Body Lift

[Bakins]

Thoughts about this: http://www.accessiblesystems.com/bl.php

Thinking of ways to lift my body for the frame swap.

[Run-em]

Lifting ability would probably be OK. But it seems a little shakey to me. Kinda dependent on no wind too. Would not want to crease the body. You'd need a few friends to oversee the process, but it would save their backs. I'm sure others that hve pulled bodies will chime in.

O K, Nick and Laszlo step right on in here and give it a go with some good advice from experience!

[NickP]

Looks frickin scarry to me.

[chevynut]

I just use two cherry pickers, one in front and one in the rear. I have had the body off and on dozens of times while fitting my frame.

I think that gadget might work okay, but it's not necessary. I have also done it with just bottle jacks, 4x4s, and some blocks or jackstands.

[chevynut]

Here's some pics...by the way, this was the way my car looked before I stripped the body down and replaced both quarters, rockers, floors, and firewall. The paint had never seen sunlight .

[567chevys]

I would NEVER use one thouse . Have you ever had big block chevy motor with a tranmission on it ? jack it up as high as the picker in the picture and its scary !!! not saying it wont work but there are many other safer ways to remove a body

[Rick_L]

I use a cherry picker engine lift on one end and and a comealong hung from the header on the garage door opening on the other end. Pretty simple and I already owned those things. I built a little spreader bar arrangement that bolts to the gas tank mounting holes in the trunk floor - this spreads the load on the trunk floor so that you don't pull it out of shape. On the front, I've been using 1" nylon straps snaked through the cowl supports, but the next time I'm going to make some lifting brackets (just a 1/8" strap with a hole for a chain hook) that bolt to the hood hinge holes. That will avoid marring any paint on the cowl supports.

All this is easy to set up, and I can remove or replace the body for mockups by myself. Most of the work to do this is maneuvering everything into place, the actual lift and drop is very quick.

[Run-em]

Looks frickin scarry to me.

Don't hold back, Nick! Tell him what you really think!
(Kinda thought so too!)

Be safe.

[NickP]

I use an overhead hoist system on rails with two spreader bars to distribute the load. Takes longer to get it all hooked up and unhooked than it does to pick the body up with the electric hoist.

[Bakins]

thanks for the suggestions! I need a way to lift it by myself - I work crazy hours ad have to work on the car when I can. The 2 cherry pickers looks pretty straight forward given my garage arrangement - I don't really have a place to hang a hoist. I guess I could build a gantry - but that'd probably cost more than another cherry picker.