So it's not quite like 'the Eagle has landed', but it's enough for me. While
everything is fresh in my mind, I just wanted to jot down a few public notes
on how I did it. My car is an early 67 1600, so this info may not apply to
your car, but here goes anyway.
The Beginning
Mounted four eye bolts into the front and rear outside seat bolt holes. I
put washers and nuts on both top and bottom, but didn't snug them down--I
figured it would be easier on the sheet metal if they could float a little
when the hoist started pulling. I then built two 840 lb test cables with
hooks on the ends. (If you are doing this in the garage, try to keep the
lengths of the cables as short as possible. My puller is about two feet long
and when winched all the way up, put the lifting hook about three feet down
from the reinforced stringers! Not a lot of lifting distance. I attached
the two cables to the eyebolts straight across the body over the
transmission hump, then hooked the cables to the hoist hook.
Now for what I had to take off: I already had the engine, transmission, gas
tank, radiator, doors, chrome, windshield and dash out and the passenger
compartment stripped, so you may have to modify this some. Also bear in mind
that with all the stuff I pulled out, your body may be a lot heavier than
mine. You may want to use a crane type hoist if you think your garage
structure can't take the load. I was told that the stripped body only weighs
about 300 pound, that sounds about right to me, because the rafters didn't
even creak much when we started pulling.
There were eight 9/16 inch bolts through the body to the frame. Two in the
engine compartment about where the engine mounts were attached. Two in the
forward outside edges of the footwells. Two where the seats bolt down and
two more on the shelf behind the seats.
There were six 3/4 inch bolts. Two in the engine compartment, next to the
headlight wells and in front of the body crossmember behind the grille, and
two more in the trunk. The last two we had to hunt to find. These little
devils are mounted horizontally through a frame crossmember. If you look low
into the front of the rear wheel well, you will see the head of the bolt.
These two bolts have nuts on them and they are easy to remove without
getting under the car if you don't mind working by feel. The last two bolts
made me crazy for a while. I almost thought the PO had welded the body onto
the frame!
Remove the cables from the emergency brake handle to the rear brakes. Every
time I raised the body an inch or two, I kept finding another bracket or
turnbuckle. Do yourself a favor and get under there and disconnect
EVERYTHING attached to the body before you start lifting.
The wiring for the tail lights, backup lights, etc. comes back along the
frame on the drivers side. It enters the trunk area in that little well that
always fills with water when it rains. Well, at least I hope it won't on MY
car after I put in new weather-stripping! The wiring harness continued under
the rear of the body, held on by sheet metal tabs. You must disconnect this
from where it comes off the frame on the driver's side, around the back of
the car and to the passenger side. Also open the metal tabs and pull out the
wire that goes to the gas tank sender and license plate light.
In the engine compartment, I removed the steering column from the u-joint
ahead of the steering box and pulled the column out through the firewall. I
also removed the supporting tube that connects to the firewall. On the
driver's side, the wiring harness I removed from the rear of the car earlier
comes forward along the frame and into the engine compartment through the
transmission tunnel. It is held to the underside of the wheel well sheet
metal with more metal clips. Even with the engine and tranny out, I didn't
notice this one until I had the body off the frame about six inches. Also
disconnect any wires going to the headlights and turn signals. My car only
had two wiring harness grounding wires--one in the engine compartment and
one in the rear, but as you lift, look for more harness ground straps and
remove them from the body.
I got the body up and put a set of 2X4 horses about four feet tall under
the body. The horses were made to straddle the wheels with a few inches to
spare, so now I can store the frame under the horses in the about the same
space the car took up originally.
Other than that, I didn't have to do a thing :=)
The lift job took about an hour and a half, with the help of my 16 year old
son. Much of that time was spent cursing and looking for those two @#$@%#$
wheel well bolts! Thanks to everyone who sent me info on how to do this
project. Now comes the FUN part--cleaning and painting!
I know a couple of you offered your help on this job, and I thank you, but I
just didn't know if I was going to do it. The weather has been a little iffy
the past few days.
Paul
67 1600
BTW, was there a football game on today?
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