Removing the Body and Repairing the Frame

Once I got the trunk cut out I could see that the body mounts were really bad and needed to be replaced.  I began to remove the mounts and found that about half of them wound spin and not come loose or they broke.  The decision to remove the body and do a frame off restoration started in March of 2002. I used a 4"X4"X8' post under the firewall and another post just in front of the rear wheels.  I would jack the front of the car 4 to 6 inches, place blocking under the ends of the post and then do the same to the rear. I kept alternating like this till I had the body about 30 inches of the ground.  This allowed me to roll the frame out from under the body.  It also made it a lot easier to work on the trunk with the car up in the air.

You must pay particular attention to the post when you are jacking the car up, so that the post don't start to roll or tip.  With the body off the frame it gives you a chance to really look the underside over good. Good blocking is a must and never trust the blocking or the  post when you are under the body.  ALWAYS have your jack or stands placed under the car body when you are under the car! Although I kept my fenders attached during this process, you may want to take them off prior to doing this.  I personally thought it over and figured that there is plenty of support to keep them from bending, kinking, or sagging.  I did however remove the core support so that I could move the frame with the engine installed back under the car body. I am glad that I took the body off the frame, because I would have never got the frame fabricated the way I wanted it and felt safe about it.  I made templates of the various sections of the frame and used a plasma cutter to cut the pieces out.  Once I had the pieces cut I then began to weld the pieces on the frame.  Each piece was tied into the next for stability.  This realy was the best way to fix the frame.  I only wish that I did it sooner.  I put off from doing this because I did not know if this was the right approach and I had a lot of people who kept telling me that they would stop over and look at it.  The biggest leason that I have learned while doing this restoration is that I should never second guess what my abilities are and if you want something done and done correctly, do it yourself. I have no worries about the frame and it now has Coreless completely covering it.