Body off Rebuild

Well, as long as everything goes well today, I should have a 64 Chevy from Dose in a couple weeks.

Since there will be lots of modification to modernize and pump up the van, I would like to start with the frame restore but havent done a body off restore. I have a fairly large shop, 40 x 60 with 12 foot ceilings. Was thinking if I could get the body loose and set up some kind of hoist or winch system from the roof I could lift the body up and just keep it against the ceiling while I worked on the frame. I worry if this will distort the body though.

Any ideas? I guess I could pull the body off, with side bracing inside, and make a fixture for it to sit on, but that entails taking up a lot more floor space that I really dont have since my CNC takes up a good hunk of my floor space.

the body and frame are one piece..it is a u-channel welded to the floor structure of the van

Well that is going to make it very interesting I guess.

I guess I might have to gut the under carriage and build a roll table for it? Not sure how the bumpers mount in EXACTLY but if they slide in the frame section, maybe make a mount that way. With out the motor and tranny and such I think that would support the rest. That is how I did the underbody of my Fiat.

Don you've got everything . Did you use a sawzall to cut that ? hehehe Bill

That's beautiful, Don!

Welcome! I saw your other post bet will reply here.
As said, these vans are 'unibody' meaning that it's not separate body/frame construction.
First thing to do would be grab manuals and learn more.
You will find that the factory designed thse so the original suspension is supported, but any major changes will require additional bracing and engineering to accomodate different designs.
You don't want to drop in a Mustang II IFS with power rack and pinion steering until the areas where all this is mounted is strengthened.
You will also find that the area under the driver gets pretty complex. Steering, brake master, suspension, cooling and wiring all compete for this small space, while the rest of the underfloor is less busy.

Moving the bare body around can be done with something as easy as a caster mounted to the bumper area, but that will lack access. A rotesserie will be the best bet for repair and paint. If you are planning on big changes, a body rack that holds it high enough to work under is nice, but with the short wheelbase, you will probably want to extend the caster idea so all the underside is accessible. Make sure it's not tippy.

Check this out! To me it's got to be the best way to detail out the underside.
http://vintage-vans.smugmug.com/Vans/G10/66NO-DICE/14721556_G726xt#1096956525_odfkp
I'm going to do it to mine when I get that far along. ( hope it turns out at least half as nice)

That is an awesome setup and would be pretty easy to make. Here is a rotary weld table I made for welding go Kart frames. Turned hours of squaring and tacking into a few minutes of welding.

weld fixure table

Just throwing this out there. Kevbarlas and his 1959 Thames camper. check out his thread on his van rotisery wheel. A little bit of work but he is getting the job done and it works.

I dont think twisting the body would be a concern unless its a real HEAP. By the time you take all the heavy iron off these things ,I bet they dont weigh much more than 1200 lbs. It has always amazed me how stiff they actually are when setting the body up on jack stands. Im sure there are limits as far as body structure condition goes but a little pre-bracing would take care of alot. It's better than my idea of wrapping a chain thru one and hanging it from a 6yd loader !

Yes, a rotersserie shouldn't mess with a solid body.
Better than grabbing a half dozen matteresses and just rolling the body over!
I've reset the one on my body so the pivot point is higher.
No pics yet. It's still not optimum, but much better. I only plan on swinging the floor to vertical in each direction, not flipping completely upside down.
I also have to remove the wheels and extend the flat bottom over so the weight is not hanging over the end of them.
https://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/t15259p45-66-a-100-in-az

A Canadian company used to make J-Bars or something alike. They bolted to the drums and one just rolled the vehicle on the side. However, last I saw they were about the price of a rotisserie and, of course, don't allow you to remove the axles. Too bad we all don't live closer together as we could really share some of these jigs. Good luck with the project. Not being able to remove the welded frame I cleaned them out really well, acid etched them and did too many coats of POR-15 and paint till I am sure they are quite solid using a long brush like one uses to clean out a duct or small chimney. I just put the bucket of paint at the bottom end of the rail I was working with that caught the drippings. Probably spent $300 on acid, POR-15 and many coats of paint. Driving around not wondering when the frame give out: Priceless.

