Body Lift for a 60 C1

[firstgear]

Do I need to worry about the strength of the body when I do the lift since it is a convertible? I have read at least with C2's convertibles that they tie the car together....do I need to do something like that with the C1? or can I just lift it off and onto the car dolly? Where are the best attachment points to lift? I plan on using my 4 post lift to do this.....nice and slow...straight up....

[2X4's 60]

The body is plenty strong. When I lifted mine off, I had 2 people on each side lifting on the rocker panels. Once up, I had the frame rolled out and the dolly rolled in and set it down. I read in an old NCRS Corvette restorer about putting down some tires (without rims) and rolling the body up on its side so you can strip/clean the underside. I tried it and had no problems at all. The C2's may be more fragile but the C1's are very strong.

[61 Silver]

Originally Posted by firstgear

Do I need to worry about the strength of the body when I do the lift since it is a convertible? I have read at least with C2's convertibles that they tie the car together....do I need to do something like that with the C1? or can I just lift it off and onto the car dolly? Where are the best attachment points to lift? I plan on using my 4 post lift to do this.....nice and slow...straight up....

I used a two post four arm lift to remove the body on my 61 and it worked like a charm. I left the door and hardware on to provide extra support and made up some 4 X4" timbers that fit next to the rocker area and distributed the load across all the fiberglass floor pan. If you have not built your body dolly you may want to design it for clearance in the rocker area. I had to crib the body up to remove the supports. I tried to locate pictures of this process, but could not find any in my picture archives.

Ray

[studiog]

Here is how I did it for my particular situation. I hooked through the seat belt bolt holes and the steel plate the convertible top bolts to. This bulkhead has plenty of metal reinforcement on both sides of the fiberglass. The front straps are secured to eye hooks I put through 2 body mount holes in the floor with large washers that had rubber padding on the bottom side. I had to jack the body up slightly on each side to get the eye hooks and washers installed.

Note: This is the height I needed to clear the motor when I rolled the chassis back under the body.

[IH2LOSE]

Originally Posted by firstgear

Do I need to worry about the strength of the body when I do the lift since it is a convertible? I have read at least with C2's convertibles that they tie the car together....do I need to do something like that with the C1? or can I just lift it off and onto the car dolly? Where are the best attachment points to lift? I plan on using my 4 post lift to do this.....nice and slow...straight up....

Herb

NO WORRIES AT ALL

Let me tell you I had my car on and off so many times.My biggest fear was the weight of the front end just hanging there. But its stronger then you would exspect.

Good Luck,what are you doing for a body dolley.

[firstgear]

Originally Posted by IH2LOSE

Herb

NO WORRIES AT ALL

Let me tell you I had my car on and off so many times.My biggest fear was the weight of the front end just hanging there. But its stronger then you would exspect.

Good Luck,what are you doing for a body dolley.

I have the noland adams body lift book and was going to make the medium duty dolly....I would really like to make the light duty (less wood less $) but don't want a problem later...I figure that I can put the car on that.

Hopefully that would be strong enough to transport to the painter on the dolly on my trailer......comments?

[IH2LOSE]

[quote=firstgear]I have the noland adams body lift book and was going to make the medium duty dolly....I would really like to make the light duty (less wood less $) but don't want a problem later...I figure that I can put the car on that.

Hopefully that would be strong enough to transport to the painter on the dolly on my trailer......comments?[/quote


in the past John Z had posted a link to a fellow building body dollies I hope he still has it


If the car was going on a rotisery then I would build one out of heavey square tupeing

But the benifits to the one John sent a link to

1-the car can travel on it
2-can be broken down for storage
3-they have one that can work for C1 and a C2
4-I also remeber it being real affourdable considering the price your going to pay for the dolley wheels and wood anyways

[JohnZ]

I build a wood dolly for each project that accepts the body exactly at the same mount locations as the frame does, and my painter picks the body up on it, puts it on his trailer, and returns it that way - saves him having to rig something up.

Here's the info on the extruded aluminum body dolly that one of my Chapter members makes - he sells a boatload of them these days: