Reattaching body to chassis

[William2]

I am at the stage of re-attaching the body to the completed rolling chassis. Thinking it over, you need 4 people to lift the body, but do you need a 5th person to be underneath the car to feed the fuel pipe through the grommet into the boot space? Can this be done afterwards when the body is in position?

[Grizzly]

Fuel pipe can be done after, it is handy having more people especially if you have the head on the engine, its just awkward to get the rear chassis uprights in there slots and avoiding smacking the head at the other end it's not a massive weight (if you have things like the doors etc off) but you have to bend low with some amount of control.

[elansprint71]

Seven people would be better- three each side (that tub gets heavier and heavier when they have to lift it up and down several times and then hold it until the boss has stopped faffing about underneath).
Someone to make the coffee and bacon sandwiches is the eighth member of the team.
You will be doing the washing-up for some while after the event.

[john.p.clegg]

Ask " Alfadave"...he did it solo...

John

[Mick6186]

Same here. Alone, Billy no mates in the garage on a +2 130/5. Took less than a day to get the chassis removed. Remove engine, gearbox can stay.Just get the car up in the air to give about 30 inches clearance from the floor to the bottom of the floorpan. Use two lengths of 4x4 timber under the length of the chassis outriggers( which you have previously replaced because the originals have crumbled into dust) and support on 4 axle stands. Now remove each corner of the suspension. Support the chassis front and rear on trolley jacks & blocks of wood,undo the chassis retaining bolts and lower the chassis onto more blocks of wood progressively until the chassis can be let down onto a couple of large pieces of carpet or blankets. Pull the chassis out from the back of the car. Doddle!! And very satisfying.
One advantage is this can be done in a single garage with not much room down the sides which would normally make it awkward to lift the body by a crowd of bacon butty eating, beer swilling 'helpers'.
The chassis can be replaced by reversing the process.

[delle]

As William2 is only one or two steps in advance, I have nearly the same question. Is the body easier/better to reattach without engine in the chassis?

[gjz30075]

Delle, it makes no difference whether the engine is in the chassis or not, as far as attaching the body to chassis.
However, it is much easier to install the engine in chassis without the body. Install engine with head, minus carbs and carb studs into chassis without the body and it is easier to install the ancillaries without the body on, too.

[KevJ+2]

I also did this job on my own and liked it for the control I had to do the job slowly and gradually.
I removed the body with one trolley jack and axle stands until the body was clear enough to support on 3x2 beams supported on the garage walls.
When I attached the body, I used 4 nylon pulleys with supports made to attach at the jacking holes (new sill members in first!). The front pulleys were slung from my metal cross beam and the rears from purpose made supports attached to the walls. Again, very gradual and exact.
By doing it this way, you have a lot of time to mark things up and make adjustments as the body has to come off again to drill the holes and then drop yet again.
I think it's best to have the engine on the rolling chassis first and with the Plus2, its a great chance to fit the heater hoses to the matrix before lowering the body.

[bob_rich]

Hi William2

On my +2 Four people could easily lift the body on or off. I had four mates to help me and I supervised. My Rolling Chassis has the head on but no carb or exhaust studs - just blocking plates to prevent crud getting into the ports

I made up two lifting bars based on scaffold poles that locked into the jacking point in the sill members. This meant the helpers could get a good two handed grip on the bars and not worry about damage to the body work The build of the car is shown in the attached pictures. The lift bar system is shown in place when I took the body off. Alternator was on but starter motor off. Bonnet, Boot LId and Doors were not on for the lift ( back on ) . I supervised my mates doing the grunt work -- took less than a minute to get it seated.

Hope this helps

best of Luck

Bob

[Mr.Gale]

You didn't say which model but I used an engine hoist to remove and refit my body.

Mr.Gale

[rdssdi]

I used two "Hi-jackers". That is a brand name for material lifts. Primarily used in HVAC to place units.

I did this alone. I covered the chassis in plastic as I wanted to protect it from water and debris generated when wet sanding. I removed the paint by wet sanding. Took a long time but left a very original bare shell.

As I had heart surgery before the wet sand was complete, I had the remainder blasted with plastic. The man came to my home erected a shelter with air and went in with a "pressure suit" and blasted the remaning paint. He was skilled enough to leave the primer which I quickly we sanded.

Bob

[TroonSprint]

Here's another person who did it single-handed (well almost) with the aid of an engine crane. Mine is a FHC so the roof makes it slightly more tricky, but I rigged up straps inside the car attached to the seat belt mounting and the the seat bracket bobbins, put a steel bar across inside the car through those straps, then used more straps to attach a second 6 foot bar over the roof to the inside bar.

The crane lifted the body up and my good lady wife steadied it to prevent it from rotating. I had the wheels off the chassis and it was sitting on dollies with castor wheels. So I pushed the chassis sideways under the body, let the body down and all was fine. The whole procedure took about 20 minutes.

Mike

[gjz30075]

The whole procedure took about 20 minutes.

With many days of planning, I'm sure Nicely done!

[William2]

Thanks for all the interesting anecdotes. I have tried in vain to remove the carb studs but they refuse to co-operate! I hope that that I can get by with them in place. I have taken some measurements and it looks as though it will be ok.

[rgh0]

I believe based on my experience you will struggle to drop the body over the chassis with hte engine in place without removing the rear carb studs and with the heater valve. You may wish to recheck your measurments

cheers
Rohan