Body Removal

[AlanBartlett]

Good morning.

As many of you may be aware that recently I stripped the front axle and rebuilt it on my long saloon. This was a task I undertook about a 3 weeks ago, and its now finally been put back together, after lots of guess work and "that doesnt fit right" and figuring out which way the axle faces. it is now back on four wheels now. Now as I had it off I took the opportunity to paint the chassis up to the bulkhead. Now this has been completed, I;m going to attempt to undertake taking the body off the chassis and do the same process on the back axle, so I thought to to this I would take off the body.

After a few phone calls to various people, I found out what kind of task it would be. Simple I say, but will be lots things to work out as, my garage shed isnt exactly the biggest of workshops, Some of you may have seen in photos. So to store both the chassis and the body in the same building, Ive had to think up and fabricate a large table shelf as it were to store the body on while I can still get the rolling chassis in and out to work on the intended areas. From all measurements I should have about 3inches spare from the roof of the body to the roof of my garage, its going to be a tight squeeze i think but managable, with a few friends around to help with the lifting. Fingers crossed and pictures to follow.

[ian Howell]

Alan: -

I did just this exercise many years ago on my first Jowett - a Bradford van.

Fortunately my exercise was done outdoors, but a few pointers: -

CAREFULLY disconnect and label all electrics.

Take out the steering column.

Undo ALL the body / chassis bolts.

DO NOT GET UNDERNEATH THE BODY.

Get LOTS of friends to help. I was lucky in that I could call on about 10 on the day we lifted the body.

Now for an idea: -

With the brakes off, get one person to remove the rolling chassis whilst the rest hold up the body, then QUICKLY put bricks / blocks at the chassis mounting points (and any others at the same level) and lower the body.

Have a cup of tea.

Slide poles / joists under the body at critical points to give something to lift with.

Finally, lift to required height and support with ready-prepared props.

Watch this space for loads of better ideas and wise words of warning!

Best of luck

[Tony Fearn]

Hello Alan.

Ian's list is useful, especially the break where you should all "have a cup of tea". I suggest whilst you are drinking it you should Google 'Body removal' for a laugh!

There are a few other points to take into consideration, and my list won't be exhaustive, but here goes:-

Remove the battery.

Remove front and rear wings and attached lights.

Take the doors off, they are uncommonly heavy. The floor shouldn't spread as it's screwed to side members, but brace if necessary as we discussed.

Brace the lower part of the uprights of the bulkhead frame as these are not joined by a fixed floor and if they spread it will be difficult to re-position the bolt holes on the chassis when the body is re-united with it.

Remove the floor board above the gearbox - two turnbuckles hold this in.

Remove the clutch and brake pedals and their push-rods as well as the accelerator rod link.

Undo the bolts holding the foot-board to the bulkhead as there are usually some clips holding various wires to the front of the car attached here, and then remove the foot-board.

The thick wires to the battery may pass through a couple of brass grommets in the bulkhead so these will have to be sorted out.

Remove the instrument panel (I think the nuts on the screws might be BA)after undoing the oil pipe to the gauge and having disconnected the speedo drive and the choke cable. With a bit of squiggling it should pull forward and then angle back through the dashboard. Watch for wires coming loose behind it.

If there are other auxillary lamps etc. attached to switches then disconnect these. AS IAN SAID LABEL ALL WIRES THAT ARE DETACHED, and as I said, don't touch the labels subsequently with oily hands 'cause you won't know which is which!

There should be a wire to the interior light and perhaps to each of the trafficators which will have to be disconnected.

Remove the steering column as Ian suggested including the wires to the dip/horn and earth.

The last thing I can think of tonight is that there may be a mid-point exhaust hanger between the system itself and the underneath of the floor boards.

Ian's suggestion that the more muscle you have around you at the time of lifting is absolutely correct.

Better a few 'watchers' that aren't needed than only a few lads who end up in hospital with hernias.

Best of luck with the body removal, and we won't tell the cops.

Tony.

[PAUL BEAUMONT]

A couple of further thoughts - really expansions on what has been said.
These jobs always take longer than you expect so make big labels and write on them in capitals with words that would make sense to anyone. Avoid abreviations that you don't understand in 3 months time!!
Gloves!! Protect your hands
Have some watchers, at least one at the front and one at the rear who can attack anything that remains attached and give a shout if anything looks like going wrong. The lifting team will be too close to the action.
Dont get into the reciprocal favour game - like promising to paint your mates Granny Flat in exchange for their assistance. They will always turn out to be about the size of Buck Palace!!

[AlanBartlett]

Well, what can I say.

Its off with surprising ease I might add, four of us were able to detach it from the chassis and manover it into the garage(pictures and videos to follow). Its now stripped down to the chassis and two axles, with the gearbox and propshaft also off. I'm now going to clean it up and paint it. Its like a big pedal car now and the chassis Ive never really noticed before flexes quite alot. More updates to follow.

[ian Howell]

Well done Alan (and crew)!

Now for the tricky bits!

Any update on progress Alan?

[AlanBartlett]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITUSoARNrkc

Heres is the long awaited video of the body being moved and maneuvered , my internet connection has decided to go on a go fast mode, so I was able to upload....

[Alastair Gregg]

I tried to look Alan. It may of course be me but neither Opera, Explorer or Mozilla could view your video.

[Tony Fearn]

What an entertaining video Alan, and not an oooh arrrgh to be heard.

I don't know why I could see and hear it if Alastair couldn't. All I did was click on the link.

Tony.

[Keith Clements]

OK on IE8

[Leo Bolter]

It plays fine on Mac versions of Opera, Firefox and Safari.
Leo

[Alastair Gregg]

I did say it might be me and it was. A reboot this morning and all is well Opera, Mozilla and IE 7

Just a guess Alan but was it the girlfriend of the chap in a grey and black jumper who took the video? He gets more "airtime" than anyone else?

Now more importantly how did the body go back on? As I see elsewhere you are tidying up the electrics?

Wakefield? Driven? You can do it.