mechron

hi, i have some questions about pulling the body off the frame on a 64 coupe. i have eight body mount bolts, the front four are out, the bolts just in front of the back tires at rear of birdcage i have taken the little access plates off inside the front of the wheelwell and can feel the bolt head in there. do you remove the bolts out through these holes? seems kind of tight to get a socket/ratchet in there, and are the nuts captured. when i spin the rear body bolts behind the tires the nuts inside are spinning to, how do i access these? i know you put the body sling in the vicinity of where the front and rear birdcage mount bolts go but exactly where and how do you attach a sling?? pictures would be helpful. thanks in advance. new to the forum but not new to vettes. have been lurking for a while and think you guys make this the best sight for vettes on the net.

woodsdesign

I just cut the bolts heads off. Deal with removeing the rest of it after the body is off. On the captured nut in the rear just use a nut and a large washer when you install it. I have done this several times.

mechron

ok, i pulled the rugs and panels out of the rear interior and see the rear body bolts coming through the interior so i guess ill cut the heads off those 2 bolts. how about rear birdcage bolts?? any body else have any more details about lift straps and attaching them and pulling body???

buns

Yes, there are captured nuts on that body mount. Best bet would be to spray some penetrating fluid on the nut and let it soak. Take your time with these, lots of drama if you strip the head of the bolt or the nut breaks free.

womelro64

Yes, you unscrew the bolts through those little access areas. When I went to remove mine, the nut cage was shot so the nut just turned when I turned the bolt. I ended up getting a small piece of 1/4" steel and wedged it up between the nut and the actual mount -- that held the nut steady while I loosened the bolt. Bottom line is if the cage is gone on those two mounts, getting the bolt off is a PITA but can be done. Good luck!

mechron

thanks guys, the mounting bolts in front of the wheels were a non issue, once the tires were off they came right out. the rear mount bolts were a different story, i had to grind away the rubber bushings between mount and body then get in there with a cutoff wheel and cut the bolts in half, pretty strait forward, except for the nest of yellowjackets in the wheelwell. had to dogfight them off with a couple of cans of carb cleaner while citting the bolts. never thought that would be part of this job. body is ready to lift and dolly is built. 1 can someone tell me exactly where to put the lifting straps?? i know it is in the birdcage area. i saw two ratchet straps at hf that are 2" x15' each rated a somthing like 1300# each with big S hooks on each end, will these work??? thanks for the replies. any other tips on the lift welcome.

mechron

buns, break nuts loose and break frozen bolts sometimes, yeah i do that, strip or round bolt heads, never, snap on 6 point sockets are my friends, thanks for the post.

FastEddy

I had no problem with removing body bolts (I was lucky, car stored inside it's whole life).

For the body pull, I used the standard body lift harness you can get from any of the catalogs. One thing I did that made things easy was to use an engine lift. With the arm extended all the way out (rated for 1000lbs at this setting) it was just long enough. My ceiling in my garage was too low, so I wrapped the straps around two 2x4's the same way on each side, effectively shortening the straps. This worked beatifully, and I highly recommend it. Body can be moved around as needed while on lift. I managed to do this "low" lift with the engine still in, but pulling it first would have gone easier.

FastEddy

PS......the only reason I had to use the additional straps on the rear was because of how broken up the body shell was in the rear.

FastEddy

or just concentrate real hard and "will" the car into the air - as in this picture................

FastEddy

by the way, this 540ci BBC out of my boat was harder on the lift than the vette body - Mine was a little light since it was missing 1/2 the front clip, but still -- it sure ain't heavy!!!

mechron

thanks fasteddy, i didnt notice the two extra straps at first, but i sure did see the d s rear fender damage!!! what happened? beautiful car by the way. i tried levitating it like your other pic but it didnt work, guess i will go back to manual labor. ( nice photoshop)

FastEddy

Lady got tired of waiting in a traffic backup on a two lane road, and pulled an illegal u-turn on a blind curve - blocked whole road and left me no place or time to go - tagged her at about 50mph, spun off her into a BMW sport ute and then a pickup truck - walked away without a scratch - 3" lap belts.........

Rebuilding her myself with custom tube frame, ZR1 suspension, flares. Only enough insurance $$ for parts - I'm just not the litigiuos type....

Here how she looked coming home..........

TX63CONV

I am getting ready to do this myself and have been watching this post closely. Are those S hooks that are attached to the body under the door where the sill plates attach?

