Frame off or on?

[Guest Kinmann]

Guys, I am tossing the idea around of if I should do a frame off or not. I have a '63 Riv, the undercarriage looks really good and not rusty at all, however, I do plan on restoring it to the fullest whit the body on. I'm going to remove the axle, the tank, etc. Scrape and sand my tail off. The entire front end , motor, and tranny will be off.

Surely I should be in pretty good shape right? Meaning I can do a quality job and have a nice show piece when I'm done, correct? I see all this equipment such as rotisseries , etc and feel I'll be spending a fortune on a one or two time deal.

Most importantly, shoot me some ideas of doing a frame on restoration. It will be a sharp ride when I'm done, but truthfully, I'm not wanting or don't care for it to be judged. Showing it off.....yes!

I have a 71 and 70 that are on the money, beautiful! But thats many years of tinkering. I want this toy from Ato Z to be done in 1 1/2 years. Another thing.... I don't want to get in over my head..... My budget is 20,000

I appreciate your input

[pyntre]

If you already have that much of the car apart you are only 10 bolts , body mounts , away from picking it off the chassis . The wiring unplugs at the bulkhead on the fire wall , two brake lines to undo at the master cylinder ,one bolt at the base of the steering column at the rag collar, the emergency brake cable and the shifter linkage in the trans tunnel . I am in the middle of my frame off and am so glad I proceeded to this extreme . There is nothing better than seeing and knowing that every square inch of the bottom of your car has been blasted clean of 45 plus years of grunge and scale and sprayed and sealed with products that will last for a lot longer than we will be around . Not to mention getting the chassis blasted , repainted ,and rebuilt correctly . Media blasting is cheap for what you get in return , you could lay on your back and scrape for a month ,with a few trips to the eye doctor added in , and never get the bottom of a car as clean as a PRO media blaster guy can do in 2 hours. I say go for it ....Let me know if I can help as most of this is sorta fresh in the last 6 months....

[JZRIV]

I've done a 67 and 71 that were body-on using the method you are planning. Both cars were in what I'd call decent restorable condition up front, ie not rust buckets prior to starting. After completion, one scored 396 and the other scored 398 points out of 400 at the BCA nationals. Many people thought they were body-offs.

I hand scraped the undercoating off then wiped it clean with solvent. I wire wheeled surface rust then filled with high build primer and/or body filler where necessary. This is tedius grueling work but has a nice reward because few are willing to do it.....and understanbably so! Having the engine compartment meticulously detailed is an attention getter and you can do all that without removing the body as you know. Same goes for the rear axle. Once its removed it opens up the back of the car underbody/wheelwells for detailing as well as being able to send the axle assembly for blasting. You can detail the underside in such a way that its very difficult for anyone to tell if its body on or off with a casual inspection other than the appearance of the rubber mounts themselves.

I'm doing a body-off now. To me removing the body is a whole different ball game. Unless you plan to gut/strip the body of every part and take everything to bare metal its not worth removing the body. There are few instances when it comes to Rivs that its financially feasible to go that far "in my personal opinion".

Even though I'm having fun on this one, I can tell you, I'll never do another body-off.

Edited April 9, 2011 by JZRIV (see edit history)

[kdml]

The condition of your car sounds alot like my '65. My plan is to build a very nice driver, but I wanted the underside to be clean and appear freshly restored. I did not want to completely remove the body from the frame, so I unbolted all the body mounts and placed 4x4 wood blocks where the body mounts were. This gave me enough extra room to clean and detail the underside. I also removed everything from under the car (brake lines, fuel lines, etc) and the engine, trans, gas tank and front end are off as well. Basically, it is bare tub blocked up on the rolling frame.

If you go this route expect to be laying on your back alot and have dirt falling in your face (get yourself a face mask and some dust masks)

Doug

[Patrick91914]

If you already have that much of the car apart you are only 10 bolts , body mounts , away from picking it off the chassis . The wiring unplugs at the bulkhead on the fire wall , two brake lines to undo at the master cylinder ,one bolt at the base of the steering column at the rag collar, the emergency brake cable and the shifter linkage in the trans tunnel . I am in the middle of my frame off and am so glad I proceeded to this extreme . There is nothing better than seeing and knowing that every square inch of the bottom of your car has been blasted clean of 45 plus years of grunge and scale and sprayed and sealed with products that will last for a lot longer than we will be around . Not to mention getting the chassis blasted , repainted ,and rebuilt correctly . Media blasting is cheap for what you get in return , you could lay on your back and scrape for a month ,with a few trips to the eye doctor added in , and never get the bottom of a car as clean as a PRO media blaster guy can do in 2 hours. I say go for it ....Let me know if I can help as most of this is sorta fresh in the last 6 months....

Yeah, what he said. You've come this far, taking the body off is easy.

[Guest Rob J]

If you already have that much of the car apart you are only 10 bolts , body mounts , away from picking it off the chassis . The wiring unplugs at the bulkhead on the fire wall , two brake lines to undo at the master cylinder ,one bolt at the base of the steering column at the rag collar, the emergency brake cable and the shifter linkage in the trans tunnel . I am in the middle of my frame off and am so glad I proceeded to this extreme . There is nothing better than seeing and knowing that every square inch of the bottom of your car has been blasted clean of 45 plus years of grunge and scale and sprayed and sealed with products that will last for a lot longer than we will be around . Not to mention getting the chassis blasted , repainted ,and rebuilt correctly . Media blasting is cheap for what you get in return , you could lay on your back and scrape for a month ,with a few trips to the eye doctor added in , and never get the bottom of a car as clean as a PRO media blaster guy can do in 2 hours. I say go for it ....Let me know if I can help as most of this is sorta fresh in the last 6 months....

x2 what he said. I'm in the middle of a body off, and no regrets so far. IMO you just will not get every square inch clean and protected if you don't.

And, you don't really need to spend 1k on a rotisserie. You can easily build a platform for $100 or so in materials to store the body on elevated to access the underside. Look at how this guy is doing it.

http://forums.aaca.org/f163/1958-limited-four-door-riviera-248848.html