T-Bird Car Restoration Project - Part 3

Raising The Body And Clearing The Frame

After stripping out all the parts it was time to get the body off the frame. We had removed all the body mounting bolts and double checked to be certain that there were no wires, emergency brake cables, etc. still connecting the body to the frame. Then we stopped to give considerable thought to the next step. Removing the body from the frame can be tricky with convertible cars and, if not done properly, can result in bending the body in half. Therefore, much thought has to be undertaken as to how to go about lifting the body, especially in the method of bracing the door openings. If unbraced bodies are lifted from the two ends they will bend up in the center (the only structure is the floor and rocker panels) and if lifted from the center, the body will bend down as the two ends exert leverage. Either situation results in an awful mess and time-consuming structural repairs.

The solution, after much thinking and testing, was to build a truss assembly that would keep the center portion of the body rigid. Using the trunk hinges as the "peak" of the truss (they are mounted on a very strong, multi-layered sheet metal central support) we cut and drilled/welded pieces of angle iron from the rear body mount point to the hinge top to the windshield post on each side. We then attached angle iron across the width of the car at the trunk hinge peak and additional bracing inside the passenger area. We tested our arrangement on each side by jacking a portion of the center rocker panel and measuring any changes in the door openings. With movements measured only in millimeters, we were confident to move to the next portion of the task.

We bolted a piece of angle iron between the trunk hinges, and another from the trunk hinges to the floor mounting holes.

Our front-to-back bracing went from the windshield post to the trunk hinges (insert). We then added some additional interior bracing.

We decided to lift the body with two devices. In the front at the firewall we would use the engine crane attached to two chains, one on each side. In the rear we bolted a hefty piece of angle iron across the trunk floor and attached a come-along to its center. Doing so, we reasoned, would minimize the body's tendency to roll as it was being lifted. The come-along was mounted on an overhead truss, but we attached floor-to-truss 2x6 studs to transfer any load to the floor.

Chains from our engine crane are bolted to the body using the holes for the body mounts.

We clamped two 2x6s to the garage truss to transfer the weight to the floor.

In the rear, we bolted in a large piece of angle iron which was bolted into the body mount hole. This is our anchor point for the come-along.

T-Bird Car Restoration Project Part 3 - Continued on Page 2