I like the idea of using an engine puller. I have a small garage as well and was originally thinking of using the harness with one of the rafters. This might be a better idea.

firstgear

good discusion....I will book mark this page...thanks

mechron

TX i pulled the body and it is on the body dolly i built now. heres how it went, i didnt want to spend 70 some $$ for the corvette body straps and wait for them to come, i went to harbour freight and saw 2" x 15' ratchet straps rated at 1300# each for 8.99 per strap. thouhgt about it for a couple of days and decided to try them. went back to HF and they were on sale for 4.99. after everything is disconnected remove the rocker moldings to prevent damage. look up under the car where the rocker moldings were and you will see there is a virtical steel plate just inside of the fiberglass,lt runs from the rear wheel opening and stops 10 inches short of the front wheel opening. put your rear S hook just in front of the rear wheel opening and your front S hook about an inch back from where where the steel inner rail starts. BE SURE YOUR S HOOK ARE AROUND THE STEEL RAIL NOT JUST THE FIBERGLASS, mine were a tight fit but as long as they are on the inside of the steel rail you are ok. also make sure you the right length between the front half of the strap and the rear, i double looped the straps on the lifting hook so they would not slidein the lifting hook in case one end of the body was heavier than the other. i was not right on about the front and rear strap lenghts and this is very important. my plan was to just lift the body and roll the chassis forward out under the body, when i lifted the body the front straps were a little longer and the front end was hanging down just enough i couldnt roll the chassis out and the body shifted a little going up so i couldnt jus set it down and readjust the straps. i ended up having to pull the chassis out about 30 degrees sideways and out the rear, the gas tank sits pretty high once the body comes off. i did this myself outside by the side of my garage and although everything turned out fine there were a couple of times i had to take a break an think "what the hell do i do now" i also found two more body mount bolts at the center of the car bolted to the crossmember where the rear frame kicks up but yours may vary by year and coupe vs vert. these bolts were not shown on the 63-37 chassis blueprint i have. this is the info i was looking for before the body pull so i hope my experience helps someone else.

FastEddy

I resisted buying the catalog straps becasue it was killing me that they were $85 or so, but they do come with 2 or 3" wide flat "hooks" for attaching to the body that fit nice, and are permenently attached to a triangle at the top - very easy to use - if you place rears at body mount location right in front of rear wheel, and fronts at body mount location right behind front wheel (at firewall), the body should be balanced - I had to move my fronts back a little because I was missing alot of my front clip.

I order parts from Zip corvettes - one state away - gets me anything in 3 days max.

I also was using my new tube frame as a "jig" for getting my body back in shape, so I would be lifting the body on and off many times - I wanted it to be easy - the premade strap is easy - if you have no hight issues, there is no adjustment needed.

mechron

fasteddy, i did notice the tube frame in the first pics you posted, did you get it after the accident or have you had it?? i saw in another post you were considering flares, what kind of flares are you thinking about?? i have the old school big flares on mine but in a thread a while back i saw some flares that made the car look stock but just pulled out at the wheels very very nice, you might do a search, check em out!!!

FastEddy

Got the frame after I realized I was only going to get enough $$ for me to fix the car myself - car sat wrecked in Garage for 6 months while I made up my mind to fix or sell - then decided that if I'm gonna do all that work, I want it to be the "ultimate" vette for ME, just how I have imagined for last 20 years.

Thanks, yea I've checked those flares out - really liked the idea, but after alot of looking, I think what I don't like is that the body will still extend a good bit beyond your tires with those, and I like the look of the tires being all the way out, with no body overhang, like you could get with the old school ZL-1 types. Post some pics of yours if you can - love to see it. So far best choice is big flares from C-3cars that are still available, that I will have to fit to my car - which means I have to get the height right!! The only two c-2 versions available aren't quite what I want - one doesn't curve back onto the body at the bottom, and the other is very wide, but is a longer wheel opening, as long as stock c-2, so it does not fit tight to wheel all the way around - leaves too much gap in front of and behind wheel - these are the ones shown on light blue cover car for year-one - they look great from front or rear angle, but side angle you would need very tall Nascar or racing tires to fill them up well.

Vogie

I am going to add an 18" section to the vertical support and brace straps on my engine lift. This should give me some more height and allow a bit more room between the lift and the side of the car at full lift height. I have a commercially produced modified boom section that inserts into the arm of the lift that makes the boom work at a lesser angle at full height. I'm not sure all of this will work but it seems like a reasonable plan.