To remove body or not to remove body?

[MarcDeSoto]

I've been thinking about raising my car with wood stands to height of about four feet, so I can sit under the car while working on the chassis.  Now I'm thinking about forgetting all that and just remove the body.  I saw a video on how to remove the body from an old restoration video where they remove the body of a 51 Dodge.  they did it just by removing the body bolts, gas tank, and anything else that might be connected to the frame.  Then they jacked the body up and slid 2X4's through the sides held up on cinder blocks.  Then they just rolled the chassis out from under.  What do you think?  

 

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

personally after doing three body off in like manner...I say go for it....it is a simple task....I did mine solo.....king of overkill...used 6 x 6 timber...I had these laying around in the way as it was...

 

 

[allbizz49]

Depends on what you mean by working on the chassis. If you're stripping and painting it, then yeah, remove it. 

[Dave72dt]

I don't know as you need 6 x 6's but 2 x4's won't cut it and I'm not fond of cinder blocks and steel barrels either.

[Eneto-55]

Were you thinking of doing it inside, or outside?  If inside, is your roof structure conventional trusses? What span?  I lifted the body off of my 46 sedan with a chain hoist and a come-along.  Then I slid 2x6s underneath side to side, and set those on 4 15 gallon drums.  I set it down on the supports so that it would be steady, but kept the chains on over head just in case something shifted.  (We put a couple of drive shafts through the 'cradles' in the trusses - 24' span - and hung the hoist & come-along off of those.)  I actually did it twice, the first time with the doors all still on.  (The front clip was already off when I bought the car.)  Then lowered it back onto the frame and after removing the deck lid & doors, lifted it again.  

I wouldn't try it outside, unless I had an overhead A-frame.  I can't believe my mom let us do it, but when my older brother was probably only between 13 or 15 he lifted the body off of a 53 DeSoto out in the back yard, with just dirt under it.  He did it all with jacks as I recall, lifting a bit at a time.  And it was all just for anyhow.  It didn't fall on us, but it sure doesn't seem safe to me in retrospect.  

People do say "they don't make stuff like they used to", and while it may sound silly to say, the wood now is probably not as strong as what they are selling now, unless you specify top grade.  So maybe 2x6s wouldn't be good enough now, but they were plenty strong for what I did.  (I rebuilt the floor from both top & bottom while I had it up on those barrels.  I did also have the barrels set out-board of the body, so that I ad access to the whole area underneath.   (Come to think of it, they probably made steel barrels out of heavier steel back then, too.)

Edited February 11, 2021 by Eneto-55

[Vin's 49 Plymouth]

Buy a boat trailer.?

[MarcDeSoto]

Is it really necessary to remove the doors and deck lid to do this?  How heavy is a body?  I have a 48 DeSoto 3 window coupe.  

Edited February 11, 2021 by MarcDeSoto

[Marcel Backs]

You can save a few hundred pounds by removing the doors and the massive trunk lid. This will make the body much lighter to lift off your frame. Splitting the body and frame will make it a lot easier to clean everything which by now has accumulated tons of dirt, oil and whatever coatings that have been applied over the years. Once the body mounts have been undone, my friend and I rigged up an engine lift with a chain mounted to the front body mounts to lift the front. A long 4x4 was used at the back to raise the rear of the body with me and my friend manually lifting it and placing jack stands on either side. Having the body now lifted to clear the frame you can roll it either from the front or the back depending if the engine is in or not (best with the engine out). Let the body down on jack stands and it is ready to work on. This will take up an extra spot in the garage but the access for cleaning that you have gained to your frame is 2nd to none. It's one of those jobs that seems a lot bigger than it actually is. You can now attack the frame and underbody with the cleaning method of choice in order to get it ready for paint.Once you have things cleaned to your satisfaction, I would use the KBS coatings 3 step process for degreasing, treatment of residual rust and final paint of frame and uderbody. I hope this helps and please do not hesitate to ask if you need any more assistance. All the Best M

[Dodgeb4ya]

A quicker way to remove the body....

[Marcel Backs]

not the cheapest considering the price of a Case backhoe but damn well the safest and easiest. This was a very effective method we used on the farm when I was a kid.  TY for posting !!

[Plymouthy Adams]

one must be very sure of the controlling levers....

[Tooljunkie]

4 hours ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

A quicker way to remove the body....

Redneck at its finest. All i have is a forklift. But certainly the way to go. I lifted the cab off the fargo with the shop crane though. Then rigged up the chassis so i could drive it closer to my pressure washer. 

[Eneto-55]

9 hours ago, MarcDeSoto said:

Is it really necessary to remove the doors and deck lid to do this?  How heavy is a body?  I have a 48 DeSoto 3 window coupe.  

It depends on what all you will need to do, what areas you will need to access.  I suppose you could get to the 'rain gutter'/weatherstrip groove on the deck area w/ the lid still on, but it will be harder.  My door hinge pins were sloppy, discovered later that nearly all of the hinge pins were twisted off just below the serrated area of the head.  My car had also been painted once w/ a heavy-handed brush, and then over the top of that w/ spray.  I soaked my doors in a vat to get it all off.  Also, you cannot easily work on the door bottoms w/ them on, unless you are much better at working upside down than I am.  (I wear glasses, and they fog up if I wear goggles.)

