Planning advice

[DadRchmnd]

Had to shelve the project for the summer as we moved, but, new house is getting a detached shop just for me! Anyway, doing some planning and looking for advice. The front, rear, and trunk need replaced. Should this be done before or after pulling the body from the frame? I'm going to pull the body to descale the frame and paint it before putting it all back together. Just wondering if there is a best practice for this. Thanks all.

[James_Douglas]

A little more detail would help to answer your question.

 

Assuming that you are telling us that you need to replace the front floor pan, the rear floor pan and the trunk floor pan then the procedure is something like this:

 

1. Get everything out of the car that would be a problem with welding sparks flying around.
2 Take the doors off the car and take the trunk lid off the car.
3. Weld a series of 1x2 steel tubing in an "X" pattern to the center pillar from side to side to stabilize the body left to right.
4. Weld a 1x2 steel tube from the bottom of this "X" to the front door hinge area and the same thing on the rear door. I like to go from low in the center to high on the door areas.
5. Weld two 1x2 steel tubes from the trunk rear lip (under it) to the wheel well arch top.

 

Now you have everything stable. Pull the body from the frame and place it on saw horses or a rotisserie.  Have someone come by and blast the body and while at it have them blast the now free chassis. Then you can start on the body reconstruction and in parallel work on the chassis and power train.

 

James

[DadRchmnd]

Yes, sorry, the floor pans are what needs replaced. Thank you for the details! Extremely helpful.

[allbizz49]

I've replaced floors both ways but I prefer to do them while the body is bolted to the frame. More work and harder to access but less risk of stuff moving around from cutting the floors out. You can fo whatever grinding and dressing after the body is off. 

[Dave72dt]

I'd suggest the chassis being leveled, supported at the axles and all the gaps checked and adjusted before locking the body dimensions with cross bracing and/or panel replacement.  Start replacement with the worst section.  Even a section that is in poor condition can be used for panel placement reference and has some structural integrity.  On a framed vehicle, I'd like to see a fresh set of body mounts as well, if possible.