mission creep! lifting the body off 4-cyl. car

[22touring]

One thing led to another, and now I'd like to lift the body off my touring car in order to repair a little rust.

 

I searched this forum, as well as in the Book of Information and the Mechanic's Instruction Manual, but didn't find anything discussing exactly how to remove the body. Can anybody point me to such a discussion. or has nobody discussed it because it's pretty obvious when you get under the car which bolts you need to remove?

[trimacar]

It should be pretty obvious, when you crawl under the car, there'll be 8 or so bolts through the sills and through the frame.  You'll also have to disconnect all wires and lines from the dash, disconnect steering column (on a touring you can usually drop it slightly and just lift the body over the column).  Hood, rear fenders, splash aprons if attached to body, and so forth, need to be unbolted.

 

On an older touring, I'd sure be tempted to remove the doors, and make braces that go from hinge points to door latch points, securely fasten, to prevent any body shift.

 

Also, when the body is taken off, make careful note of any shims under the body bolts, very important, this is how the factory made the doors fit correctly on a touring.

 

Raise body up slightly, and slip a two by four or four by four board under the front and back of body, a couple of feet in from each end.  At this point, you should have removed as much upholstery as possible (cushions and such) and removed the top if possible.

 

You can then either use strong backs on the cross boards to lift, or hoists.  You could also jack up each side of each board, then roll the chassis out from under the body.  Go slowly and carefully, to make sure you don't warp something or forget something that's attached.  Have fun!

[22touring]

I've already got the front fenders and hood off, and just wish I could lift the front of the body far enough up off the frame to be able to carefully weld in some small sheet metal patches at or near the bottom of the body.

 

I'd hate to remove the top, seats and rear fenders if I can avoid it, and when I don't really need to lift the body completely off the frame.  I am thinking of removing the front two bolts holding the body to the frame (the ones in the farthest-forward corners of the passenger compartment) to see if I can lift the front of the body up a little, maybe and put a couple of wood wedges between the body and the frame in the front.

 

Does this sound possible, or am I dreaming again?

Edited September 8, 2016 by 22touring (see edit history)

[Taylormade]

You're not going to be able to lift the front of the body without removing all the body bolts and disconnecting the steering column.  Trying to force just the front of the body up could cause real damage to these old touring bodies  - not much meat in the lower areas.  That's the reason for the advice about door braces above.  I also would not weld on a body with an interior.  It's a real fire hazard.

[trimacar]

Are the patches to repair rust damage on the frame of the car?  If so, I'd be willing to bet the main body sills at that point have some rot, which compounds your problem.  Lifting a good body off a frame is not a huge deal, but lifting a body with bad wood in it is tough without causing further damage.

[RickBrinker]

There is no wood in the body of my 25

 

[22touring]

trimacar: no, the frame is excellent; I just need to repair bilateral rust holes at the bottom of the cowl.

 

Rick Brinker: no wood in my '22 touring car.

"Lifting a good body off a frame is not a huge deal"  - But lots of things to remove, including the steering column, wires, rods, seats and upholstery, rear fenders, etc.!

 

Where there's a will, there's a way! I am going to keep trying to find a way to carefully weld in patches to the bottom of the cowl without lifting the body completely. "Some may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one!" (I don't think.)

 

I will advise if and when I admit defeat!

[trimacar]

I missed that it was a Dodge Brothers, and that's true, there'd be no structural wood in the sill, as in most cars back then.  I know it sounds funny since it was in the DB forum, but I look at "unread" and don't look by specific forum.   I don't mean to make light of the task, it's just that I've done it numerous times and, while composed of a number of tasks, in the end it's not as difficult to remove a body as one would think, on an early car.

 

I once restored a 1934 Pierce Arrow sedan.  I had the rebuilt engine in a crate, all the rebuilt accessories for the engine on a shelf, a rolling restored frame, and a body in primer.  A friend of mine came over to my warehouse (in Louisiana) about 8 o'clock in the morning, took a look around, and said "let's put this thing together"....at 5 pm that afternoon, we were sitting on boxes driving the car around the yard, body bolted on and all......

Edited September 9, 2016 by trimacar (see edit history)

[MikeC5]

After I unbolted the body and got all of the wires, etc. out of the way, I first had a helper lift and inserted 2 x 4 under the side rails.  Then used an engine hoist load leveler and cargo straps hooked to eye bolts in the 4 far corners (body bolt down holes).  The lifting is done via manual 1 ton chain hoist hooked up to a beam in the garage.  I have some other photos in this thread that show fixing the same rust areas you mention.

[MikeC5]

I thought I had added these to a thread somewhere but couldn't locate it.  The first photo shows the repair I needed to do on the lower rail (once I cut away the rusted outer skin and saw the mess inside).  The second shows the outer patch being readied for tack and plug welds.  Hopefully your rust isn't as advanced as mine was.  I have many more photos if you're interested.

Edited September 10, 2016 by MikeC5
forgot (see edit history)