If you are going to roll the body on its side, then the doors would be a bear to handle.  (I didn't turn the body - I just lifted it up high enough to easily get under it, so I could work squatting down.  Not everyone can sit like that, and that was also when I was under 25.  40 more years have taken their toll.  I don't have one of those 15 gallon drums to measure, but I'd say I had it up around 32".  

[pflaming]

Just be very careful. I would never do it again. Mine fell against the wall. I wasn’t close by, but be warned, the fall while in apparent slow motion, is FAST and silent.

[dmartin_egroup]

Good evening:  I am late to this discussion, but will offer this comment:  I removed the body from a 1937 Chevy about 30 years ago, woking inside my garage at home.  I was able to put a plank inside the back window opening, tie a chain around the plank, then used my manual chain hoist to lift the back end of the body up from the car's frame.  I placed saw horses on each side near rear of car, and laid a 2 x 8 plank across the horses, under the body.  Then I moved the chain hoist to another beam in the garage ceiling, and repeated the process for the front end of the body.  The body sat on planks which were on saw horses for several weeks while I dealt with rusted floor pan, rocker panels, etc.   The chassis was still on wheels, so it was easy to roll it out of my way.

The process was actually pretty easy, and the body was high enough for me to work under it in relative comfort.

By The Way, Before removing each of the old rocker panels, I re-inforced the body by putting temporary braces across the door opening, also diagonals from side to side.  It is pretty important that the doors still fit the body when you put it back together!!  Good luck!

[Bob Riding]

I took mine off so I could replace the body mounts- also made brakes and fuel lines much easier.

[Plymouthy Adams]

in looking at your wagon and having some experience on these bodies...could I ask if you had to do rear inner fender metal replacement and even to some extend rear corners...rear hinge panel? .....we all know the typical Briggs rot a the forward cowl/floor pan rot, rocker needs.   My wagon was a Texas car and suffered quite a bit of pan and fender rot....more than one would have expected to see.  I believe this was aided by the fine dust that seeped into every seam and of course add moisture from running on wet roads and we have the recipe for disaster.

Edited February 12, 2021 by Plymouthy Adams

[Plymouthy Adams]

On 2/10/2021 at 7:17 PM, Dave72dt said:

I don't know as you need 6 x 6's but 2 x4's won't cut it and I'm not fond of cinder blocks and steel barrels either.

I agree but they were on hand....I removed these beams from their original intended use and utilized them in three body-off operations.  Alas however they are now permanent feature of my recently built screened in back porch.   If  you look close you will see that I have a 2 x 4 with a heavy angle iron attached that will allow you to fit beneath the rocker front to rear and make lifting easy using jacks...this is what was used to do the initial lifting off the frame to gain clearance for the 6 x 6...I then used the 6 x 6  to attain my working height.  

[Bob Riding]

12 minutes ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

in looking at your wagon and having some experience on these bodies...could I ask if you had to do rear inner fender metal replacement and even to some extend rear corners...rear hinge panel? .....we all know the typical Briggs rot a the forward cowl/floor pan rot, rocker needs.   My wagon was a Texas car and suffered quite a bit of pan and fender rot....more than one would have expected to see.  I believe this was aided by the fine dust that seeped into every seam and of course add moisture from running on wet roads and we have the recipe for disaster.

The right rear corner had a small hole that we cut out and patched. The hinge was fine- surface rust only. The floors and rockers were the issue. We cut out and replaced 3 out of 4 floor sections and both rockers. Funny thing was- the PO swore that the floors were solid- "you can dance on the floors". Yeah, you could if you wanted a Flinestone mobile!

[Plymouthy Adams]

that look more familar...but your car in comparison to what I got with mine you could dance on them floors....but we all know a true dancer is VERY LIGHT on his feet...maybe he was thinking DANCE OF THE SUGARPLUM FARIES

 

couple sample pics of my floor and tailgate hinge area....the hinge panel looked good from the outside...look at what was on the inside.....by far the worse I  have seen...many would have sent this body to the scrapper but they are the ones that don't know what fun is...if not fun, at least not able to recognize a challenge when presented.  That beetle has yet to be identified it but he likes eating metal....!!!!

Edited February 12, 2021 by Plymouthy Adams

[James_Douglas]

In the tight garage here in SF...I got it up and slid the frame out onto the sidewalk to clean if off and paint it. Worked good.

 

One thing for anyone reading this...the Convertible and the Station Wagon in 1949 did not have ANY rubber between the body and the frame. I confirmed this this. It did have a VERY thick steel washer between the frame and the body at the mount points with the bolts going through them. On the convertible at least, you cannot get the engine with the transmission to go in from the engine bay on the convertible. The space between the firewall and the cross member is not enough with the M6. We had to loosen the body bolts and jack the main body up (everything else was off) and slide it in. The rubber in the other cars lifts the body up the 1/8 inch you need...

 

James.

[Bob Riding]

11 hours ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

that look more familar...but your car in comparison to what I got with mine you could dance on them floors....but we all know a true dancer is VERY LIGHT on his feet...maybe he was thinking DANCE OF THE SUGARPLUM FARIES

 

couple sample pics of my floor and tailgate hinge area....the hinge panel looked good from the outside...look at what was on the inside.....by far the worse I  have seen...many would have sent this body to the scrapper but they are the ones that don't know what fun is...if not fun, at least not able to recognize a challenge when presented.  That beetle has yet to be identified it but he likes eating metal....!!!!

Oh my...