Lifting a body off ... Questions

JeffP1167

JeffP1167

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Location
Yucaipa, CA.
I want to lift the body off my 82 corvette to do a lot of fiberglass finishing underneath it. Can the body be safely lifted with the front clip still attached? I basically need to lift it off then rotate the body upside down for these repairs to simplify things.

I understand it is best to brace the doors which I can make nice steel braces for this part. Is a convertible prone to other flexing that requires additional bracing over what a coupe needs for this?
 
Front fenders/clip is bonded to bird cage steel, so it comes with body....the doors need to be supported, if you don't have a proper lift, we tied the front to the lift with a strap, so supported the nose, it was a chrome shark, convertible....due to the way the lift operated we did not have to support the doors area.....



I did ONE shark frame change at a vette shop, took almost a week,

:nuts:
 
mrvette said:
Front fenders/clip is bonded to bird cage steel, so it comes with body....the doors need to be supported, if you don't have a proper lift, we tied the front to the lift with a strap, so supported the nose, it was a chrome shark, convertible....due to the way the lift operated we did not have to support the doors area.....



I did ONE shark frame change at a vette shop, took almost a week,

:nuts:
Click to expand...

My friend has a forklift for lifting the body off so thats no big deal. Probably will also steam clean the bottom of the body as well as the whole frame and associated parts.
 
Our lift was a 2 post deal, with the V arms and pads, grabbing the lip of the body metal on each side, and I forget how we rigged the nose, but it was supported.....the body went up by second day, and out came the frame/engine and shit for the frame swap....50 billion 200 million bolts.....

:hissyfit: that's a exact count BTW.....

:cussing:
 
JeffP1167 said:
I want to lift the body off my 82 corvette to do a lot of fiberglass finishing underneath it. Can the body be safely lifted with the front clip still attached? I basically need to lift it off then rotate the body upside down for these repairs to simplify things.

I understand it is best to brace the doors which I can make nice steel braces for this part. Is a convertible prone to other flexing that requires additional bracing over what a coupe needs for this?
Click to expand...

I read somewhere (not that I believe everything I read) but it said, "corvette bodies don't do well on a rotisserie." They could crack. Wonder if anyone here feals the same.

Danny
 
The frontend (without the hood, grille, bumper. radiator support) will probably be OK but the rear body of a convertible should be supported.
 
JeffP1167 said:
I want to lift the body off my 82 corvette to do a lot of fiberglass finishing underneath it. Can the body be safely lifted with the front clip still attached? I basically need to lift it off then rotate the body upside down for these repairs to simplify things.

I understand it is best to brace the doors which I can make nice steel braces for this part. Is a convertible prone to other flexing that requires additional bracing over what a coupe needs for this?
Click to expand...

The coupe's lift real well with the doors and Ttops in place if you support the nose. The nose is heavy forward of the wheel wells. When lifting with the nose unsupported you will see the highest point in the wheel well start to pucker outward,in other words if you measured the wheel well opening at the bottom its widest point you would see the measurement get smaller.I have seen many wheel wells crack at the very top when not supported.(Hope that was clear.) IMO and I have never done it but if you flipped the body upside down the nose would then support itself pretty well as far as the wheel well opening. But really if your going to pull and flip you need to make up some kind of jig to support for the pull and then be able to flip. I wish I would have taken a picture but I saw a guy many years ago that made a wooden structure to support the body for lifting and when the body was off and sitting on stands he then added 2 large arch's that went like 300 degrees around the body,he then rolled the body over to work on the bottom and could work position it at any angle. This thing looked bubba but it worked just fine for his purpose and for him it was important that he could salvage the wood afterward.
Verts and coupes are the same as far as the nose,verts need extra support for the rear end,I would not trust the door shim-wedge-cone thingy to support the rear when lifting.
Try to find a pic of a body of your type ( not sure if your 82 has been converted to vert) stripped and you can see the weak points,keep in mind this car "needs" the chassis for body support so when you separate the 2 the body needs support.
I have a jig that lifts both body types using a cherry picker and is adjustable using the body seams and frt WW but never had a need to invert.

