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I need some advice on removing the body from the frame. I have a 2dr sedan 56, I'm going to be replacing the complete floor so I want to remove the doors before I remove the body to make it lighter, some say I don't have to brace the body because of the post and other's say you should always cross brace the body when you remove the doors. I look at previous posts but didn't find any thing. Pictures or drawings would help:confused: Thanks
A solid 2 door sedan body does not need bracing. But since you are removing the floor, I would brace between the B pillars to keep the rocker panel area in the correct orientation. I would align the doors the best I could before removing them. Don't get too carried away with the bracing, you might need access to the rear passenger area to at least do some tack welding. Finish welding can be done after the braces are removed. Also do your floor fitting etc. using the frame as a jig, using new body mounts.
I didn't use any bracing when replacing the floors in my Nomad and it turned out good. A Nomad body is similar to a sedan. I used floor halves and all new braces because that's all you could get at the time, except for a $2700 welded 2-piece floor from Sherman.
I'm not sure I'd worry about aligning doors if you're going to remove them because the body is going to flex and they will have to be re-aligned when installed. If you leave them on to do the floor, then it makes sense to align them so you can tell if the body has moved at all. With a full welded floor the floor width is pre-determined so the rockers will need to be set at that width against the floor flanges.
I sure wish they'd had full 1-piece floors with braces and inner rockers when I did mine. :)
I worked on a '57 version years ago, the body was normal east coast stuff with some rocker and floor damage. Doors operated okay, don't think things were moving around. We put two lengths of 1/2" conduit across the door openings. Could have x'd them I guess but we just ran them parallel a few inches from the floor and just where the dash cleared at the top. We also put one length between posts about mid-way up the back of the seat. None of the glass cracked which is what we were more concerned about.
Thanks guy's, I'm going to have to change the outside rocker's also. Just so I 'm on the same page the B piller is the post correct?