up to almost the capacity of our jacks (mine is only a 1.5 ton Harbor Freight special) and set up the jack stands with some doubled 2x6 beams. Next step was to do the same to the back end. Funny thing, we started jacking and the front started rising and not the rear. We were lifting just in front of the rear wheel fenders under the last rocker frame bracket. Took another look and Tom spotted yet another 2 frame/body bolts under the rear trunk "c" channel. I didn't check in that small gap and sure enough there are 2 carriage bolts that were still holding the rear end. Once we unbolted them the rear end came up smoothly like the front. Then we moved back and forth slowly bringing everything up higher with the help of some paving blocks we needed to get more height on the floor jacks and also the jack stands. I don't like doing this but they are solid concrete so they really can't go anywhere and it worked perfectly. When we got to the highest we could go looking from the rear you could see that the rear pumpkin hump and the rear wheel kick up was still going to hit. Thought about letting air out of the tires but it still wasn't enough so wound up removing tires and slipping some plastic furniture sliders under the bottom shock mounts. We knew it was going to be close. I grabbed my front end loader and hooked up a tow strap. Slowly, slowly, slowly I pulled out the frame while Tom kept an eye on the stands. Just cleared them by 1/4"! Woo-hoo the frame was out! My welder is coming today or tomorrow to assess the rockers and floor pans to see what he needs to fabricate. There are one or two floor cross supports/frame mounts that need replacing. The were originally press formed steel I guess. What have you guys done to replace these? Are they easily fabricated with some tube steel or c-channel? Anyway, it's nice to make some progress! Now I can hardly move, my back is shot and my knees are throbbing...time for more advil! Why didn't I start doing this 20 years ago when I was young(er)! Oh well...I'm learning a little more every day. 1 Quote
Sam Buchanan Posted October 14, 2019 Report Posted October 14, 2019 (edited) Yep...for us, uhhh, mature guys our cars are built out of blood, sweat, and......pain! Congratulations on a successful delivery, now the work can begin. Edited October 14, 2019 by Sam Buchanan 1 Quote
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