Thinking way outside the box with gravity in mind I wonder if you "could" invert the car and get the body supported and then lift the chassis from the body ? :huh::amazed: ( i was born blond :zzz:)
 
DWncchs said:
But really if your going to pull and flip you need to make up some kind of jig to support for the pull and then be able to flip. I wish I would have taken a picture but I saw a guy many years ago that made a wooden structure to support the body for lifting and when the body was off and sitting on stands he then added 2 large arch's that went like 300 degrees around the body,he then rolled the body over to work on the bottom and could work position it at any angle. This thing looked bubba but it worked just fine for his purpose and for him it was important that he could salvage the wood afterward.
Click to expand...

I worked with a guy who modified one of these to turn a body up on it's side

View attachment piano_dollies_and_trucks.pdf
 
Simply leave the doors on the body. You can jam some paint stir sticks into the gap between the rear upper part of the door and the door opening - this will prevent the body from flexing.

Lift the body from the wheelwell openings and it will lift just fine with no other support. When you set it on a dolly, you will need to provide support for the nose of the car and for the rear body attach points. The nose can be supported right up underneath the metal backing for the forward nose panel (just forward of the hood opening). Pick up the body mount locations for the rest of the supports and it will work fine.

Photos below show a body lift, placing the body on a dolly, and some of the dolly details:

Scan0002.jpg

Scan0003.jpg

EEBodydollyfrontdetail.jpg

FFFBodydolly3.jpg
 
lars said:
Simply leave the doors on the body. You can jam some paint stir sticks into the gap between the rear upper part of the door and the door opening - this will prevent the body from flexing.

Lift the body from the wheelwell openings and it will lift just fine with no other support. When you set it on a dolly, you will need to provide support for the nose of the car and for the rear body attach points. The nose can be supported right up underneath the metal backing for the forward nose panel (just forward of the hood opening). Pick up the body mount locations for the rest of the supports and it will work fine.

Photos below show a body lift, placing the body on a dolly, and some of the dolly details:

Scan0002.jpg

Scan0003.jpg

EEBodydollyfrontdetail.jpg

FFFBodydolly3.jpg
Click to expand...

Approx. how many feet of square iron did it take to make that dolly?
 
lars said:
Lift the body from the wheelwell openings and it will lift just fine with no other support.
Click to expand...
On a C3 ? I know the C2 has some extra glass in the wheel wells but it still looks scary in the pic,Lars you have some big balls. :amazed:
 
Def not on a C3 and certainly not the early chrome bumpers. Their quarter panels are very weak. Indeed the C2s have much more structure in the fenders than the C3s. I would not do it.
 
The factory lifted the bodies (C2) from the wheel wells as I did in my photo - I duplicated the factory lift.
 
lars said:
The factory lifted the bodies (C2) from the wheel wells as I did in my photo - I duplicated the factory lift.
Click to expand...

Yes i do remember seeing the pic of the factory line,and I believe some of the C3s used the fenders (with padding) to balance but there were main supports under the doors in the bird cage. The OP has an 82 and after 78 the fenders were trimmed for larger tires and many crack with no lifting. C2s are tough !!!
 
BBShark said:
I worked with a guy who modified one of these to turn a body up on it's side

View attachment 809
Click to expand...


Thats interesting,gives me some idea's for a new body fixture.
A lifting and rollover fixture that could be broken down and shipped might be marketable to rent or just be passed around from member to member.
 
dolly

I would also like to know how many feet of that square tubing you used. I need to do a "separation" in the future and I like the way you did that.
 
Let me know how many feet of square tubing you used. I need to do a separation in the future and I like what you did.
 
Shark bodies are incredibly heavy on the front end. I helped a friend replace a radiator support on a 72 and the nose dropped over an inch and a half when we unbolted the support from the body.

I have also assisted on a body from frame lift on a 69. Same thing. Nose is HEAVY ! ! !

You need to get some support on that front end. IIRC we strapped around the nose portion and then ran a strap from there to the center lift point for the other four lift points.

Rich
 
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