Simul8

I'll be lifting the body off by hand. Is there a right way and wrong way to lift by hand? In Other words, where not to pick it up by. I have to lift it by hand due to the rearend has already been pulled from the car. Pulled the rearend and T/A's to get them rebuilt and found the T/A boxes rusted badly. So I can not roll the chassis out from under the body.
And all I wanted to was change some bushings. :U

lyonsh

Get about 8 people on it, and stay between the wheel wells (i.e., don't lift by the front nose or the rear). Good luck. :cheers:

Simul8

Can you lift @ the wheel well? Or @ the vent? I never seen this done, so bear with me.
I'll be doing this with some neighbors and hate to get anyone hurt. I'll still have to live around them.

gary6696

If it is like the mid-years, the front end is just glued on, so you only want to support everything from the firewall forward, not lift by it. The center of gravity is near the cowl, so you will need two bears up there.

I used ratcheting slings slung from above, plus 8 guys. Also had sawhorses on each side with landscape timbers in between. This arrangement allowed us to pull the chassis out from underneath.. Email me if you want some pics of the operation.

lyonsh

Once we took the rocker panel covers off, we could get our hands between the body and frame. It's front heavy, but the folks on the end have a hard time getting a good grip. What we did, on each side, was:

1. Front most guy had one hand under the rocker, and one hand in the wheel well.

2. Second guy was the big-burly type. They had the heaviest load.

3. Third guy was big-burly too, but not as much as #2.

4. Fourth guy had one hand on the rocker, the other in the rear wheel well.

First and last guys sort of guided the body while the two in the middle did the serious grunting. On ours, my wife and daughter were at the rear. Wife pushed the chassis out from under, daughter rolled the body dolly underneath, and we set the body down.

Being one of the burly's, I can tell you I was grunting pretty hard (OTOH, I'm old and out of shape). It would have been "fun" to have had to walk the body forward. But I think we could have done it. Just make sure there are no obstructions/loose rocks etc. Once we had it lifted, we couldn't see anything but Vette. It might be a good idea to have a 9th person to "direct traffic."

:cheers:

RCB69L36

Just curious to know if the lifting points are the samefor a convertible. And, do you leave the doors on or take them off. Seems like a very fragile point between the wheel wells if you take the doors off.

Curious for future frame replacement.

Thanks. Great info so far. :cheers:

Tired74

I would build a small frame with casters to put under the rearend to roll it out. It would not be that heavy with the drive train out of it. Walking with the body is very hard depending on where it is located. If in a garage it is difficult. I built my own crane and lifting sling to hang the body so I could roll the frame out. I am also changing the frame on my 74.

Simul8

Thanks, I think I'll just slap the T/A's and Spring back in. Won't worry about the halfshafts. The Diff is still just losened up. I'm in a 2 car garage with 2 doors, with post down the center. Not much room. If I get together enough to roll out, it should be Ok. I'll make a dolly to go over the frame for storage. Thanks for your help.
I'm not looking foward to this. But hey that's the cost of having fun.

Restorer

Just in case you are interested: I lifted the body off by myself. I took the t-tops off and ran chains from the metal "barn door handle" looking "seat belt loops" on the floor. I used an engine lift to lift the body off. Supported from there, the body is slightly nose heavy, so I fan a rope from the radiator support to the engine lift just to keep the body level. One man job!
P.S. Don't forget to undo the safety loop before lifting.