Auto Restoration 101

Here is the square tube bracing that I fabricated to help support the body for removal from the chassis. It is 1 inch tubing with an 1/8 inch wall , so it is strong tubing for its size. If you are going to use thin wall tubing I probably would suggest a larger size tubing such as 1 1/2 inch. If you look carefully you can barely see how I attached it the the inside rear quarter panel. There are nuts for the convertible top mechanism in the latch post so I drilled some tubing and bolted it on. This bracing is nothing fancy but it does the job of strengthening the body in between the doors where it is the weakest. The bracing was welded together with the body still bolted to the frame. After I was all done with the brace it was time to remove the body to frame bolts.

This is how I attached it to the front cowl. It is 1/4 inch plate drilled out to use the door hinge holes.


This is the front lifting point. It is the support for the door hinge and also the fender mount. The nuts were already in place, I cut some 1 inch strap to attach my axle strap.

This is the rear lifting point which is a bracket for the convertible top mechanism. I cut another 1 inch steel strap for attaching my lifting strap.

The front body to frame mount on the cowl was stressed cracked. We made some repairs to strengthen it so that we could attach the rotisserie.

The body is now attached to the rotisserie. The rear part of the rotisserie attaches to the rear body mounts under the tail panel. The trunk floor is a little rusty so we will have to be carefull when moving it around the shop. Luckily the body really does not weigh that much all stripped down. The next step will be to remove all of the old tar undercoating in preparation for the sandblaster.