Good luck with the project, Mark

My van is sideways in the latest pictures on the thread linked in the last post.

Yeah I wish I had room in my shop to roll the van, unfortunately I don't. I have already started building my lify frame however. I will do a full write up on it when it is done. I have been taking pictures of the whole thing.

Yeah, I don't have room in my shop either!
The other pictures are the local college.
This is my garage/shop/shed a few months back!
No way to get the van over on it's side there!!

I really need to clean and organize. The dang CNC plasma takes up a lot of room plus I have my 2L for my fiat on the stand and other parts taking up another work table. Add in my new weld table for my MIG and TIG and i am hurting for space.

Well I am going to start reporting on my lift I am building. I have already had found that I need to make a change and hopefully I dont ruin the 2 jacks in the process of removing them but if I do no huge deal. I will post up to the point where it needs to be changed.

First I will give a lift of tools and supplies so far. I will edit this list so that it is accurate for the final build.

Materials

30 feet 2.25 11 gauge square tubing
(11 gauge for the 2.25 is important since the side walls are around .100" inch thick. This allows the 2.00 to fit into the 2.25 with only .050 of clearance for no movement side to side.)

60 feet 2.00 11 or 14 gauge square tubing

16-24 inches of 2 inch wide, 3/8 bar stock

4 manual hand crank trailer jacks. These cost me $12 a piece at a discount store called Little Lots, not to be confused with Big Lots. Can use hydraulic cylinders and modify the mounting but this will add a huge cost difference.



Next post I will post tools I will be using.

Ok so here is the list of tools I will be using.

Even though I have a Hypertherm PowerMax 45 Plasma, I find it a lot easier to cut tubing with my Miter Saw. I picked this up at Lowes 6 years ago for $119 and it has cut thousands of cuts for tubing. I use a 10 inch metal abrasive blade and they last about 100 cuts depending on thickness of material. The Laser siting is a real bonus on this unit and I use it all the time.



Here is my plasma that I might be using on odd cuts that can not be got to with my miter or my angle grinder.



I will be mostly using my Mig welder, Lincoln 180 pro. This has been an awesome welder. 230v, gas or flux wire, 30% duty cycle on the highest setting. Welding up to .250 I have never tripped it or had to let it cool off. I will be using .030 non-shielded wire with 75/25 gas. The only thing I do not like about the welder is the gun. They are short leads with a cheap handle. I will be looking at getting a nice 25-50ft in the future.



I also will be using a Miller Diversion 180 TIG. I bought this unit a week ago and have only went through about 6 rods with it so far. I had never TIG'd before this unit and it takes some getting used to, and even more so with Aluminum. This unit comes highly recommended, especially for beginners. There are no crazy setting to have to set, you just pick the material, set the voltage and weld. I took a picture of the 2 different welds which will come in the next segment. I am using 100% argon for the shielding gas.

For the first step I took the bumper off the 64. The 2.25 tubing I will be using fits pretty nice inside the frame opening and will only be used as a secondary holding. I will use the original bolting tabs to secure the cross member to the van and the 2.25 inserted into the frame will give some extra strength.

I cut 2 8 inch pieces of 2.25 tubing on the miter and then notched the ends for the cross piece to fit in. I feel this is much stronger than just butting up 2 pieces and welding them together. I used my plasma to notch the tubing but and angle grinder would work just as good.



I slipped the 2.25 pieces into the frame slots and then fit the 2.00 cross piece into their notches and tacked them into place. Remove the pieces and weld them together. You will notice the cross piece is much longer than it had to be, I decided instead of trying to get a measured length I would use a large chunk, weld it, then cut the end off so there was no mis-measurement.

Here is the cross piece put together.



And after welding a nice fit check.