How to make a dolly for my body?

[desoto1939]

On all of the postings on this topic and of the various body styles that are either up on a hoist on a cart or even on a rotating unit I have an issue with all of them.

 

The issue is that the body has been removed from the frame.  The doors have been removed and now you have no support for the door area.  I have attended several AACA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia Pa and there have been each year several restoration shops that put on seminars about restoring cars and trucks.

 

After they have taken the doors and truck and other supporting items they all do an X bracing at the doors and across the interior of the body to prevent twisting of the body.  This is also to insure that the body does not get out of alignment with itself and that when you go to put the doors and truck lid back on the body has stayed straight.

 

This is especially important if you need to weld in new rocker panels and or other major body panels.  One of the restorers even use a hand pressure lawn tank to spray the interior of the rocker panels. He drills small holes so that he can spray in a rust preventer and to coat the interior  panels to prevent any rust out in future years. 

 

Think about what you are trying to accomplish and plan it out and write it down and go over your steps several times before even starting the work. Have another car guy look at your process steps he might find where you might have missed something.

 

And best suggestion is if you have gone this far do not rush your work  you have one time to do it correctly and then after it is all put back together its too late to try to repair something else that should have been done.

 

 

Plan and then plan again and then plan for the third or even 4th time. Take lots of photos because you will forget what you took apart. or how something goes back together.  If you have a budget then and another 50% to the budget for cost overrun and for unknown repairs and issues and tools that you need to purchase.

 

People wonder why a professionally total restored car such as a common Desoto, Plymouth, Dodge or even Chrylser has a larger selling price when the car is complete.  Just think of the amount of time and correct steps involved such as the steps for just bracing the body. This is all extra time but has a cost if you want a professional restored ground. up restoration.

 

Just my $5 comment.

 

Rich Hartung

Desoto1939@aol.com

[Frank Elder]

If your floors and rockers are good then shut and lock doors thats all the rigidity you need if it is a flimsy rustbucket then you have no business taking it off the frame yet.

[allbizz49]

I've painted a lot of cars off of the frame. Mostly on cart/dollies, sometimes on a rotisserie. All body work, panel replacement and prep is done on the frame with NEW mounts. The body isn't removed until final final is done. If you're not doing any body or paint work, make a simple table and pull that sucker. If you are doing body work, make sure it's 100% titties before you do. It's not as big as a deal as it seems. Your chassis will be that much nicer. Just my 2 cents but I have done this more than a few times. Good luck.

[MarcDeSoto]

Thanks, Frank and Rich for what I would raise up to $10 comments!  Luckily, for me, my car spent its earlier life in Palm Springs.  For those who don't know where that is, it's in the Mojave Desert in Southern California.  And seeing how dirty the under carriage of my car is, you would think half of the Mojave Desert is under my car!  My car was completely, and I mean completely undercoated when it was new, so there are no rusted out rockers or floors anywhere.  So, after Rich's  and Frank's comment about rigidity  and body alignment, I think I'm going to leave the doors on when I remove the body.  I crawled around under the car today and saw that making the dolly 8 feet long would be a mistake.  As everyone knows, the frame and the body curve steeply upwards after the quarter panel to make room for the gas tank and the large rear axle.  So I measured from the cowl to quarter panel and got about 6 feet.  As the width of the cart, I measured about 5 feet from rocker to rocker, just inside of the crimped part.  So the dolly I will make will be about 5 X 6 feet.  My next question is how tall should I make the dolly?  It will just be for rolling around because I don't plan to do any major work on it except to steam clean and pressure wash it, and maybe spray it black.  

[MarcDeSoto]

"If you are doing body work, make sure it's 100% titties before you do."

 

This must be some kind of slang I don't know yet.  The only body work it needs is a crease on the door when the door check broke and the door was pushed into the front fender.  I do plan to paint parts of the car like the cowl when it's off the frame, and I plan to sand it and prime it off the frame.  For those people who take the doors off the body, how in heck do you take the door checks off?  There's no way that I can see other than to cut them in half!  

[allbizz49]

If you're not doing any major work, don't worry about it. These things flex and twist around, being bolted to the chassis with new mounts is where it will live. Any serious panel replacement or bodywork priming, blocking needs to be done on the chassis. Sounds like you'll just be doing some cleaning and detailing. My reference to being titties just means it needs to be 100% before removal if you're doing bodywork. Lots of ways to skin a cat, just do what works for your needs and that is safe. 

[MarcDeSoto]

Do you know some magic way to remove and or replace door checks?  Somebody wrote somewhere on a previous post that the door checks for 60-66 Chevy trucks might work.  I checked out the video on this, and it might work, but the door post part is external on the truck and inside the post on the DeSoto, but it might still work.

 

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by MarcDeSoto

[Sniper]

On 2/14/2021 at 3:34 PM, MarcDeSoto said:

Sniper, that's an impressive gantry that you built!  But I think my HOA would not allow me to have that large equipment outside of my garage.

 

I built it just small enough to fit in the garage.  So it's only out long enough to do the job then it's back in the garage.  fits around the Cuda no problem when not in use.