Installing Body Mounts, Alignment?

BBShark

Garage Monkey
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Put the body on rolling chassis yesterday. Then I tried to put the bolts (for the body mounts) in. I got 1 to line up. I tried this about 3 more times with no real success.

Is there a secret to this?
 
Definitely not saying my "method" is the most efficient, but IIRC I used a combination of a long punch and (temporary) extra long bolts to line up the body mount nuts while the body was an inch or two above the mounts before I dropped the body down the last bit.

I suspect somebody here has a better method than what I did, though.
 
That might work if I had a better body lifting method. My hillbilly 4 point boat winch lift doesn't guide the body down with much precision. However I do have 4 wheel "skates" that would allow me to move the chassis. Maybe I can use your guide pin alignment method that way?

I found a clearance issue with the body and the headers that won't allow the body to line up on one side. I'll have to correct that before I try again.

45d62544095448.jpg
 
Yes!:1st:

I like the "Hillbilly 4 Post Lift".
What do you reckon it will handle?
Obviously a body, but any gross weight "estimates?"
Any Bill of Materials? Looks mostly 2x4s and a couple of 2x6s -- or 2x8s.

Cheers - Jim
 
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Could the drivetrain weight give too much frame deflection? You'll probably be okay after fixing the header clearance.

More body pics, looks great!
 
Yes!:1st:

I like the "Hillbilly 4 Post Lift".
What do you reckon it will handle?
Obviously a body, but any gross weight "estimates?"
Any Bill of Materials? Looks mostly 2x4s and a couple of 2x6s -- or 2x8s.

Cheers - Jim

The column strength of the 2x4 pairs is way more than needed. I'm thinking the stripped body is ~1200lbs. The weak link is the winches. They are rated at 500lbs. But they are really junk. One of them failed on me while I was trying to re-position the body. At the same time my floor jack quit working. That's when I finally gave up. I took it as a sign my day was done.
 
Dont know if youre using solid/poly/rubber but I had the same issue with mine... (poly mounts for me) I used a similar method to Mike's, but with the body already on the chassis. Some long rods in the mounts to loosely hold them in place while I got the others lined up with the final bolts. Then a big pry bar to "finesse" the rest into place
 
I have repaired the winch that failed. I repaired all 4, what junk. I also took jack apart to rebuild the cylinder and ordered new seals. I've got my fingers crossed, I've done this once before with an old Buffalo jack and it didn't work at all.

It's been so long since I took the body off I forgot there are some alignment holes in the door sills and frame side rails. So I can use these to guide the body down. Ideally it would be easiest to do this with the doors off but that can't happen with my 2x4 lift (lift columns are in the way).

So, I'm on hold until I fix the firewall/header interference, repair the jack and go at it again.
 
This is the header firewall interference. I can't believe I missed this!

BTW, I hate fiberglass cutting.


45d6c53a5a0907.jpg
 
Using the longer bolt method worked like a champ.

This is a big day for this project. Putting it together from now on will involve parts that I can carry!

Thanks every one for you help.
 
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