Читать книгу Chevelle Restoration and Authenticity Guide 1970-1972 - Dale McIntosh - Страница 10

CHAPTER 3

BODY DISASSEMBLY

Overcome the urge to dig right in and start unbolting pieces; get organized up front. Have a general plan of attack for the day. If today’s task is to disassemble the front sheet metal, have a place in mind to store the hood, fenders, bumper, radiator support, etc. beforehand. These large items can be difficult to store due to their size, and keeping them out of the way once they have been removed can be a challenge. Protect them from warpage; do not lay fenders on their sides, as they tend to flatten out over time. I buy the cheap $25 body-panel stands and set them on there. Take care that your hood and other body panels are not sitting on a wet or damp garage floor; this will only add to your rust issues. Take care of the hood corners.

Large plastic dairy crates are great for larger heavy items but tend to gather dust when stored for a time. Heavy-duty boxes will help with dust issues, but you cannot see what is inside the box. Be sure to label boxes clearly. I find that those large plastic totes are the best and are not very expensive. I then tag them with pieces of tape and separate them by category: body, interior, chassis, engine, etc. This makes it much easier when it comes time to reassemble the car, as you grab only the tote and its parts for the area you are currently working on.

The interior needs to be completely gutted along with all wiring removed and any mechanical attachments, such as steering linkage, transmission linkage, etc., removed, as you see here. Two heavy-duty bumper jacks are used here to lift the body from the frame, but any safe method you have available to you will work.

Clear plastic bags can be used for the smaller items such as nuts, bolts, alignment shims, etc. Be sure to note which side (driver’s side versus passenger’s side) with items such as fender alignment shims. Assuming the body panels were hanging nicely on the car when you disassembled it, I like making a shim map showing the location of the shims and what overall thickness was present in that area. This will give you a starting point come assembly time.

With camera, bags, and a marker in hand, it is time to get started. Unless you have a dozen friends and a camera crew filming everything, do not expect to have your car stripped in an afternoon like you will often see on television. Take your time during disassembly as you photograph the steps and mark and bag trim pieces, screws, bolts and nuts, etc.

Removal Methods

There are two ways to attack a restoration depending on your skills, space, access to specialty equipment, or just your preference. Is the body going to be removed from the chassis? Some prefer to do bodywork with the body on the chassis, and some prefer to remove the body as quickly as possible and either put it on a rotisserie or a donor frame, or just lift the body and support it with 55-gallon drums and 4×4s for support.

Two-Post Lift

One way to lift the body off the chassis is with a two-post lift, a pair of large end jacks, or even an engine hoist or two.

It is always a good idea to temporarily weld in some square tube bracing if you are taking the body off the chassis. This is especially important on a convertible, as the body will flex and make your assembly that much more difficult.

Hoist

Another way is to use an engine hoist and lift the front and rear of the car. From there you can transfer onto a jigging cart, a donor rolling frame, the 55-gallon drum/4×4 method, or simply homemade sawhorses.

Since this is a convertible body, extra bracing should be temporarily welded at critical stress points of the body to keep it from bending during removal. This needs to be done before the body is removed from the frame. Once removed, the body can be attached to a rotisserie jig for easy access.

This convertible body, properly braced and off the frame, illustrates the amount of materials that should be removed from the body and interior components before the body is removed from the frame. Everything you can remove from the interior prior to lifting the body off is less that you have to deal with once it is off.

This is one of the preferred methods of lifting a body off a frame because it is quick and easy. It is always a good idea to have a rotisserie jig or some stand ready to support the body once you roll the chassis out from underneath. Sometimes you just have to do what you can and use the tools available to you at the time.

If you are on a tight budget, one storage solution for the body is homemade sawhorses. This alternative works pretty well, is inexpensive to build, and still gives you access to do some cleanup work. If you need to replace sheet metal or quarter panels, this may not be a viable solution for obvious reasons. (Photo Courtesy Bill Garcia)

Disassembly

If you are planning to remove the body from the frame, leave the doors on the car for now. They will add rigidity to the body when it is lifted from the frame.

Whether you plan on removing the engine now or later is up to you. The engine and driveline could be left in place and removed once the body is lifted from the chassis. I remove every body I restore from their respective frames, mount them on a cart or a straight donor frame, and send them over to my body shop. In the case of the do-it-yourself restorer, you may want to leave the body on its frame while you do all the bodywork and panel replacement or welding, as this will ensure the body does not move or flex while off the frame. If not, when you try mounting the body back onto the frame you may find things not lining up. When completed, or at the very least when in primer, you can then remove the body and restore the rolling chassis.

This rolling chassis is in final prep stages to remove the body. On this particular car, the engine and transmission have been removed prior to removing the body. As long as all physical connections between the body and the driveline have been disconnected, it is simply a matter of choice whether to remove the engine and/or transmission beforehand.

At this early stage of disassembly, all front sheet metal has been removed, cooling and engine oil drained, radiator support removed, and all wiring disconnected and removed that would hinder removing the body. Note in this instance the windshield and rear window have been removed before taking the body off the frame. Do whatever works for you.

Set the engine and transmission aside for now. Put the engine on a stand, tape and seal up all of the openings, and leave it for now. There is no sense in rebuilding the engine and having it gather dust in your shop/garage while you are doing body or chassis work. It will be a while before you are ready to fire it up and get it running properly. If there are some hard-to-find items missing such as the A.I.R. system, correct intake or exhaust manifolds, carburetor, distributor, or brackets/braces/pulleys, now would be the time to start the search for those pieces. Until then, hold off until you are close to putting the engine and transmission back in the chassis.

The same goes for the transmission. If you have made notes on what needs to be repaired or replaced, leave it alone until it comes close to reassembly time.