Hey guys, I wanted to pick your brains here as this is my first time cutting out a floorpan and replacing it. I have multiple questions here, and would love to hear feedback on any or all of them before I start cutting.

Incase people aren't familiar with my build, its a 56 pontiac safari (its very similar to the nomad from the firewall on back) and I will be putting in a chevy floor pan


First question,

I was told by a local guy that I should have braced the body while its resting on the ground and not on jack stands. I understand why you would want to do this with a unibody (a lot of dead weight from the suspension hanging from the body). But these cars rest on the frame primarily and the only points remotely connecting the body to the suspension are at the shock absorbers. There is a brace, but that brace is tied into the frame. My shocks are totally shot, so I'm not sure it would even make much of a difference. What do you guys think, should I drop it to the ground, cut out the braces and re-do them?

Here is where the shocks on the rear suspension attach to the floor pan, its pretty much right at the seam between the floor pan and tail pan.






So my second question is for ideas to pull the body off the frame. My floor is in really bad shape, so I don't want to use any of the floor pan braces even temporarily to remove the frame. Initially I was going to put the car on my rotisserie to cut the floor out, I thought it would make access easier so I could repair and replace adjacent panels, raise and lower body on the frame, etc. But I'm realizing it's probably going to be more work than its worth.


The rear body mounts are located under the tailgate are attached to a brace that runs the full length of the tailgate, and also ties in the inner rear quarters. My thought was to weld 1/4" plates to both ends of this brace and use it to support the body in the rear. I would either lift the body with a jack, or loosen the body mount bolts, place blocks or jacks at either side, then slowly lower the frame out from underneath it. My rear most body mounts have some heavy rust on the lower portion of the mounts, so I'm somewhat leery of using those.

Here is the drivers side brace / body mount





Passenger side rear brace. The braces look pretty rusty, but they still feel solid.




My next question is about lifting the front end. I was planning to lift it from the body mounts on the front cowl, with an engine hoist, chains, and spreader bar. Is this the best place to lift?

Firewall



Thanks in advance for any help, I'm open to any and all ideas for removing this body.