1957 body off frame

[Dan Coghlan]

I'm planning to pull the body off of the frame on my 57 Coupe soon. Who has done this without a lift? How did you do it? And how hard was it?

Thanks,
Dan

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I have removed a body off the frame, and the easiest way to do it is to jack up the vehicle as high as you can, place jackstands under the front and rear, then raise the jack up onto a solid platform as high as you can, then jack up again, until you get it high enough so that when you drop the Chassis, you can get it out without having to move the body.

Once the car is high enough, place solid tall jackstands under the body itself, as in under the Sills and Rear, and then lower the chassis, carefully, and if necessary, remove the wheels and put dollies under the chassis, and roll it out.

The secret is to place the body stands where the chassis won't hit them, and if you can, add extra supports over the body to hold it up, just in case.

Or, you can build yourself a couple of A Frame gantries to lift the body off.

Or, get a heap of strong people to help you lift it off, but then, you have to put it down without hurting anything.

The big thing is to make it lighter by stripping it out, and removing the front clip.

Bruce.

[LinkC]

I just got done taking my 57 sedan body off using noting but 1 cherry picker and 3 straps. It wasn't exactly the safest thing I've ever done but it got it off and on to the rotisserie I built.