What's all involved in removing the body from the frame on my '65 El Camino. I've got to replace the body bushings, brake lines, front and rear control arms, exhaust system. Thought it be easier to do all while the body is off.
Are you looking to lift it just high enough to change bushings? If so, other than maybe the brake line to the rear where it goes up at the back, I think the rest is pretty simple to change without a body lift.
On my 64 GTO years ago, I just lifted it off one side at a time to do some of the work including bushings. I think I had the front clip off and unbolted the steering column, that was it (other than removing the body mount bolts of course)
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
convertibles and Elky`s are a little more involved do to little or no roof support. I would do like Carl said and just lift one side at a time just enough to sneak new bushings in. I don`t know what condition your car is in but be ready for breaking body mount bolts off or caged nuts spinning free. You may find around body mount holes frame metal is thin or rusted away. Also do not replace bushings with those high energy ones, just use stock rubbers
On mine the back two cage nuts spun, as well as both in the trunk behind the wheel tub, and one of the cage nuts in the middle even with the front seat. I cut the floor open to take care of that and then welded a piece back in once it was fixed.
Sometimes if you can get it starting to turn a tiny bit and you work it back and forth very patiently you can get them out. Are you using an impact gun? To me, that works the best.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
I tried that on the one I had inside the car but no such luck.
And I should add, mine was a very solid car. Perfect frame, 4" X 4" area behind each wheel on the 1/4 and fender needing repair and the floor needed one area repaired only because of a windshield leak. You would expect that on a car like that, the bolts would come out nice because it didn't see a lot of salt from what I could tell.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
I also cut small access panels to get the cage nuts out, body bolts were pretty rough (rusted to about 1/2 the diameter). The only ones that were serviceable on mine were the firewall bolts. Being a convertible, did the lifting of 1 side then the other and replace the body mounts.
I just used a floor jack and some boards to jack it up, then some wooden blocks to hold the body away from the frame. It actually went very well once all the bolts were out. It doesn't take long. And as Kevin said, I'm a big fan of stock mounts, not the hard aftermarket mounts.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
What's all involved in removing the body from the frame on my '65 El Camino. I've got to replace the body bushings, brake lines, front and rear control arms, exhaust system. Thought it be easier to do all while the body is off.
1. Call some car guy friends 2. show them what you need done 3. and stand back and pretend you don't know what to do...
4. provide wood and jack and tools and some food .
I separated 3 very rusty parts car body off the frame and this 1973 Grand Am was the easiest one, only 2 rusted out bolts. The 76 Firebird wasn't too bad not being a full frame, I had to make an access door inside floor close to the front seat belt anchor by the door as mentioned.The 1970 Grand Prix was the worst, all bolts crumbled and the body fell right off the frame. I used a floor jack and wood block as well.
For what it's worth, here's a photo of when I lifted the Parisienne off it's chassis to put a new chassis under it. The bolts all came out of the Parisienne ok, whereas I had a challenge with some of the body bolts from the 69 2+2 that provided the donor chassis. It's worth a try to loosen the body mount bolts, and if they loosen you're half way there.
I used three 10' long 2 x 6's screwed together to make a beam to go through the car, and the chains when down to bolts in the seat belt rectactor holes. I used my engine hoist at the rear attached to the bumper mount holes. I'd removed the doors to provide room to work, and to remove likely a couple hundred pounds. It all worked amazingly well.
Have raised and lowered the Beaumont body from the frame a couple of times. It now sits on a shortened ElCamino frame. Basically undo the body bolts, remove all the unnecessaries ( fenders, doors interior etc ) jack up the body, suspend the body, roll out frame.
